WS Chronicle

In above photo:  Pastor Paul P. and First Lady Virginia Thombs

Special to The Chronicle

…The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: (Nehemiah 2:20)

Nehemiah Worship Center of Winston Salem reports that Pastor Paul P. and Lady Virginia Thombs and members held the first-year celebration for their church recently.

The celebration was held from at the Union Chapel Baptist Church fellowship hall at 300 W. 25th Street in Winston Salem.

The first worship service was held on April 13, 2014 at 4873 Phelps Road, Winston Salem, with a philosophy that “If we build people’s lives, people will build the temple. Our church serves men, women, children, the hungry, the imprisoned, the naked, and the sick. We’ve been blessed in our commission that 33 souls have been added to our ministry.”

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate;… (Nehemiah 8:1)

Rev. Konnie Robinson, pastor of Union Chapel Baptist Church, brought forth a mighty and encouraging word as friends and family witnessed what God has done in just one year, the church reports.

“It is by the grace of God we have established church by-laws, developed a church organizational structure, created a church logo, purchased office equipment and have been blessed with our first pulpit designed specifically for NWC,” the church reports.

So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half of its height, for the people had a mind to work (Nehemiah 4:6)

Throughout the year the church participated in many activities, such as the ALS Challenge, chicken pie fundraiser, fellowship outreach trip to Kinston, N.C., where members delivered clothes, shoes, and household goods.

“We were also blessed to deliver coats, shoes, and clothes to local charities in the Winston-Salem area,” the church reports. “Our Food Ministry continues to give bread away. We gleaned 6,230 pounds of food and we distributed an additional 11,500 ponds to those in need throughout the community. Our Men’s Ministry gave away 17,000 bottles of water in the community. We’ve been blessed this year to establish Sunday & Wednesday Bible teaching where we continue to survey the Bible for necessary understanding for an effective ministry.

“Understanding the need to reach all people, we established our Women’s Ministry, our Children’s Ministry, and a Worship Leaders’ Ministry.

These ministries along with the Prison Ministry help to ensure we reach all of God’s people where they are, so they can be taught salvation and understand how much Jesus loves us.

Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord; neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is our strength. (Nehemiah 8:10)

“We were blessed to celebrate Our First Year with friends and family who have supported us throughout this journey,” the church reports. “They supported us as we hosted our Revival on the Lawn and our Friday Night Live services. They supported us in our Christmas Play & Dinner. They supported us when we had fellowship dinners both at church and when we had our adult Christmas Fellowship at Cities Restaurant. “And as we continue our journey, we steadfastly recognize ‘How Great is Our God’ and He has put us on the wall to rebuild broken lives and we will refuse to come down.”