Whole Man Ministries to honor local veterans on Veterans Day
Several organizations have partnered with Whole Man Ministries to help renovate home.
Whole Man Ministries will honor Veterans Day today with the reveal of a veteran’s home they are working on located at 1349 Thurmond St. in Winston-Salem. They will have several veterans in attendance, along with a retired colonel who will deliver a speech.
“We are going to honor a few of the veterans that we have in the other homes,” said Bishop Barry Washington, senior pastor of Whole Man Ministries. “We are just going to try and reveal this property here and allow some to come and walk through it.
“It is not complete right now, but it is on Veterans Day and we kind of wanted to give everybody an opportunity to see how it looks. We will have a colonel and he will probably give a 10-minute speech on veterans and the things that they have to go through.”
Because the home is still under construction, Washington is also using this event as a fundraiser to secure the necessary money to complete the project as soon as possible.
Washington and Whole Man Ministries have provided housing for several veterans over the years. They have made an intentional effort to help eradicate the city’s veteran homeless population, one veteran at a time.
“It seems like they are forgotten,” he said. “To serve the country, to lay it all on the line, including their life, and then come home and not have a place to lay their head is not acceptable for the country.
“I know there are some that may fall through the cracks as a result of post traumatic stress. Some may fall through the cracks as a result of alcohol or drug activity, but a lot of it still correlates with serving in the military. A lot of it is the stress of what they saw when they were deployed and then they come back and not know how to deal with it. We have to help the veterans and that’s why we don’t want them on the streets.”
Washington also partnered with Bryan Peterson, owner of Superior Manufacturing, who donated funds to the project and is willing to hire retired veterans so they can have steady employment.
“He gave a donation of I think $2,000 towards the project and I had met him a while back when he mentioned he wanted to partner,” Washington said about how he connected with Peterson. “Because of the pandemic and everything that is going on, he couldn’t get out there and volunteer himself, nor could he volunteer any of his staff.
“Initially he wanted to do something like that, but he gave funds towards the project and wanted to offer his service by perhaps hiring a couple of veterans. He has several positions available if they seek to pursue that.”
Peterson has similar feelings towards veterans as Washington. He wanted to do whatever he could to assist homeless veterans to get back on their feet by finding employment and housing.
“When I first met Pastor Washington, I was so impressed with him,” said Peterson on why he partnered with Washington. “Just everything about him, his honesty, his dedication, and this is such an important cause. In my mind, none of our veterans should be homeless.”
Washington gets a lot of joy out of helping others. He wanted Whole Man Ministries to be a church of the community and helping veterans is one of the ways he accomplishes that.
“It’s priceless when you are able to help somebody get up, somebody walk, somebody move forward,” he said. “I say that because people really don’t need a handout, they need a hand up. It brings joy to me.
“When you are serving the whole man, you are not only serving the spiritual part of man, the physical part of the man, the emotional part of the man, you are serving the whole man. So, in order to serve the whole man, you are going to have to get outside the walls. What that means is that we have to minister to the whole person. There are other needs for the person besides the spiritual needs. I look at it as a direct command from the Lord.”
Washington has also partnered with organizations such as the Wells Fargo Charitable Foundation, Truist Foundation, The Winston-Salem Foundation, Black Philanthropy, Bondage Breakers Ministries, Knollwood Baptist Church, and Kenny Bench. Washington says he is thankful for all the organizations that have assisted with helping with the project on Thurmond Street.
“These are some of the partners that have helped with this particular property,” he said. “Good people are out there and say they want to be a part of this and want to help in any way they can. We have been thankful and grateful for that.”
