Laying a new foundation

In an effort to garner funds to achieve a goal of building a new church for its ministry, members of Kingdom Life Fellowship are reaching out to the community for assistance with their fundraising efforts.

A Christian ministry, Kingdom Life Fellowship was established nearly two years ago in April of 2022. Since then, they’ve been serving in Clinton through their weekly worship services, held in the auditorium of Sunset Avenue School.

They’ve grown much in that short time, numbering 150 active members. With that success and growth in mind, the need for a church became apparent as did a push to raise funds to see that dream fulfilled.

“We’ve now been established for two years. April 7th, which is next Sunday, will be our second anniversary,” KLF Administrative Director Danisha Devane said last week. “Right now we’re currently having service at Sunset Avenue but we’re steadily growing, that’s why we’re preparing to build our own facility.

“We already have land that has been pretty much deeded to us, or promised to us, I should say, on Hwy 421,” she added. “So therefore, now we’re just fundraising to earn enough to build our church.”

The target goal to bring the dream to fruition is currently set at $250,000, according to Devane, who noted that their expected date tohave the build finished is sometime in 2025.

Fundraising for KLF has been ongoing for over a year, but the big effort towards a church has only been rolling since January, something that Devane said has been progressing rather smoothly.

“We have made great progress, we’re definitely striving in a positive and great direction,” she attested. “We have been fundraising now for, I will say, since January, however, we created like a building fund account way last year.

“People have been giving on a weekly basis, for their tithe, contributing and donating to the building fund,” she added. “But, we didn’t actually start really hitting the ground and running with the ball on the church building fundraiser until January. Since then, I’m telling you, it has just been phenomenal.”

Expanding on her thoughts, Devane took a deep dive into how the group has been organizing themselves and how they’ve been operating the fundraising efforts.

“When handling fundraising, we are set up in seven different teams. How we established those teams is through the executive board we have,” she explained. “The executive board consists of seven directors and each board member is affiliated with different ministries.”

“Myself, I’m administrative team, along with the finance secretary, and then we have others like my husband,” Devane continued. “He’s the executive director, Pastor (Leonard Henry), of course, he’s the director of the executive board. So each board member, like I said, are all affiliated with some type of ministry and tied to something in the church.”

It’s between those teams that they use their creativity to host bi-monthly fundraisers.

“So every other month is designated to either a team fundraiser or a big group church fundraiser,” she said. “For example, this month, each team did something creative to raise money, whether that was going out in the community, or selling different items that they have created; it’s was about being creative in their ideas.”

“This month, we’re having our two-year church and pastor anniversary so what we‘re doing next Sunday is having a Family Fun Day,” she said. “That day, each team will be set up during the event and will have their own vendor area and just fund raise based off of whatever ideas they come up with.”

While those efforts continue to bare fruit they still haven’t reached their end goal and their fundraising aspirations continue. That in mind, Kingdom Life Fellowship members are asking for any support they can get, be it monetary or just a simple a prayer, for their building fund.

Regardless, for all the support that they’ve received so far Henry offered this message to the people, the same one’s that’ve made KLF what it is today.

“The people’s love of Kingdom Life Fellowship has truly made this two-year journey that we’ve been on what it is,” the pastor said. “They’ve made it because one of the visions that the Lord laid on my heart for this church is to make it simple, which means we’re going to make it all about Jesus.

“Sometimes I think we make church harder than what Jesus really wanted it to be,” he continued. “So, we’ve kept that in the mind frame of church, small and simple because this was all God’s doing.”

While KLF is working towards opening the doors to their own church, Henry said their work is far from finished.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do because we’re going to be in the Plain View area … the Lord has enlarged our territory,” he said. “And again, this is all God because if it would have been left to me, I would have stayed here in Clinton, but the Lord says no, you are going to expand your territory, I’m gonna give you more.”

“To whom much is given, much is required, that’s what the scripture says and so, therefore, we got a lot of work to do both in Sampson County and even the surrounding counties.”

For those that wish to give, there are plenty of options available from Cashapp — $KFLINC22 — to Givelify and more. To find out more information on any of those fronts, Devane said she is the point of contact and can be reached at 984-204-3069 or by email at [email protected]