ROANOKE, Va. – A local congregation is celebrating two milestones this week: a birthday and an anniversary.
Pastor Shabrac Brown Jr. started Garden of Prayer #7 Church back in 1970.
He turned 90 years old on Monday.
Members old and new marked the milestone with a drive-by parade on Sunday.
It’s also the church’s 50th anniversary.
“I started out with nobody. I started with my wife and 19 people and that was all, and from there the Lord just blessed us to do all of this,” said Brown Jr.
“When we try to identify what makes him so special, it’s about everything that embodies the Bible and it’s about what God has called us to do and that’s what he’s been doing here in Roanoke,” said Gail Brown, Shabrac Brown Jr.’s daughter.
Shabrac Brown Jr. has several ministries that help get troubled youth off the streets, and he also helped create a fellowship of churches in the region.