New PE megachurch comes to life for night of celebration

A huge church building that has been taking shape on a major Port Elizabeth intersection for the past year, came gloriously alive during a joyous thanksgiving celebration service on October 30.

The new 2 850 seat Victory Ministries International (VMI) church auditorium, which is under construction on the corner of Standford Road and the N2 — where the church founders held their first tent service in 2000 — was packed to capacity for the event.

Businessman and church leader Pastor Jerome Liberty, who started VMI with his wife Eunice in 2001, said yesterday that despite financial challenges he was confident that the new auditorium,  which cost tens of millions of rands, would be completed early next year.

He said he believed that Port Elizabeth was hungry and desperate for more of God and that the new auditorium would contribute towards meeting that need by hosting major city-wide events.

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“When I left Port Elizabeth for Johannesburg in 1978 I always believed that my stay was a season for equipping and that I would one day return to serve the community with the Word of God. In 2000 I returned to Port Elizabeth with a mandate to break the curse of poverty and to change the spiritual climate over the city of Port Elizabeth,” said Liberty in a VMI press statement.
 
“Today the new Worship Auditorium towers as a “lighthouse” at the corner of the N2 and Stanford Road. At an intersection it has the position of a perfect meeting place. It will stand as a beacon that embodies the words from Matthew 16 verse 18 declaring: “… and the gates of hell shall not prevail.”

Members of the four VMI congregations — in Uitenhage, Schauderville, New Brighton and Cotswold — were among the crowd that gave thanks to God at the recent celebration service, which followed the theme of “…and the gates of hell shall not prevail.”

The VMI drama team performed a play following the theme accompanied by dramatic big screen video footage of the destruction of the VMI tent during a gale in June 2002. Other highlights included worship and dance and a message on Matthew 16.

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“Months and months of preparation went into the realisation of this awesome day. It started with the sod-turning ceremony on 10 October 2010. Many Bibles were ‘planted’ on that day. A silver spade was specially acquired for the sod-turning,” said Liberty.

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“It was a historic moment in the life of Victory Ministries International. I am forever grateful to all those who have diligently sown into the building project. It took much faith and diligence to embark on the project and to carry it through. With every progress to the building God’s glory has been revealed.”