Victory Hill Church celebrates its 100th anniversary
CARROLL − This has been a year of celebration for Victory Hill Church for its 100th anniversary.
The church is located at 4000 Coonpath Road NW and was founded in August 1922 and has about 550 church goers each week. Victory Hill has been at its current location for 22 years after moving from 1450 Cedar Hill Road in Lancaster.
The church started in the residence of Henry Nigh with about 16 people.
"We have decided that we would do a kind of year-long celebration," lead pastor Aaron Begley said. "We've been doing outreach into our community. So we had an initiative to raise $100,000 to celebrate 100 years and to give that away."
With that money, the church has provided lunch to all elementary school teachers in Lancaster and partnered with Grace Haven Ministries and the Pregnancy Decision Health Center, among other things.
"Some of those funds will be used for mission trips to the Dominican and we still have a few other local projects that we're going to be partnering with throughout the year," Begley said.
Earlier this month the congregation celebrated the anniversary during Sunday services. Part of the day included looking at the past and reflecting on what God has planned for the church in the future, Begley said.
"We've always been an outreach and mission-minded church," he said. "So we'll just continue to impact and make a difference in our community and in our state. We're a church that fully believes in the next generation, so we invest heavily in our youth and our children and making sure that we're making an impact in their lives."
Begley, who has been lead pastor for four years and with the church for 17 years, said the church will continue to be one that feels like home to people and where all people are welcome.
Among its activities, Victory Hill Church started Connexion West at 625 Garfield Ave. and run programs from there, including a food pantry community breakfast on Saturdays.
"So Connexion West is a big part of what we do as a community here," Begley said.
The church has also provided about 13,000 bookbags to students over the past 13 years.
"The real heart of this church is to just kind of always be involved in our community and giving back," Begley said.
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This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Victory Hill Church celebrates its 100th anniversary
