Pastor’s joy after £50k is donated to fix his church’s roof

Pastor Joseph Omoragbo - who leads the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) - is full of thanks after the cash was secured.

The money has been used to replace the roof on the building, off Westoe Road, South Shields, which his congregation moved into in March last year.

Pastor Joseph, who lives in South Shields with his family, has also renovated the main hall inside.

He said: “We are so grateful and thankful to all of the organisations and individuals who have donated.

“We are blessed.

“We prayed to God and he answered. We were very fortunate to have had the work completed so quickly.”

The Pastor said he would like to show his appreciation to Pastor Agu Irukwu, from the RCCG’s central office in London, who donated the majority of the cash.

He also wanted to thank Churches Together South Tyneside, which had a number of members making donatins and to builder Gary Shovlin for his hard work.

He is also grateful to New Hope Church who originally gifted his congregation the building.

Prior to this the church members had worshiped in five other venues across the borough since 2012 - including Pastor Joseph’s own house.

Pastor Joseph’s next mission is to create a room for the homeless inside his church, which will include a shower and washing facilities.

Over the last few months his church has been already helping those less fortunate by hosting a soup kitchen every after every Sunday service.

Plus members also run a food bank for those who are struggling to feed themselves or families.

He said: “Our food bank is quite unique as you don’t need a referral to use it, whatever we have been donated we simply share it out.

“We don’t need proof that you’re hungry, our saying is ‘a hungry man is a hungry man’.”

The food bank was particularly popular over the recent festive period.

Pastor Joseph said: “Over Christmas we were able to hand out 50 hampers, which were all wrapped up and delivered to those who needed it.

“Our next mission is to complete our shower room which can be used by those who are homeless.

“We would be very grateful to receive any donations of toiletries, which we could then give to those in need.”