Westminster Presbyterian Church Centennial Books

This photo just warms my heart – Vacation Bible School – a combined ministry of the three neighborhood churches. I don ’ t know a date, probably mid - 1920s. Will you look at all those children! And more than likely these were all neighborhood kids, since most of these families would not have had their own vehicle for a car pool to get the kids to VBS. And if you look at the top right, you see trees and homes – and no Fellowship Hall in the 1920s.

Through the years we have come to love and be loved by our church family... I have learned so much through the teachings of many people... For now we will bloom where we are planted and let God show us.

Janet Phipps

In Chapter One, we saw that the Sunday School building was constructed in 1922, then the sanctuary was completed in 1925. The combination of the two buildings is pretty impressive. There are really no clues at all that this was one building with another one added. After Chapter One was presented, I heard more than one person say that they had absolutely no idea that this was two separate buildings put together. H.A. Lucas, the Bluefield contractor in charge of that transformation, would have been very pleased to hear that observation. Did you know that there were two separate buildings to start out with? And how on earth did the sanctuary addition actually take place? Did they have to tear down the outside brick walls to get down to the studs so that a whole new building could emerge? Oh, to have a photograph of that! How on earth did they still hold Sunday School classes in the midst of all that construction? They didn ’ t have a Fellowship Hall to use as a convenient substitute. I wonder what their first impressions were when they walked in this sanctuary for the first time. Take a minute and reflect on the beauty of this sanctuary – the columns on each side of the front area, the beautiful plaster dentil molding at the top of the walls, the pleasing colors of the stained glass windows. And aren ’ t you glad we still have the beautiful original light fixtures? They built things to last 100 years ago.

At just the right moment, with no earthly explanation, we received an answer to a prayer we had not even prayed … This was a gift – a God ordained moment that had no other explanation besides Him being good to us. He was not early – He was not late. He was on right on time.

Carrie Mullins

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