Central Texas pastor and his wife transform convenience store into a church

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Sunday, Feb. 26 marked a new beginning for a Central Texas couple. Ronnie Medearis Jr. and his wife Angelica held their first Sunday service at the new Church of Life Ministries in Waco.

But this journey began at the height of the pandemic in 2020 when their church started as a virtual Sunday service on Facebook Live.

”There really wasn’t anywhere to go,” Angelica said. “Everything was on lockdown, so we started online.”

At the time the pastor and his wife lived in Minnesota and hosted the Sunday services from inside their home. Ronnie had received a vision from God to start this church amidst the pandemic.

”Everything was a complete change, but a complete learning tool,” Ronnie said.

Then on April 26, 2022 they got the call that Angelica’s father had suffered a heart attack. That brought them back to Central Texas.

”We decided at that moment in the hospital room that we would move back to Waco,” Angelica said.

They decided to move into a Waco home and just down the street they noticed a vacant convenience store.

”It’s a store down the street with a for rent sign, so I was like let’s call, go in and see what it looks like,” Angelica said.

The pastor and his first lady decided to sign the lease and begin transforming the convenience store into a church. During that time they collected donations and hosted fundraisers in the store parking lot raising over $5,000 for the transformation.

Several of the items inside the church, including the pews, were donated by community members. Two months of renovations later, they finally have everything ready for their congregation members.

”It feels amazing to actually be able to go to our church, instead of downstairs to our church,” Angelica said.

The new church will be home to weekly Sunday school, weekly classes for women and a special program for Women’s History Month in March.

The church is located at 917 Colcord Avenue and meets for weekly Sunday service at 11 a.m.

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