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Reverend Henry Wells, Kingdom Life Christian Church, Williamsburg.
Photo courtesy of Chesapeake Bank
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Sergeant First Class E7 Henry T. Wells, February 10, 2004, Fort Eustis.
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The Wells’ 25th Anniversary Vow Renewal in 2017 with (left to right) sons Josiah Thomas Wells and Henry Thomas Earl Wells and grandson Kristopher Thomas Wells-Degenarro.
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Kingdom Life Christian Church family.
Born in an impoverished farming community on Lake Okeechobee, 45 minutes inland from West Palm Beach, Florida, Henry Wells remembers seeing migrant workers harvesting sugar cane fields and poor families like his fighting to stay afloat in the projects.
“There were times when we didn’t eat,” said Wells. “And sometimes we ate sugar sandwiches or ketchup sandwiches.”
His mother, 15 years old when she had him, struggled with alcohol abuse. By age 9, Wells drank, too, and in his teens, he sold marijuana.
“No one was paying attention tome,” he said. My dad had buckets of marijuana and I would just help myself to it and sell it.”
During his junior year of high school, he met Donyale Johnson, who was a senior. A pregnancy a year later caused Wells to re-evaluate his future. He took the ASVAB, an aptitude test administered by the military that measures ability and service capability, and upon passing, prepared to enter the Army after high school.
Change of Heart
After basic training, Wells proposed to Johnson. Though her family accepted Wells’ marriage proposal, her mother had doubts. Motherhood had caused Johnson to re-commit her life to Christ and Wells’ lack of spiritual direction concerned her mother. Despite having nothing more than a brush with God at a church retreat at 15—one he describes as “a presence and warmth”—he was unchurched.
“Church was for old people; people who had nothing better to do. The life was already sucked out of them,” he said, recalling how he felt about church in his youth. “I didn’t want to be one of those people.”
Sensing his future mother-in-law’s change of heart toward him, Wells changed his tune and made his profession of faith during premarital counseling. The couple wed and five days later, the 18-year-old Wells was off to his duty station in Killeen, Texas.
After partying his first night at Fort Hood with fellow soldiers, Wells prayed to meet a Christian friend so old habits wouldn’t come roaring back. What he got was a mentor who left a lasting impression on him.
Herbert Milton, 25, a personnel records specialist the same as Wells, became Wells’ new roommate. Milton taught him how to walk in the faith and kept him in church every night. He even facilitated the relocation of Wells’ wife and son. He found Wells a house, offered him his floor-model television, stocked his pantry with food, and gave him use of his car during the workweek. His kindness stunned Wells.
“One day I asked him why he did these things for me,” said Wells, unable to understand how Milton could give with no expectation of return.
“I have the love of God in my heart,” He recalled Milton saying. Wells, wanting to share in that joy, pursued spiritual maturity at that point.
Divine Appointment
Wells cleaned up his act and in doing so caught the eye of his pastor.
“The Lord has called you to be a preacher and I’m going to make a preacher out of you,” he told Wells. “I wanted no part of it,” said Wells, laughing at the memory.
Part of his reluctance was a speech impediment that Wells wanted to keep hidden. Once in high school, someone told him, “You couldn’t talk to save your life.” So as Wells objected to his calling, his pastor pressed on, ordaining Wells a minister in the Church of God in Christ. Shortly after, Wells received orders to Germany where he became a chaplain’s assistant. There he facilitated Protestant services while the chaplain, a Catholic, held the weekly masses.
He received orders to Fort Eustis, where he began the process of exiting the military. In 2003, while calling his unit to let them know he had reached his Expiration of Term of Service, which released him from active duty into the reserves, the lady on the other end of the phone informed him that his unit was mobilized. This meant Wells would continue to serve active duty as a chaplain’s assistant in his reserve unit while remaining at Fort Eustis.
Building Up the Kingdom
Wells retired from the military after 18 months of active reserve duty. He followed up his service with a stint working for the government and opening and operating two small businesses. Today, Wells, a man who in his teens “didn’t want to be a church person” and who referring to such people as “washed up” serves the greaterWilliamsburg community as senior pastor of Kingdom Life Christian Church—a congregation he founded on life-altering principles he learned from his roommate at Fort Hood.
“We want to impact [the community] with the love of Christ,” he said, reminiscent of Milton.
Upon first entering the community, a challenge Wells faced was a location for his congregation to meet. After meeting Sundays and Wednesdays in a storefront at Williamsburg Crossing shopping center and then in McLaws Circle, he was shown a space on Merrimac Trail that previously housed a daycare. Initially he was unimpressed. The building has structural issues and would need hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in it to be suitable, and the church’s bank wouldn’t offer even half of what they needed to make it work.
Wells searched until he found another lender—Chesapeake Bank— who offered the church more funds, and the church raised the remaining balance. The total renovation and purchase came to $1.4 million. Wells said that dreams can come true when you can find people who believe in your vision.
“Leigh Houghland believed in us. I shared with him our vision that we want to be here for the community. He said, ‘I like it and at Chesapeake, we're going to fund this project.’”
Changing the Community
With a renovated church, Wells’ focus is on helping his community. “We have a vision for planting churches in the area and for opening businesses in the community,” he said.
“God has given us a mantra to establish kingdom-minded people.God has a way we should think and how we should live. Your thinking produces everything in your life.”
To that effect, the church brings civic groups together to help the community discover local resources. An annual community fair is Wells’ preferred vehicle for this interaction.
“It’s a chance to know who's who in the nonprofit community around here,” he said. “The community will know what non-profit agencies are available in this area to meet some of the needs that they may have.”He invites up to 20 different non-profit agencies to participate, including Lackey Clinic.
“We had the Lackey Clinic here as one of the agencies and they were able to provide some on-site care,” he said. Wells wanted those in the community to be aware of this health resource and know where to access it for health care.
Kingdom Life also takes part in caring for the local homeless alongside other churches, known as “the winter shelter” through Community of Faith Mission. The church has facilitated Community Action Agency to help the elderly. It also had the Red Cross on site for blood collection and provides Meals on Wheels, since food scarcity affected Wells’ childhood.
For a man born to a teenage mother in a broken home, Wells’ story is one of hope and defying the odds. Of the things he possesses, none of it was modeled to him as a boy: a healthy marriage of 26 years, a wife who embraces his dream and who co-pastors the church alongside him, children and grandchildren who love him, a fulfilling career, and a young church that’s changing lives.
“All of this by the hand of God from a guy who grew up with nothing—no dreams and no aspirations.”
Chris Jones grew up rural 60 miles from Washington, D.C. and watched his Great Depression-era born grandmother eat an assortment of odd foods. He too left home after high school in search of new adventures.
Pastor Henry Wells: pastorhtwells@icloud.com • klchristianchurch.org
Community of Faith Mission • cofm.info
Meals on Wheels: Elizabeth Bourgoin • 757-229-9250 • wmbgmealsonwheels.com
Red Cross: 757-253-0228
Chesapeake Bank: 757-941-3353 • chesbank.com
Lackey Clinic: 757-886-0608 • lackeyclinic.org