- Evangelist Gladys Ellis has hosted the annual “Back to Basics” worship service since 2003 to help community members in need.
- Funds raised from the event are used to help families pay for bills, buy appliances, and provide children with gifts.
- The event has grown from helping five people in its first year to assisting more than 100 families and individuals.
Helping others catch up with their bills going into the new year has been a divine assignment of a local evangelist since 2002.
“The vision came to me a year before we started in 2003 and it has been running strong ever since,” said Evangelist Gladys Ellis, who along with her daughter, Charlotte Ellis-Colbert, have been hosting the “Back to Basics” worship service.
This year’s service will be held at noon Nov. 15 at Springhill Missionary Baptist Church at 120 SE Williston Road.
All of the funds raised during the worship service will be used to help needy people catch up with their essential bills, buy appliances, and provide children with gift cards and cash, Ellis said.
“Giving back to the community” is the purpose of the annual worship service, which features inspiring gospel singing by the dynamic mother-daughter duo and other family members, Ellis said. “We also want to bless people with a good Christmas and help kids. The community blesses me so I can bless others.”
The community trusts her with the funds they donate because they know she is going to do the right thing with the money, Ellis said.
The worship service has grown from helping about five people its first year, when it was held at Lincoln Middle School, to blessing more than 100 families, individuals and children with cash, gift cards and funds last year to help those in need catch up on rent, utility and other bills, said Ellis, founder of Divine Healing Ministry, which sponsors the event.
“We were also able to bless a woman, who is raising five of her grandchildren, with a washer and dryer last year,” Ellis said.
Approximately 400 to 500 people attended the worship service last year at Springhill Baptist Church, as the church was packed to capacity with people standing on the walls around the church, Ellis said.
As usual, the worship service is hoped to be a “worship experience” in giving and those who attend are asked to give with a “cheerful heart,” Ellis said, adding that though the service is held to help the needy, its main goal is to win souls for Christ.
“We are not in charge,” Ellis said. “The Holy Spirit is in charge.”
The annual worship service continues because Ellis and her family want to see people blessed and see how happy they are when they receive the gift God has for them, Ellis said.
“It’s just a pleasure watching the joy on someone else’s face,” Ellis said. “We all need to get back to the basics and help one another.”
Giving sometimes can change people’s lives and “plant a seed that will help lead them to the Holy Ghost,” Ellis said. “The gift of the Holy Ghost is much more than any natural or earthly gift. We are concerned about people’s souls.”
