Victory Inner-City Ministries and the birth of Victory Acres
Victory Inner-City Ministries is located on 2909 E. 10 St. in Indianapolis.
Victory Inner-City Ministries started out as a vision created by Pastor Eric Himelick after his internship in St. Louis. He saw a need on the east side of Indianapolis for ministry and decided to try to fill the void. He ran into people with drug addictions, abusive backgrounds and those battling homelessness.
“It really opened my eyes to see the need in the cities,” Himelick said.
Himelick began preaching in Willard Park, along with some of his colleges. The park was know for having larger crowds of homeless people, prostitution occurring and people administering drugs. Himelick said the police abandoned that part of town.
“Me and my friends started to do stuff. We didn’t really have a plan or anything organized,” Himelick said, “We just did stuff.”
Himelick and his colleagues would read scriptures in the park to whoever would come and listen. They tried to show people that they had a purpose in life and they could find it it through Christ. They advertised it as friends getting together and finding answers to the question of life. Most of the people that attended slept in the park the night before and would join Himelick and his colleagues when they would get to the park.
“We didn’t call it church, it didn’t look like church, but to us it was church and the people attending did not realize they had just been to church,” Himelick said.
More and more people started to attend the gatherings in the park so Himelick and his colleagues moved it to a gymnasium that was supplied by the Care Center, a battered women’s center. After that the church moved to where it is now located the 10th Street United Methodist Church.
After a few years, Himelick started to feel like he needed to make a safe getaway for the people he had been ministering to. His own safe haven was Victory Acres, the land in Upland, Indiana, his family had owned over the years. Whenever he visited the farm he felt a sort of peace wash over him.
In October 2005 he took a retreat to the farm to pray about what he should do. He walked along his grandfather's farm and sketched out in his head what could be done with the farm, with his grandfather getting old and past retirement age. With the farm needing to still be ran and inner-city people needing to help get their life back he put the two together. People that need a place to live could have a place if they wanted one, they would just have to help on the farm.
He went back to his inner-city family and proposed the idea of buying the farm and creating a sort of safe haven for those needing to escape their lives and get right with God. By 2006 the church bought the farm, making the dream of Victory Acres come to life.
Every year more and more people have turned to Victory Inner-City Ministries and Victory Acres. Himelick makes it known though that the church is not a social service, nor are they trying to be. They simply want to spread the spoken word of God.
“It really opened my eyes to see the need in the cities,” Himelick said.
Himelick began preaching in Willard Park, along with some of his colleges. The park was know for having larger crowds of homeless people, prostitution occurring and people administering drugs. Himelick said the police abandoned that part of town.
“Me and my friends started to do stuff. We didn’t really have a plan or anything organized,” Himelick said, “We just did stuff.”
Himelick and his colleagues would read scriptures in the park to whoever would come and listen. They tried to show people that they had a purpose in life and they could find it it through Christ. They advertised it as friends getting together and finding answers to the question of life. Most of the people that attended slept in the park the night before and would join Himelick and his colleagues when they would get to the park.
“We didn’t call it church, it didn’t look like church, but to us it was church and the people attending did not realize they had just been to church,” Himelick said.
More and more people started to attend the gatherings in the park so Himelick and his colleagues moved it to a gymnasium that was supplied by the Care Center, a battered women’s center. After that the church moved to where it is now located the 10th Street United Methodist Church.
After a few years, Himelick started to feel like he needed to make a safe getaway for the people he had been ministering to. His own safe haven was Victory Acres, the land in Upland, Indiana, his family had owned over the years. Whenever he visited the farm he felt a sort of peace wash over him.
In October 2005 he took a retreat to the farm to pray about what he should do. He walked along his grandfather's farm and sketched out in his head what could be done with the farm, with his grandfather getting old and past retirement age. With the farm needing to still be ran and inner-city people needing to help get their life back he put the two together. People that need a place to live could have a place if they wanted one, they would just have to help on the farm.
He went back to his inner-city family and proposed the idea of buying the farm and creating a sort of safe haven for those needing to escape their lives and get right with God. By 2006 the church bought the farm, making the dream of Victory Acres come to life.
Every year more and more people have turned to Victory Inner-City Ministries and Victory Acres. Himelick makes it known though that the church is not a social service, nor are they trying to be. They simply want to spread the spoken word of God.
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William Buck's Story
William Buck's background was filled with drugs, unemployment and family issues. His son walked out on him a few years ago and Buck was left alone and depressed.
While wandering the streets of Indianapolis he crossed paths with Pastor Himelick and his colleagues preaching the word in downtown Indianapolis. Buck knew he needed to make adjustments in his life and turned to God for the answer. Buck has visited Victory Acres on a few separate occasions. He is currently residing at the farm and plans on staying there until God tells him his time at the farm is up. He wants to eventually move down south and preach to other men about the word of God. |