Household of Faith Family Worship Church International in New Orleans, Louisiana, raised a combined total of $125,000 to help local residents pay their electricity bills.
First Lady Dale Barriere, wife of Senior Pastor Antoine M. Barriere, told The Christian Post that the reason for the fundraiser was because God told them to do it. “Our prayer was how can we help those who are hurting, and He said $100 towards Entrgy bill. Our hope is to encourage the community to never give up and when you think there’s no help, out of the blue help steps in.”
The money raised went to Entergy, New Orleans’ main supplier of electricity. Entergy matched $50,000 of the funds themselves. Then the church and local businesses raised an additional $25,000 to help the community. This comes at a time when electricity in New Orleans doubled for many users, with some blaming Entergy for the bill hike.
However, the CEO stated the reason was because more people are staying home due to lockdowns and pandemic mitigation efforts, driving up the costs. “We had colder weather, so people were using heat more. We had an end of holiday period where people were not traveling normally,” Ellis explained. “What those point to is higher consumption.”
Household of Faith Family Worship Church International is a nondenominational church in New Orleans that has three locations across the city.
According to their website, they “strive to develop strong faith, healthy families, and wealthy finances, in the lives of God’s people, all to fulfill His word.” Their vision is to build “believers who worship Christ strong in faith, family, and finances all to fulfill the Word of God.”
Pastor Antoine Barriere, the head pastor of the church, has a reputation for lending a helping hand to anyone who needs it, and is married to Dale Barriere, who works in entertainment and is also a philanthropist who works to demonstrate God’s love to others.
Photo courtesy: Eberhard Grossgasteiger/Unsplash
John Paluska has been a contributor for Christian Headlines since 2016 and is the founder of The Daily Fodder, a news outlet he relaunched in 2019 as a response to the constant distribution of fake news.