Devin Jarvis was a self-proclaimed atheist in high school.
Now at 24, he is licensed minister –– and goes to pharmacy school at Hampton University.
“I was 100 percent biblically illiterate,” the Norfolk native said of his former 16-year-old self.
Jarvis said he came from an “essentially fatherless home” without a lot of money and what he described as a “lack of social correctness, depression and suicidal ideation and coping with alcohol.”
He decided to try the Norfolk Apostolic Church and when he saw how happy the church attendees were, he prayed to God for the same happiness.
“I step into the lobby and immediately, I felt something very distinct,” he said. “I could look at these people and tell they were genuinely happy.”
Two years later at a youth camp retreat, Jarvis had the idea of starting a church in Hampton. He told his pastor, Michael Blankenship, about it and was encouraged to finish college and if Jarvis still felt the desire to start another church, the pair would discuss the idea at a later date.
Last May, about five years later, Blankenship decided to revisit the idea of starting a daughter chapter and asked Jarvis, who was studying to be a pharmacist, to be the pastor at the new church.
“We believe that the mission of the church is to constantly be engaged and more focused,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship has been the current pastor of the Norfolk Apostolic Church for 32 years and said Jarvis and his wife, Elissa, a clinical psychologist, have moved across the water to start a “preaching point” in Hampton.
The couple recently finished hosting a series of relationship workshops at the Fort Monroe Community Center and are working with a small group from NAC to help start another church.
“Our goal is to have a fully functional daughter church,” Blankenship said, noting once the Hampton church has about a dozen people and service once a week, then he and Devin will start looking for a physical location –– a place to rent –– in the fall.
“We definitely want to impact the community,” Jarvis said. “We want to invite people to be a part of that.”
The Norfolk Apostolic Church is at 3131 Azalea Garden Road and church services three times a week. For more information about the church or to donate, visit the church’s website or call 757-853-0515.
Transform HVA, the NAC daughter church, has bible study meetings on Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit their Facebook page or call 757-450-4155.
