We end Black History Month on a high note with an honorable feature, Apostle Sarah A. Kelley, a Charlottesville Pastor and Justice Activist.
Born in 1941 at the University of Virginia, Apostle Kelley is the Pastor/Prophet and Founder of Faith, Hope, and Love International Healing and Deliverance Center here in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has impacted many lives here in Charlottesville and beyond. Throughout her 40 years in Ministry, she has dedicated her life to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all whom she comes in contact with.
As an Evangelist, Apostle Kelley has had the opportunity as a foreign missionary to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to several nations of the world, such as Africa, Japan, the Holy Land, and Italy. As stated in Ephesians 4:11-12, “He gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors, and some Teachers; For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ.” Apostle Kelley has been walking worthy of the vocation in which she has been called.
Apostle Kelley is the wife, for 65 years, of Pastor & Deacon Raleigh C. Kelley Jr. They are the parents of two children, a son, Raleigh C. Kelley the 3rd (who is present with the Lord), and a daughter, Sarona Rea Kelley, a retired Deputy Sheriff, who lives in North Carolina. They have three grandsons, three granddaughters-in-law, and 13 great-grandchildren.
She is a retired Computer Programmer by profession and an LPN by vocation. On April 6th of 2019, Apostle Kelley was recognized by the University of Virginia as a Hidden Nurse and received a certification and full university alumni status. She has been a volunteer, leading the Prison Fellowship Bible Study at the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center for 27 years and Albemarle Regional Jail for 45 years. She has served as a Chaplain at the UVA Hospital and Piedmont House and a Lay Chaplain at the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center. On January 23rd of 2019, she received the 7th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Award from UVA Health for being the first black Chaplain at the Hospital. She has also carried the gospel into the Nursing Homes since 1976.
With a heart for justice, she has worked with many justice organizations, including IMPACT and the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, which she served as president of. She was recently interviewed by the Daily Progress on her work with social justice and how she continues to work towards a better tomorrow in the area of justice for all. With much childhood trauma and hurt, she now shares her testimony and what God has done for her with others, inspiring them in the process.
She has been steadfast and abounding in much through her work for the Lord, being diagnosed with throat cancer twice and going through two major back surgeries in the same year. She is an overcomer who keeps going in what she has been called to.
Apostle Kelley has and will go where the Lord leads and directs her. Since her youth, she has been a trailblazer and activist for justice. In Jeremiah 1:5 the Lord spoke, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
In the year 2011, she founded the Another Chance Ministry Thrift Shop and Used Christian Book Shop, allowing items, including clothes, Christian books, and household goods, to receive another chance. In 2018, she founded the Another Chance Healing House, where she housed women released from prison, allowing them to receive another chance.
Those around her call her a modern-day Moses, as she has paved the way for many African Americans and women. When the odds were up against her, she continued to press forward and open doors for generations to come. Here is a list of all the things that Pastor Kelley has been the first African American and/or first female in:
- First African American Nurse at Martha Jefferson Hospital, hired as a Cardiac Specialist and helped improve their Cardiac Unity
- First African American and Female Computer Programmer at the UVA Medical Center
- First African American and Female hired on the Professional staff of Virginia Highway Department as a Computer Programmer
- First African American Female Computer Programmer at Centel Telephone Company
- First African American in the Chaplaincy Program at the UVA Hospital
- First African American performer at the LIONS Club in Charlottesville that performed at Lane High School
- First African American student at ECPI Branch of Charlottesville
- First Female to be Licensed and Ordained and later Consecrated as Bishop and Affirmed as Apostle at Galilee Baptist Church
- First Female at Galilee Baptist Church to be a Founder and Pastor of Faith, Hope, and Love International Healing and Deliverance Center, a Non-Denominational Church, along with starting the “Another Chance Ministry”
- First African American Speaker in the Charlottesville Branch of the Women’s Aglow, and served on the General Board, Chair to Publicity Committee, and Instructor of the Bible Class
- First Female Minister to preach at Albemarle Regional Jail, and also worked there as a Medical Officer
- First Female President of the Charlottesville and Vicinity Ministerial Conference for a Four-year term
- First Female President of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective
- First Child and Grandchild
- First Nurse and Minister in her family
- First in her family to graduate from College and Bible College
Apostle Kelley is active in several organizations and has several Certificates, Diplomas, and Degrees from Vocational, Professional, and Religious studies. She remains active in the community and serves on the Board of The Haven, Abundant Life, and IMPACT. She is the former President of the Charlottesville & Vicinity Ministerial Council, the former President of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, and is the current Treasurer of the African American Pastors’ Council. She also serves as a Docent and on the Advisory Committee for Beloved Community, is on the NAACP Religious Committee, and is working with Trinity Episcopal Church’s White Feathers Project.
She remains on fire for the Lord, teaching, preaching, and training up in righteousness according to the Word of God. In her youth and in her many years of ministry, she has held on to the words from the Children’s book, The Little Engine that Could, going from “I think I can” to “I know I can.” Her great-grandmother would tell her, “Don’t ever say what you can’t do.” Apostle lives according to God’s promise to her in Philippians 4:13 that she can do all things through Jesus Christ ,who is her strength.
Apostle Kelley continues to preach, teach, tell her story, and share God’s love with all. She has recently joined the Abundant Life Board of Directors to continue her heart for justice and mercy.
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