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By Tyree Johnson

Editor/Publisher

At 10 AM on Saturday, June 13, the neighborhood’s “Conquerors” are officially taking over your taste buds.

That’s right. The old Galaxy Restaurant that was formerly run by a Greek family was purchased, and now run by members of the We Are More Than Conquerors Deliverance Ministries.

The restaurant is now known as Conquerors’ Cafe and is located on the northeast corner of 63rd and Market Streets under the newly reconstructed SEPTA El depot.

“We’ve invited a number of city officials,” said the Conquerors’ pastor, Apostle Donald Parks, who is eagerly looking forward to greeting the community at the neighborhood’s newest eatery.

What the community will see is a spanking clean facility with seating for 61 patrons in a cooling lime green surroundings. They will also experience polite and prompt services by smiling waiters and waitresses and a tasteful menu that is still evolving to meet the community’s taste buds.

Apostle Parks, his wife of 36 years, Deborah, and his 300-member (150 active) congregation have big plans for the restaurant that now serves breakfast and lunch from 6 AM to 6 PM, Monday to Saturday.

They hope to soon begin serving dinners on Sunday - after church services, of course - from 4 PM to 8 PM. They are also exploring ways to set up tables on the outside of the building.

Despite the grand opening, the cafe has been open for several weeks and attracting an increasing number of patrons, according to Apostle Parks.

The new business, the pastor was told, comes at a time the nation is undergoing an economic crisis with people cutting back on spending. The cafe also faces a double whammy with the yet to be completed El reconstruction that has limited foot and auto traffic.

This end of the El stop is expected to be completed by September, said Apostle Parks.

Not to belittle the current economy downturn, Apostle Paul says his faith is in “God’s economy, not the world’s standards.”

Indeed, this nondenominational fellowship has brought progress to the corner of 63rd and Market Street.

Apostle Parks describes himself as a former gang member from Felton and Hirst Streets.

“Back then, we thought by being a gangster was the way... being the toughest guy on the corner,” he recalled.

But life changed for him when he felt the “Call” to join the ministry under the guidance of Pastor Benjamin Smith Sr., of Deliverance Evangelistic Church in North Philadelphia.

In 1999, with the blessings from his Deliverance pastor, he started his own church with eight members in his lower Overbrook neighborhood near 59th and Lancaster Avenue.

“The Lord said I am going to send you back to the neighborhood,” said the preacher.

He took the name of the church from Romans 8:37 - “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Within a matter of year, his congregation grew to some 300 members and in need of a larger facility to manifest their mission “to spread the tangible love and work of Christ by providing services that bring help, hop and wholeness to people...”

In 2003, the congregation purchased for $450,000 the building occupied by the Philadelphia Baptist Church near 63rd and Market St.

They had to pour some $200,000 in the massive former synagogue to stop the roof from leaking in the sanctuary, repair the heating and air condition systems and fix up the many rooms in the decaying structure.

It no longer pours when it rains in the church. Apostle Parks wants the community to know that.

Today, the Conquers run a day school for 80 pre-K to 6th graders and has 30 toddlers in Day Care. They have operated a dinner theatre, a movie theatre, a bookstore, a Bible institute, as well as a place to feed the needy in a soup kitchen and deliver dinners to shut-ins and the elderly.

They have also set out as a goal to “Shut Down The Jails.”

Conquerors have Sunday School at 10 AM and services at 11 AM.

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