On Saturday, 100 lucky people in Liberty got 10 free gallons of gas as part of a local church’s way of celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Pastor Lock P. Beachum, Jr. is a pastor at Victory Christian Center’s Liberty Campus. He says his dream finally came true.

“I’ve been dreaming about doing stuff like this since I was a kid. I’m a former football player, never made it to the NFL, so I get to do something pretty special through the blessings of our community and the folk of our church.”

Every pump at the BP on Belmont Avenue was occupied while a long stretch of cars waited to fill up.

The giveaway was Victory Christian Center’s way of saying thank you for 10 great years.

“We want people to realize that we are so appreciative of being in this community, being in this region,” Beachum said.

With gas being $2.89 a gallon, the church shelled out just short of $3,000 in fuel — the money was raised through a program called Operation Impact.

“All of those dollars go back into the community. So, Operation Impact is like a pass-through entity. So our folk know at the church if I sold to Operation Impact that money is coming to the community,” Beachum said.

He says he hopes the day’s simple gesture inspires those getting free gas to help out someone else.

“Because many of these folk were going to get gas anyways, they were gonna spend money, and so maybe that money will be diverted to doing something special for somebody else,” Beachum said.