A Suffolk native who now pastors a church in Oakland, Calif., says he found spiritual enlightenment during a trip to the Holy Land.

Dr. Marvin Warren, who grew up in Suffolk, attended First Baptist Church, Mahan St., and graduated from Suffolk High School in 1973, said the trip opened his eyes to a new understanding of God’s Word.

“Spiritual enlightenment on this Christian journey was fulfilled with the Holy Land exploration,” he said. “Answers found, biblical explanation enhanced, spiritual addiction cured and spiritual enlightenment flooded my mind, body and soul.”

Warren is the pastor at Nazareth Messiah Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif.

He said it has been a long spiritual road that he has followed since leaving Suffolk.

As the grandson and nephew of gospel ministers, Warren said, he was baptized early and preached his first sermon as a young follower of Christ in the backyard of a neighbor’s home.

After high school, he accepted a basketball scholarship to a junior college and later joined the Army, where he was selected to join the Presidential Guard in Washington, D.C.

Soon, though, he felt called to the ministry and became an ordained and licensed minister, subsequently entering the seminary and continuing his study in the Word, Warren said.

Along the way, he has pastured four churches and has received high praise from fellow ministers, he said.

“Godly anointing made the Word of God become and enlightened spiritual reality,” he said.