Devine calling
10 congregations join forces to repair homes for needy neighbors

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
The fellowship hall of First UMC, Devine, became a “command center” June 5 through 11 for a citywide interfaith mission.
Over daily lunchtime meals prepared and served by church members, the organizers of Mission Devine compared notes about progress on 15 homes they were repairing.
Volunteers who had been working all morning cooled off while passing along information to the afternoon crew. Within an hour, about 50 people were fed, and the afternoon workers had their assignments—“check the plumbing on the Alvarez house; start installing the windows on Flores Street.”
Mission Devine was a project of the Divine Ministerial Fellowship. That’s a partnership of 10 congregations whose pastors meet regularly to support each other personally and in their ministries.
The vision for a hometown mission came from a meeting of the pastors’ wives. They had prayed for a way to “knit the churches in Devine together,” said Danielle Young, wife of First Baptist Church pastor Glenn Young.
The Rev. Myron Ricketts, pastor of First UMC, Devine, said, “We want to show the community how God’s work can be done when the people of God work together to help others.”
Devine’s churches, he said, had collaborated on worship services and celebrations.
“Mission Devine is the latest outreach,” he said, “and one that’s very visible to everyone.”
Red signs staked in yards along Devine’s streets carry the message from Matthew 22:39: “Loving your neighbor as yourself.”
Three generations of one United Methodist family worked shoulder-to-shoulder to embody that message. George Redus, 80; his sons Cliff and George Jr.; and his grandson George III, 13, put in long hours in the hot sun.
“George [Sr.] can outwork any of the younger people,” Ricketts said. “He came back from annual conference (June 1-4 in Corpus Christi) and went right to work digging trenches.”
The youngest Redus, one of the church’s confirmands this year, had been roofing a house at the beginning of the week and was now painting it.
“I love working,” he said, adding that working to help other people is rewarding to him. After a few minutes’ break—just long enough for a cup of water—he said, “I have to get back to work.”
Cliff Redus, clearly proud of his nephew, said, “This is fulfillment of the Word. The Lord wants us to be doers, not talkers.”
Gloria Valdez, who lives in the house on Flores Street where the Redus men were working, said she feels very blessed that volunteers were making her home a better place for her to live. She said no repairs had been made to the structure since 1990.
“The rain came pouring through the roof and the windows,” she said. “We had buckets and buckets everywhere in the kitchen.”
A city inspector tipped off the Mission Devine group that Valdez’s home needed repair. The Divine Ministerial Fellowship worked closely with the city to determine which properties could be tackled within the week.
Dominga Alvarez and her husband, Carmen, a Korean War veteran, were also beneficiaries of the construction work. A gas pipe break had left their home without hot water for three months.
“I told my husband not to worry,” Dominga said, “that God would provide. And he did.”
Her husband said he appreciated being able to take a hot shower again.
It is that kind of story that is being told around the town—stories that strengthen people’s faith.
Glenn Young, the Baptist pastor, said workers were getting to know the families as they worked at each house and talked with them about their lives.
People are sometimes wary of ecumenical efforts, he said, because they think the Christians are going to force religion on them. He pointed out that the workers “were not proselytizing—just encouraging them in their faith.”
Over the week a number of families whose homes were repaired promised to attend worship services, he said. Some individuals rededicated their lives to Christ.
Ricketts said that more than half of the people who worship at First UMC were involved in the project. Providing lunch, he said, was “the least we could do.”
From her post in the kitchen, Ina Stansell, who has been a member of the congregation since 1957, said she was “serving people who are serving other people—just like in the Upper Room.” Her reference was to the message of an Upper Room devotional from the day before.
“The life I’ve seen in this room encourages everyone,” Ricketts said, looking around the fellowship hall where about 50 people, a mix of ages, races and denominations, were having lunch. “I have not heard one cross word, not one complaint. This is what John Wesley called us to do—vital piety and social action.
“Wesley called on Methodists to make the world better. People who live in Devine need the sense of community that comes with activity that gives them pride in being here.”
In all, about 200 volunteers worked on Mission Divine throughout the week, completing what amounted to an estimated $35,000 in repairs, church leaders said.