One person’s selflessness is another person’s blessing.
And, because of a partnership between Revels Memorial United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church aimed at rehabilitating homes for the less fortunate, one Greenville resident was elated to be on the receiving end of selfless service that allowed for several facets of her home to be repaired.
Trinity Mission to Mississippi’s latest project is the rehabilitation of a Cately Street home located in the City of Greenville’s Ward 4.
Volunteers were hard at work Tuesday, March 14, on the home of Venetia Dukes as her roof was in dire need of repair as well as the flooring.
The City of Greenville provided dumpsters for the project so that any waste accumulated could be properly and quickly disposed of.
“This is a partnership with our church Revels United Methodist Church here in Greenville that’s been ongoing for 23 years. They come here once a year for about two weeks and do a project and we try to pick projects to benefit people who don’t have very many options,” said parishioner John McClay. “Ms. Dukes has been trying to get this roof fixed since forever and has had no success. How it works is someone will either submit a name to me or our outreach committee and what we do first is look at the building or the physical structure to see what the need is and then determine what the capability is of the occupant to get it done.”
McClay noted that in some instances there are as many as 70 people on the list looking to be considered for the home rehabilitation work.
With folks bound to notice the work being done to improve the home of Dukes, McClay said he anticipates people stopping by to see if they could be helped.
“So, we take names and then we do some investigating to see if those people qualify,” he said. “As we progress, we kind of pick up partners that assist in the endeavor along the way. This is spearheaded by the United Methodist Church.”
McClay pointed out the collective of United Methodist churches in Washington County with one located in Leland, Hollandale, Leland, Glen Allan and three in Greenville, but Revels is the only black Methodist church which has the namesake of the Hiram Revels — the first black person to be elected to the U.S. Congress as a senator and the first president of Alcorn State University.
Homeowner Venetia Dukes was near speechless watching the crew of people work to make her home of 23 years inhabitable again.
“I’ve just been praising God,” she said, reiterating McClay’s statement about how long she had been trying to get the work done. “I just said “No Lord, I’m not going to just throw in the towel.” I’m a fighter and I said I was just going to keep the faith because I know the Lord was going to make a way for me and he did it. When folks were closing the door, God said ‘I’ve got something better for you’ and I thank Him.”
“The city has stepped in and Mr. John McClay came before the city council who all agreed unanimously to provide the dumpster so all of the waste material and what have you would not pile up on the street. The City graciously provided that service and not only that, the City of Greenville binds in with this organization as they renovate the roof and all of the siding and flooring and they’re doing such a tremendous job in making this house livable again for the families that are there,” said Ward 4 Councilwoman Lurann Thomas-Kingdom. “We’re just so happy to be able to assist them in any way that we can and this is not the end because they do several other homes throughout the year and that just speaks volumes.”
Ron Kottke, a retired farmer and certified public accountant from Walnut Grove, Minnesota was one of the volunteers working diligently on the structure.
“It’s about eight churches that do fundraising and raise a pretty substantial amount of money for us to come down here and buy materials so that we can fix up houses,” he highlighted. “We first determine what we want to do for the home and what we can afford to do. Then, we just tear into it.”
Kottke continued, “We’re so fortunate to have real qualified people and we have so many people who have skills that are unique to take care of certain situations. But, it’s a lot of fun to work with the families here too and Revels.”
McClay, reiterating how skillful the volunteers are, joked that they don’t turn down any help.
“The group is called Thrivent, which is a Lutheran insurance company. When we have charitable efforts, they also donate to the cause and “Live Generously” is their theme so we just happen to be wearing the shirts,” Kottke also pointed out.
The volunteer group also has a member who cooks three meals a day to make sure the other volunteers are nourished and energized as they perform such tedious tasks.
“As I always say, it’s a blessing they drive a thousand miles to come and serve Greenville and we always tell them “thank you” because no one has them doing that but Jesus. He works in mysterious ways. These people pay to come to work and it’s just a blessing,” said Revels Memorial Methodist Church pastor, Johnny Davis. “It’s just a tremendous experience not only just as working on the house, but in the spirit of the Lord.”
McClay added, “Our whole premise is we come in to worship, but we go out to serve. That’s what we try to live by.”
