Christian group lends a hand to local family in time for the holidays
By Ashley Cook, City Editor—The Lufkin Daily News
December 26, 2009
With love and compassion in their hearts, a group of church and business members came together this week in the true spirit of Christmas to make a holiday one Angelina County family will never forget.

Life was difficult, to say the least, for Jessie LaVerne Rhodes, 70 and her two grandsons, Andreu, 13 and Will, 10. The three were living in a rotting trailer home on Holmes Road, a short walk off U.S. Highway 69 North. Their grandmother took them to raise 10 years ago after their 27–year–old mother was murdered by their father, now serving a life sentence in prison. Shortly after, Rhodes’s husband died of health problems in 2001. “That was some bad times,” Rhodes said.

Years later, the three were living in a trailer that didn't just leak, “it poured,” Rhodes said. Rain came into the boys’ rooms, and the kitchen and living room, ruining clothing, mattresses, cabinetry and family photos—the mold growth exacerbating Andreu’s breathing problems as he struggled to overcome pneumonia. “I was trying to keep us from washing away,” Rhodes said. “We were desperate.”

Every time it rained, the phone line would short out inside the house. After a number of repairmen visited, there was one visit that would lead to a new life for the Rhodes family. A repairman named Mike Morgan came to the house and noticed far more than phone trouble. He said, “I don’t think a phone jack is all you need. You need help.”

Rhodes said though Morgan told her he was going to talk to some folks about getting help, she didn’t really think anything would happen. It wasn’t anything against him—she had just learned over the years not to expect people to follow through, she said. But this time, gratefully, she was mistaken.

A crowd of people showed up at her house several days later and the work began.
A group of churches, businesses and volunteers from a local non–profit,
non–denominational group, CHRIST Ministries of Texas, brought about a kind of reverse, happy version of the Grinch story—bringing the family a new home, furnished and decorated—down to a Christmas tree banked with presents.

The family got a gravel driveway, for the first time having a stable path through the deep muddy ruts to their new home. And the boys couldn’t be happier—it was Christmas and birthdays all rolled into one, the boys having their birthdays coming up on Dec. 30 and Jan. 6. They now have dry, warm beds to sleep in.

On Thursday, the boys were off visiting with some of their other grandparents. They could hardly bear to be away from their new home, Rhodes said, even getting up before her to make their beds and leave their rooms spotless.

The Christmas gift would be something they would never forget, she said. “It has been precious, a community thing. I appreciate every one of them who helped.”

CHRIST (Christians Helping Rebuild In Service Together) Ministries of Texas is a
non–denominational group dedicated to providing basic services to those in need. “With a Christ–like attitude of love, humility and grace, our volunteers provide food, clothing, transportation, shelter and other services to those seeking assistance,” the group’s Web site states. More information on CHRIST Ministries of Texas is available online at CHRISTMinistriesOfTexas.org. Donations may be made to the group online through Paypal.

Group member Ray Johnson said volunteers moved the rotting trailer to the back of the property and brought in a refurbished trailer that they roofed, painted and filled—even to the cabinets full of food.

“The conditions they were living in, they were deplorable. I don’t see how they were able to do it. But they were mighty blessed when we presented (the new house) to them,” he said. “Their need was really, really met. I don’t know how those boys can wait for Christmas to open those gifts.

“Our community was blessed. There were many who donated labor and funds. It was really a pouring out together of love and compassion in their hearts, and that’s what CHRIST Ministries is all about,” he said. “The ministry works throughout the year, with brothers and sisters from different churches and different walks of life helping those in need,” Johnson said. Previous projects have included helping fund a child’s funeral for a needy family, dental work for impoverished children and more.

There were more volunteers than can be named, but Rhodes especially thanked her pastor Ronnie Frankens and the Homer United Pentecostal Church for trying to fix her old roof. She also thanked the many volunteers from Clawson Assembly of God, Carpenter’s Way Baptist Church and Lufkin First Assembly of God. She thanked Ray and Judy Johnson, Michael Sessions, Kevin Strickland, Darryl Daigle and John Sprinkle, to name a few.

Johnson noted help from Walmart and Lowe’s, Timberline Construction, McCoy’s, Dixon Furniture, a number of contractors including Strickland Plumbing, Ricky Ray Plumbing, Coburn Supply, Morrison Supply, Angelina Excavating, Richardson Dozer Service and others.

“It really was a true, true Christmas story of blessing and helping,” Johnson said. Rhodes’s hope, she said, was that God would lead the ministry to another family to help by next Christmas. “These men were used of God,” Rhodes said. “Pray that they will find the right family.”