Jim Crowell and Joe Stas deliver donated furniture to Debbie Pressley’s home in Kingsport, Tenn. UMNS photos by Heidi Robinson.

By Heidi Robinson*
Feb. 4, 2008 | KINGSPORT, Tenn. (UMNS)

Debbie Pressley sobs as she watches a large yellow moving truck slowly make its way up her narrow driveway.

"I didn’t think we’d ever find help. I’d just about given up," she says.

The truck door slides up to reveal a floral sofa and overstuffed chair, lamps, end tables and the most anticipated item of all: a kitchen table. At the sight of the furniture, Pressley cries harder.

"We’ve just had no hope. We would love a place to sit as a family for a meal," says Pressley as she clutches her infant granddaughter, Faith. "She’s 9 months old and we’ve never sat at a table. It’s going to be a miracle when we sit down together and have our first meal."

This furniture delivery is one of about 300 made each year by the volunteers from First Broad Street United Methodist Church. For more than two decades, the church has delivered hope and furniture to families in need.

Pressley’s son is serving in Iraq. Nine months ago, Pressley’s daughter-in-law left her three children — a newborn, a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old — with Pressley and did not come back, she says. Pressley, living on disability payments, scrambled to make ends meet.

The downstairs of Pressley’s rental house has one chair in a back room and three folding chairs in the kitchen. The family takes turns eating meals at the kitchen counter.

"I’ve pawned or sold everything I had to be sure these babies have bites in their mouths," says Pressley, 45.

Some starting over

The three men unloading, carrying and arranging furniture in Pressley’s chilly Kingsport home will not be presenting her with her a bill. They have a different kind of request for Pressley.

"Where would you like this end table to go?" asks Pete Eldridge, as he carries it inside the empty front room.

As the front room fills with furniture that will make it a family room, Joe Stas asks, “Can we have a word of prayer with you, ma’am?”

"You do this because it is the right thing to do," says Eldridge, a volunteer since 2004. "Most of the families are trying hard to make it. They have jobs; they have children, and they’re struggling."

Eldridge and fellow volunteer Jim Crowell carry sofa cushions into the living room of Pressley’s home. All of the furniture is donated from community members. A warehouse just a few blocks from the church houses an amazing array of appliances, mattresses, linens, dishes, sofas and other necessities to manage a home. Pressley will receive mostly furniture.

While many recipients of furniture and household goods, like Pressley, are victims of circumstance, others have escaped domestic violence.

"I’d say that every week we are delivering to a mother with children, who has just transitioned from a safe house," says Danny Howe, director of missions for First Broad Street United Methodist Church. "They are starting with nothing.

“When they left the dangerous situation, they left everything behind. We have come into some apartments where families are sleeping on tile floors with a blanket."

‘Glimpse of how God works’

The delivery itself is often an enormous help for families who may not have access to a vehicle that could haul furniture.

"If folks could move the furniture themselves, they probably wouldn’t be in such desperate situations as they are in," says Stas, the co-coordinator for the program.

"I see their faces when we make the deliveries. I can’t tell you that it will change their lives, but I think they get a glimpse of how God works."

The ministry operates with about 25 volunteers of varying ages and backgrounds and requires a variety of skills to serve families: from interviewing recipients to organizing furniture at the warehouse and making the deliveries in the truck.

"We have an engineer, John Isenberg, who can fix just about anything. And Bob Door repairs appliances," Stas says. "We have another volunteer who works with the furniture and makes kitchen tables to fit in smaller apartments. The needs are just overwhelming. … We have to do it."

A friend told Pressley about the furniture ministry, and she visited the church to fill out a request.

"When they called me to say what they could do for us, we just got down on our knees and thanked God and held hands," recalls Pressley, with tears.

As the furniture delivery wraps up at the Pressley house, the children begin clambering on to the new sofa. As the volunteers leave, Pressley begins to weep again and hugs the men.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she says.

As they get back in the truck, Eldridge says, "You know, we have the privilege to be the hands of Christ on a day like today. That is what makes this all worth it. It’s what keeps us coming back week after week."

*Robinson is a freelance producer based in Winston-Salem, N.C.

News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

First Broad St. United Methodist Church

Holston Conference