Grace Ministries director prays to relieve job stress
Published: March 21, 2007
Dee Sykes, the director of Grace Ministries in Burkburnett, prays a little prayer for forgetfulness when he drives home at night.
The man who has helped dispense money and 63.5 tons of food over the past three years to nearly 1,000 different people said the job of helping some - and telling others they can’t be helped - would wear him down if he worried about it at home, too.
“I pray, Lord, help me forget what I did down there today and not think about it again until tomorrow,’ ” he said. “It’s stressful enough right here in my office. I don’t want to take it home and relive all the stressful moments.”
There’s no problem providing folks with food, he said. Currently, the Grace Ministries food closet has five months worth of food stocked up.
But the ministry also tries to assist people with money for utility deposits or bills. They can provide drug prescription help and transportation for medical reasons. Sometimes they can spring for rent money.
But sometimes they can’t, and that’s when the stress spikes.
“I had a man in here this morning who broke down right here and cried,” Sykes said. “I called in a couple of co-workers. We had prayer with him, talked with him, and left him with prayer. I don’t think I could do it without God’s help.”
Food and the small amount of money the ministry could give wouldn’t be enough to fix this man’s problems.
“We got another one in this morning that had received an eviction notice because he wasn’t paying his bills. He was two months behind on a $400 rent bill. We don’t have the funds to take care of that. I’ve got to say that we will do what we will do. (For the rest) I say, ‘Lord, you take care of it.’ ”
In January, 22 people requested help to pay their electric bill. “I helped 13,” he said.
Most bills averaged about $250, but one man asked for help with a $991 bill. “We couldn’t help him,” he said.
Grace Ministries’ 30 volunteers dispense the food and money in amounts that are “surprising figures for a small town,” Sykes said.
Burkburnett schools donated 14,000 pounds of food during the 2006 holidays alone. A local ladies’ exercise club is waiving its entry fee for anyone who donates food. Another Burkburnett man brought Sykes 178 pounds of cookie dough packaged in family-sized bags.
“I don’t guess there’s a single organization in town that doesn’t help us in some way,” Sykes said.
The needy are surprisingly similar - many of them single moms who are not getting child support.
Their predicaments are the problems that spring from a lack of morals, Sykes said. The frequency has surprised Sykes. Most are “young ladies living with men without being married, in a situation in which the female is providing the bulk of the finances, sometimes all of it.”
“We’re beginning to see the disastrous effects of the breakdown of the family unit,” observed Grace Ministries Board President Bill Elder.
The sheer number of people seeking help amazes Elder. “You really don’t have any idea until you start seeing the numbers,” he said. “Shocking, isn’t it? And that’s just here in Burk.”
Before he got involved with Grace Ministries three years ago, he thought ministries like this one assisted a small group of people. He figured with government programs, most were provided for.
But they haven’t been, he said.
“These are people who find themselves in situations they can’t fix. The situation has been thrust upon them. Don’t get me wrong. A lot of these people have done this to themselves by having kids out of wedlock or in high school. They’ve put themselves behind the eight-ball from the get-go.”
Many have jobs. But $6-an-hour doesn’t go far, he said. “You can’t do it. See how much rent is, and food and child care. See how much you have left over. A lot of these kids rely on family to help them. But families are stretched beyond their limits.”
Many simply didn’t plan ahead, Elder said. “They don’t have a high school degree. They don’t have a trade. They don’t have the ability to earn a living. They’re left with minimum wage jobs.”
Sykes, an ordained minister, frequently counsels people as he loads up sacks of food. He was counseling just minutes ago. “I can do that and feel good about doing that,” he said. “We seldom let an individual with some kind of problem go by without some kind of counseling.”
Wal-Mart’s $4 prescription plan has been a remarkable help, expanding his ability to help older folks with prescriptions, Sykes said.
“One lady had four prescriptions that run $30 apiece. All four were filled at Wal-Mart for $4 each. I got out for about half of what one would have cost,” he said.
About 10 percent of their requests are for prescription help.
Others just need help getting food to their home, but volunteers find other problems.
When Sykes visited the home of one woman who needed food, he took her grocery list and her blank check, purchased the food, and returned to her home to help unload the groceries. “The place she lived in was rat-infested,” he said. “They were virtually running around in front of you. They were into all of her groceries. I got some ladies and men to help straighten that out.”
The thank-yous come, but that’s not what moves Sykes.
“Just knowing that I’m working with people,” he said of what spurs him on. “Those people who walk through this door will get some consideration and help, if possible.”
Not everyone can do the job Sykes does, Elder, a Burkburnett attorney, said Tuesday.
Not even him - the board’s president.
“I could not face what he does every day and see the poverty and conditions people live in,” he said. “Yes, they want to help themselves, but they don’t have the ability. And now they’ve got kids to raise. How are those kids going to turn out right?”
Prayer is Elder’s answer to people’s pain, too. He’d like to see prayer put back in schools to help address a society without morals.
Beyond that, his goal for his presidency on the Grace Ministries board is to fully fund the group’s endowment through the Wichita Falls Area Community Foundation. The ministry has the $25,000 minimum and is building from there.
“Then we’ll be able to use the income and interest to assist us in whatever we want to do,” he said. “It will be a permanent fund from which we can generate revenue.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: