BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Church of Matthew 25 members work at their Fairfax warehouse.
Glenn Hartong photo)
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At the Church of Matthew 25 in Loveland, jeans and T-shirts are the standard dress.
But the casual look is not a sign of disrespect. It's a sign of the congregation's devotion to service.
Each week after Sunday morning worship, many of its 50 members go to work in a warehouse, sorting and packing donated school and medical supplies for shipment to Nicaragua and other Latin American countries. And many of them have been at it for the last 300 or so Sundays.
"The people who work with me in the warehouse, they said they'd like to have a fellowship and worship experience out of this," says the Rev. Wendell Mettey, ministry founder and church pastor. "We look at ourselves as a special-interest church."
Rev. Wendell Mettey
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No other Tristate church is quite like Church of Matthew 25. The Rev. Mr. Mettey, a former suburban church pastor, had the vision for Matthew 25: Ministries after he visited Nicaragua in 1990.
"We're here for the Christian who's looking for a hands-on experience," he says.
The next few weeks are significant in the life of the 7-year-old Loveland-based ministry. It will send its 3 millionth pound of supplies overseas. Its largest single shipment, more than 200,000 pounds of pencils, paper and other items, will be airlifted Oct. 23 to Managua, Nicaragua's capital.
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MATTHEW 25: MINISTRIES
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What: A relief ministry dedicated to fulfilling Matthew 25: 31-46 -- to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless and visit the sick and imprisoned.
When: Sunday services will be held at 9:30 a.m. in its new warehouse - church building beginning Nov. 15.
Where: New building is at 1425 Loveland-Madeira Road, Loveland. Church of Matthew 25 will worship in Loveland Intermediate School's cafeteria until then. Ministry will continue to work out of warehouse space at 4000 Red Bank Road, Fairfax, until a new building is ready.
Information: 561-1339. Volunteers needed; donations welcome.
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"There's not another ministry (working in Nicaragua) that distributes as many school supplies as Matthew 25. It's really a big deal in the country," says Alvaro Pereira, director of the American-Nicaraguan Foundation. With offices in Managua and Miami, the group works to gather donations in the United States and get them to the nation of 4.2 million people.
On Nov. 15, the church and the relief ministry -- a separate, non-profit corporation -- will move into a warehouse that volunteers are building in Loveland.
The church has been renting the cafeteria of Loveland Intermediate School to hold its Sunday service. The ministry was working out of rented warehouse space in the former Ford transmission plant on Red Bank Road in Fairfax.
Services in the new building will be held in a 2,000-square foot sanctuary. There will be 3,000-square feet of classrooms and offices. More than 10,000 square feet will be warehouse. The $600,000 cost was covered entirely by private money from members and outside benefactors.
Labors of love
While the location will change, the mission will not. In the 25th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus says those who care for the world's poor and needy will go to heaven.
The exterior of the new building will bear this reminder of the mission from Matthew 25:40:
When you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.
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Jim Baldus of West Chester sorts donated clothes.
Glenn Hartong photo)
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Once a week, Jim Baldus, 70, a retired executive from West Chester, sorts items in the warehouse.
"The beauty of this is you don't have to have a lot of skill, like being an engineer, to do this work," he says.
Lillian Smith, 76, sorted women's shoes by size on a recent Monday morning.
"We know the little bit we send does help," says the warehouse volunteer and church member from Deer Park. "I get dirty, tired and hot here.
"And I love it."
She followed the Rev. Mr. Mettey to Matthew 25 from Montgomery Community Baptist Church. He served there 12 years, increasing membership from 200 to 1,400, before resigning in 1992 to devote himself to the relief organization.
He was "set for life" in his suburban parish. Then he went to Nicaragua in January 1990 at the invitation of a church member, a surgeon who was part of a small group of doctors and nurses who traveled there to offer medical services.
A former social worker and pastor of an inner-city church, Walnut Hills Baptist -- which he began pastoring again in 1993 -- the Rev. Mr. Mettey was not emotionally prepared for what he saw.
"The poverty was endless," he says. "There was no safety net. People didn't have the most basic things we take for granted in this country."
Including school supplies. As is the case in all Third World nations, education is valued by Nicaraguans. It's the only way to escape crippling poverty. Yet these nations cannot adequately equip schools. Ministry of Education officials told the Rev. Mr. Mettey that each Nicaraguan classroom receives an annual allotment of three pencils and 20 sheets of paper. Those numbers stuck in his mind.
"As a person of faith," the Rev. Mr. Mettey says, "I came back and prayed, "If you want me to do something, Lord, just lead me.' " He had the vision for Matthew 25: Ministries. The first shipments went out in 1991.
"We started by sorting stuff in suitcases," he says.
Now they work in Air Force cargo planes, semis and ships.
Nicaragua at its heart
The ministry accepts donations of slightly damaged or overstock from several major companies. Matthew 25 volunteers to inventory materials that are sent to its warehouse and provide the company with a report. The process saves companies the time and cost of going through product that is otherwise landfill-bound.
And even though Matthew 25 now ships humanitarian aid to a dozen other Central and South American nations, Nicaragua remains at the ministry's heart.
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MAJOR DONORS
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These are the major corporate donors to Matthew 25: Ministries and what they gave.
Allegiance Healthcare Corp., Union Township, Butler County -- IV solution.
Avon Products, Springdale -- clothes, shoes and soap.
Beiersdorf Inc., West Chester -- bandages, cotton balls, canes, crutches and other medical supplies. (Beiersdorf is the single largest donor).
Christ Hospital, Mount Auburn -- hospital equipment and linens.
Cintas Corp., Mason -- uniforms.
Andrew Jergens Co., Camp Washington -- bar soap.
Mead Corp., Dayton, Ohio -- 750,000 notebooks.
Repak Surgical Enterprises, Mason -- linens.
Sanford Corp., Chicago -- 17 million pencils.
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Matthew 25 has established a network of volunteers there and cooperates with the Nicaraguan government to ensure widespread distribution of supplies. The ministry also has sent hospital beds, dental chairs, a van and a mobile health clinic.
The latest load awaits shipment at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. It will be carried aboard a C-5 cargo plane as part of the Denton Program, named for retired U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.). The program allows humanitarian aid to be loaded in overflow space on regular Air Force flights. Mr. Denton wrote the legislation with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 1976.
The shipment, the ministry's 18th by air to Nicaragua, includes 8 million pencils, 60,000 notebooks and 15,000 binders.
The goal is to get pencils, paper and notebooks into the hands of all Nicaraguan schoolchildren. Matthew 25 has sent more than 10 million pencils and 500,000 notebooks to Nicaragua.
"The school supplies solve one of our biggest problems," says Mr. Pereira, of the American-Nicaraguan Foundation. "We are getting pencils and paper into the hands of 1 million students at poor schools. They are our hope for the future."
Matthew 25 has cultivated positive working relationships at home, too. A group from the Walnut Hills-based Work and Rehabilitation Center (WRC), which serves mentally and physically challenged clients, volunteers in Matthew 25: Ministries' warehouse. So do some members of Hamilton's First Baptist Church and the Central American Task Force from Xavier University. About 100 volunteers come to the warehouse each month.
Help here at home
Matthew 25 also serves people in need in the Tristate. In 1997, it sent three truckloads of medical supplies to flood victims in Portsmouth and Manchester. A truckload of furniture was donated to Starting Over, a Walnut Hills residence program for men who have successfully completed a drug - alcohol rehabilitation program.
June Keeling was one of the first to get involved at Matthew 25. Her initial project was to collect donations of 11,000 stuffed animals in response to the Rev. Mr. Mettey's sermon about Nicaraguan children who had no toys.
"He said that each one of us could do something," says the 68-year-old grandmother from Deerfield Township.
She got the stuffed animals a few at a time at garage sales and slightly damaged in bulk from Paramount's Kings Island. She has helped sew 500 sleeping bags that have gone to families living in Nicaragua's mountains. She's now on a drive for children's T-shirts.
"All I know," Mrs. Keeling says, "is that the Lord has called me to this spot. I'm doing his work."
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