Clothed by Faith, SE Houston

My name is Melinda Stephenson and I am the founder of Clothed By Faith, Southeast Houston located in Deer Park.  My husband David is a chemical plant operator and we have been married 25 years. I have a daughter, Claire, who is married and has three precious children and three sons, Clay – 23, Blake – 21, and Dylan – 12.  I have lived in Deer Park for 27 years.

In February 2016 I ordered some goal setting tools called “Powersheets” and started answering questions about myself and my interests. I wrote down “clothing ministry” and added some ideas about what I thought that might look like. I even wrote down a name, ‘Dylan’s Closet’.  However, one of my sons was a senior in high school that year and that ended up taking priority, so I put the ministry idea on hold.

Later that year, I was scrolling Facebook and saw a picture of a friend with Abi Morton who had a ministry called Clothed By Faith. I remembered my clothing ministry idea and decided to find out more about her ministry. I met with Abi and toured their facility. It was very organized and had great systems in place. At the end of our meeting Abi told me if I started my own ministry, she would gladly share what worked and didn’t work for her. She had been praying about how to start a branch in our area and suggested that I open one; I would be able to open under Clothed by Faith 501(c)3 status and would be funded through them also.

Clothed By Faith Southeast Houston started in my garage but quickly moved to three spaces inside Best Storage on Spencer. In July we moved to part of a space rented by The Refuge Resale Shop. Then Hurricane Harvey came and moved into the gym at Deer Park First Baptist which allowed us to serve a large amount of people quickly. The gym was set up as a “store” and people were able to get clothing for each family member. We operated from this location through October. The church then graciously gave us a lot of unused space upstairs above their gym and that is where we are still based. Having a rent-free space has been an amazing blessing!

During the three years our branch has been open we have served over 10,000 people! We have an amazing team of volunteers. There is a core team who is there almost every day we are open and another group who volunteers once or twice a week. NONE of this would be possible without these wonderful volunteers.