Woodie Terrell's volunteerism is like a domino effect of good works. What began as a 5-year-old's dream to minister to others has turned into a balm of hope for many local and global organizations and the people they serve.
Woodie grew up on faith in a church family that worked daily to provide for and lift up those in need. As a small child, Woodie attended her first Billy Graham crusade with her mother in San Diego. Woodie watched in awe as the popular evangelist captivated and inspired his audience with messages of Christ's faith and love. At that moment, 5-year-old Woodie pointed at Billy Graham, looked up at her mother and said in a definitive tone, "That's what I want to do with my life."
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Longview resident Woodie Terrell
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Among her many good works, Woodie devotes her time to help at House of Hope, a women's shelter in Longview. There she ministers to countless women of all ages as they come seeking shelter and support.
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Flash forward more than 50 years later, and this Longview resident and mother of seven is doing exactly what she dreamed: ministering.
"I've never spent time praying to God when he didn't point out somehwere I could go or something I could do to help others," Woodie said. "I guess you could say I was born to be an enabler ... in a good way."
Jesus People
Woodie's love for ministry began when she was five, but it wasn't until her early teens that she turned this love into a proactive passion. A product of the '70s, she joined Jesus People, a movement in Christianity beginning on the West Coast of the US in the late 1960s and early 1970s and spreading primarily through North America and Europe. It was the major Christian element within the hippie generation. So major, in fact, that members seemed to multiply like loaves and fishes.
"Hippies were witnessing to hippies, searching for spiritual guidance and deeper meanings. At the time, all that had been offered to them was an alternative society filled with bad things," Woodie said. "There were some churches that just didn't want them because these hippies looked funny, smelled funny, had beach baptisms, etcetera. These hippies formed their own group: Jesus People. They were all so excited about their faith."
Woodie took an active roll in this movement because it gave her an opportunity to travel with like-minded people excited to spread the Word of God. While everyone had a different way in which to minister to others, Woodie's path was more musically inclined — she joined a band.
"I was so excited about being in a band and ministering to others through that medium. We'd travel all over to speak in churches and play in parks," she said. "Our mode of travel was a big semi-truck that we built a box on top of so we could flap down one side and turn it into a stage. We'd show up in parks and flap down the side and just sing and play. We went everywhere in the Vancouver area. I married another radical Jesus Freak, George Terrell, and together we took the witness of Christ in word and music throughout Southern Europe. Four of our children were born there. What a trip."
Her mission
Later in life, Woodie and her husband went back to school to study theology and became ordained ministers through International Gospel Fellowship. Since that time, she has counseled and ministered to people close to home and across the globe.
In 2005, she had the opportunity to go to Nigeria, Africa, for a couple of weeks through the Women's International Network. While there, she spoke with women who were training to become ministers. She witnessed an ordination and a church dedication. This experience was awe-inspiring.
"My head was literally spinning the whole time; there was so much to take in," she said. "I don't know how anyone can do something like that and not be changed. I studied and read and knew people from Nigeria, but when I actually got there I realized I didn't know anything. It's a culture, a people, a history."
Woodie has also taken an active roll in Mike Barber's prison ministry. For several years, she worked with hundreds of inmates, ministering to them, counseling with them and offering an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on.
"I never felt anxious working in the prisons. You'd think you would be nervous; I mean, when they shut the door behind you with nothing in your hands but a Bible, that's it folks," she said. "You're in prison with drug dealers, thieves and murderers, you name it. But once you see these people in person, once you realize you're there to do His work, there's a peace about it. These people need to talk, and work things out. They need someone to listen, and God called me to do that."
Ministry is not just preaching
Woodie said that her favorite place is in water. She works as the Assistant pool Manager at Paula Martin Jones Recreation Center in Longview. Woodie teaches water aerobics and swimming, and she works closely with the local American Red Cross who nominated her this year's "Volunteer of the Year." She finds that there is something very powerful about water.
"Beyond its spiritual properties, it strengthens, it's therapeutic and it's about the best exercise on the planet," she said. "I love to see the face of a child or an adult who begins to make water their own safe playground."
Media with message
"A friend planted an idea in my head a while back. There is so much excellent material out there, why not develop a resource for our community that, from a biblical perspective, examines solutions for the bigotries, inequities and abuses of women, children and the disenfranchised of society?" she said.
With that, Woodie began producing Exploring Biblical Equality on Longview/Kilgore Cable Community Access. She presents material covering theology, history, sociology and the redemptive Gospel of Jesus Christ. She uses material from Christians for Biblical Equality International, International Gospel Center, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, The Evangelical Theological Society, N.T. Wright and many many others. You can see her program on channel 26 Tuesday, 5P.M., Friday, 1P.M.
House of Hope
When a woman is black and blue from physical abuse, doesn't have a job, can't pay her rent and she's responsible for a two-year-old child, it may be hard for her to see that God has a plan and purpose for her life.
Yet that's precisely Woodie's objective at House of Hope, a women's shelter in Longview.
"For some women, everything is hopeless," she said. "At House of Hope we teach them that not only is this a place of peace and security where they can put their lives back together, but there is a permanent place of peace and security through God."
Sister Helen Johnson had a dream to create a women's only shelter. She saw the need for women to have a specific safe haven to turn to when there's no hope in sight. What started with three women seeking shelter in the back of a Longview "biker church" has turned into a housing facility on Hiway 80. Sister Helen, Woodie and other volunteers see women of all ages seeking shelter and support.
"The stories are very harsh," Woodie said. "Sometimes it angers me to hear what these women have gone through — abuse after abuse after abuse. I have to stop and say, 'OK, Lord, you've put me in the position to hear this woman's story for a reason. What can I do about this?' Then I realize I'm hearing these stories for a reason, and just lending an ear can be enough."
And although Woodie has trekked all across the globe ministering and witnessing to others, she'll continue to fight the good fight close to home, and work with House of Hope to teach these women about Christ's love and how to stay strong in what she calls a "man's world."
"I've visited many places in an effort to spread the Word, and there are so many people affecting the entire world we're living in a much greater way," she said. "Now, I'm just trying to affect my small corner of it."
