Caring for homeless people is embedded in the DNA of the Rev. Cathy Stone.
It took some time before she figured it out.
Growing up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Austin, her father occasionally hired people who were unhoused to work on the family home. Over the years, two men lived in their garage at separate times.
Stone graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and worked as a first-grade teacher in the area. While teaching, she volunteered at First United Methodist Church of Austin, where she would eventually become one of the pastors.
“I was involved here at this congregation in their mission work, so I was part of the mission team and doing more of that kind of ministry,” Stone said.
“I had no idea what God was doing in my life, of where God was leading me,” Stone remembers. “When I moved out of the classroom, there was something stirring, and I couldn’t figure it out.”
She got a job as a serving learning coordinator in her school district, “which was like still being a teacher and working for a district, but mission work with students and teachers. So it bridged the two things in my life.”
Discerning a call to ministry, Stone went to seminary, graduating from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
“I started work (at First United Methodist Church of Austin) as youth director, and then my job evolves and changes every few years,” she said.
Stone eventually became associate pastor, working with the Rev. Taylor Fuerst, senior pastor.
First United Methodist Church of Austin, located downtown, has many unhoused people trying to survive on the streets.
“We have neighbors sleeping right outside our doors, and so we’ve been engaged in ministry with unhoused neighbors for a long time,” she said.
Stone started volunteering at the church as it fed meals to people who needed help.
“I would be just full of good energy because I get up so early that morning, but I (also) think it’s because it filled me up to serve and to be here.”
The first thing Stone did was work in the kitchen, serving the clients.
“I loved being on the food line and asking, ‘One biscuit or two?’ I would do that and have a great day. … I felt comfortable engaging with neighbors.”
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She no longer works the food line but still loves the work.
“Now what brings me joy is being able to sit at a table and have conversations,” Stone said. “That used to be really scary to me.
“I love the way drawing close to our neighbors has helped me better connect, because we all have some of the same lived experiences, and we’re all people.”
Mission work is “a critical part of who we are as United Methodists,” she added.
“My hope is to encourage others to draw close to the people, our neighbors that need our care,” she said, “so that we can hear their stories and work for justice.”
Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the UM News Digest.
