God didn’t just place a burden on her heart for the
women. She also thought about the men she encountered
on the same streets.
“Would you think that God would not care about
these young, broken men? Why are they out there doing
this?” she asked. “The Lord put on my heart to start a
ministry working with young men involved in pimping.”
As the mother of three sons, she said, she knew the
men “didn’t need another woman hollering at them.
They needed men.” Free Methodist Pastor Deryl Davis-
Bell became the leader of a group of male volunteers
reaching out to men who facilitated human trafficking
on the streets.
George and Sheila started a church in Renton,
Washington, and affiliated with the Free Methodist
Church.
“We didn’t want to be a church out there by ourselves.
We wanted to be a church that had accountability,” she
said. “We wanted to be a church where we could go
and get strengthened as we do the work. That’s why we
became a part of the Free Methodist.”
Their church plant ultimately closed, and they
became part of Living Hope Christian Fellowship (now
the Renton campus of Timberlake Church, the nation’s
largest Free Methodist congregation). Two and a half
years ago, they moved to the Detroit area for George to
become the lead pastor of Stone Haven Free Methodist
Church in Troy, Michigan, and for Sheila to serve as
associate pastor.
She became the interim pastor of the Detroit Free
Methodist Church in November 2018 following the
death of longtime Pastor William Mulwee, and she
officially became the lead pastor in June 2019.
“One of the things I’ve learned through the years
is that God has a plan and purpose for every person.
It doesn’t matter your status in life, your income level
or how educated you are. All that matters is your
willingness to accept His call,” she said. “One of the
pg. 28 — lightandlifemagazine.com
biggest things I’ve been trying to instill in the people of
the church in Detroit is that God has need of them and
their importance to the body of Christ. Their gifts and
talents are needed to bring deliverance, healing and love
to the Detroit community and our world.”
Mayoral Honor
Even though she’s now a Michigan resident, she
returned to Washington state in January to receive an
Anti-Trafficking Trailblazer Award from Seattle Mayor
Jenny Durkan. Durkan honored Houston as part of
the Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and the city
government credited her with “being directly involved
with over 2,500 victims” and making “a difference in
the sex trafficking world by leading outreach and victim
support teams to work with survivors of trafficking.”
When she received the call asking her to receive the
award, she decided to accept the award at Seattle City
Hall as a testimony of a Christian living out her faith and
also as the only African-American recipient. Visit fmchr.
ch/shouston to learn more about the award.+
Jeff Finley is this
magazine’s executive
editor. He joined
LIGHT + LIFE in
2011 after a dozen
years of reporting and
editing for Sun-Times
Media.
urfm You are the church
“One of the things I’ve
learned through the years
is that God has a plan and
purpose for every person.”
/shouston
/shouston
/www.lightandlifemagazine.com
/lightandlifemagazine.com