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Publication Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 Keeping the faith: With dynamic founder and pastor H.L. Bostic at the helm, the Mt. Olive A.O.H. Church in Menlo Park marks its 40th anniversary
Keeping the faith: With dynamic founder and pastor H.L. Bostic at the helm, the Mt. Olive A.O.H. Church in Menlo Park marks its 40th anniversary
(December 10, 2003)
By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer
Victor is asleep on a dirty blanket in a Palo Alto park. He blinks through strands of faded yellow hair when two women approach.
"I was just trying to get used to the cold," he mumbles. "It just came on all of a sudden."
He's warmed by recognizing the women, Patti Herbst and Nancy Cash, who regularly make the Sunday afternoon rounds from the Mt. Olive A.O.H. (Apostolic Original Holy) Church of God in Menlo Park to deliver hand-made lunches to homeless people they find.
"It certainly is appreciated. It's just nice to have someone go out of their way," Victor says solemnly, clutching the paper sack of food.
The women often encourage the people to come to church, whether it's for a sermon, a shower or a hot meal, but Victor never goes. He says he ponders religion from time to time while out on the streets, but on this day he'd much rather chat about how the chain stores have taken over Palo Alto's downtown.
Ms. Herbst and Ms. Cash don't seem to mind. They'll be back again on another Sunday, lunches in hand.
At its core, Mt. Olive is about faith. Church members speak easily and proudly about their relationships with God, and praise the impassioned preaching of their dynamic leader, pastor and founder H.L. Bostic. Many in the community, though, are familiar with the church on many other levels as well.
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, Mt. Olive has assisted the homeless for many years, sometimes even letting people stay temporarily in one of the eight church-owned apartments next door.
Located in the Belle Haven neighborhood, which has often been plagued by crime, the church focuses on activities to keep young people out of trouble, such as after-school education, music, sports and bus trips to youth conventions. Members have also been active in neighborhood watch and block captain programs in which people are designated to keep an eye out for and report criminal activity.
And they're not shy about speaking their minds at city meetings. Last year, a group led by Dr. Bostic turned out in force against a planned rezoning of property near Belle Haven that would have restricted office development in favor of light industrial and manufacturing. The proposal was ultimately defeated.
"We come out about how we feel," Ms. Cash says.
Mt. Olive members honored Dr. Bostic earlier this year for her 40 years of leadership. Now they're celebrating the church's 40th anniversary. A special service is planned at the church on December 26, with a dinner scheduled for December 27 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
Building a dream
After a hardscrabble childhood in Mobile, Alabama, Dr. Bostic came to Menlo Park in the early 1960s, holding her new church's services in a Willow Road law office and then a Newbridge Street storefront.
In 1970, she says, it was time to turn a "faith church" into a "brick church." The flock took up hammer and nail at Mt. Olive's present location at 605 Hamilton Ave., doing much of the work themselves to create a building that could hold 200 people.
Dr. Bostic grins as she recalls an image of herself in a tool belt, driving construction trucks. "I felt that I was led by God because I did not know about building," she says.
Recalls longtime Mt. Olive member Opha Wray, who was 16 at the time, "Some people went into plumbing and carpentry from learning this way."
When the church was remodeled in 1990, gaining a second story, a library, classrooms and other areas, many of the workers were those who had learned their trade while building the original church, Dr. Bostic says. Ms. Wray nods and says, "Mm-hm ," as her pastor speaks.
Joining the planks of Mt. Olive was a far cry from Dr. Bostic's childhood. One of eight children, she went to work at the age of 9 after her parents split up and her mother became ill. She says she was determined to work in a wood yard, but the owner didn't believe she could handle the labor.
"So I snuck in and cut wood while he was gone," she says, chuckling. "I had to hold the hatchet with both hands and jump up and come down on the block. ... When he came back, I had cut a truckload of wood. He gave me a job."
'It's not easy out here'
Despite working hard, Dr. Bostic says she became homeless for a spell in her childhood, sleeping in a car or under an Alabama tree. So it seemed only natural for her to help people on the streets through her church.
A few years back, the church members would load up a motor home with soup and stew and feed as many as 200 people at a time in a parking lot in East Palo Alto, Dr. Bostic recalls.
The crowds eventually caused leery law enforcement officials to ask Dr. Bostic to find a different spot, she says. So now the homeless are invited to the church, and members of the church make morning and afternoon rounds to bring food to people where they live, be it a bus station, park or bush.
"It's always a gamble who we'll find," Ms. Cash says on a recent Sunday after services. Nearby, several Mt. Olive members, along with volunteer Mary O'Connell, pack up lunches in the church kitchen.
Ms. O'Connell, a Stanford University graduate student in biomedical engineering, is not a church member but regularly comes in on Sundays to help out. She crowns rows of bread slices with round pieces of cheese, creating a checkerboard effect. Also going in the sacks are Styrofoam containers of "Sister Butler's Chicken Soup," named after longtime church member Rosie Butler.
"It really makes you think about how much you have," Ms. O'Connell muses, her hands sheathed in plastic gloves.
In another corner of the kitchen, Patti Herbst, a 14-year member, puts pastries in plastic bags. Raised in the Catholic church, she originally came to Mt. Olive with a friend who had been battling drug addiction and told her the church had saved him. She stayed.
Of Dr. Bostic, Ms. Herbst says admiringly: "She lives what she teaches. She preaches God's love."
Presently, Ms. Herbst and Ms. Cash, along with fellow parishioner Kenneth Hicks, set off with boxes of sack lunches for familiar homeless hang-outs such as the Menlo Park Library, train and bus stations, and in downtown Palo Alto. "We're from Mt. Olive Church. Are you hungry?" Ms. Cash and Ms. Herbst ask over and over on their rounds. Many times they don't have to introduce themselves.
"Hi, Tom," Ms. Cash says on University Avenue in Palo Alto, passing a lunch to a tall man with a flowing beard who passes by like a ghost.
Another man who gives his name only as Dave crouches by a jewelry store with his friend Curtis, who has a newsboy cap and three tiny kittens in a ragged cardboard box. One of the kittens wolfs down chicken pieces from Sister Butler's soup. Dave picks up a box of lunches to help the women find other homeless people in their cold-weather hiding places.
"It's not always easy out here," he says. "People have more of a smile on their face when they have something in their stomach."
Spreading the word
Someday, Dr. Bostic says, she'd like to have a homeless shelter as part of the church. She says she'd also like to see government officials pay more attention to the homeless.
In 1976, she ran unsuccessfully for the Menlo Park City Council, and in 1992 was inducted into the San Mateo County Women's Hall of Fame, praised as, among other things, a "friend, mother, therapist, pastor, bricklayer, writer, politician, speaker, soul-saver."
These days, though, Dr. Bostic says she is less active in local politics and works less with the police department on crime prevention then she used to.
"I don't have time to be a community leader like I should and like I used to be," she says. "My responsibility has grown all over the United States and the world."
Besides running her Alabama-style Belle Haven restaurant, Ms. Lizzie's Kitchen, at Willow Road and Hamilton Avenue, the mother of five and grandmother of 11 is busy helping Mt. Olive's sister churches grow. Nationwide, she says, there are about 24 sister A.O.H. institutions, including ones in Oregon and Alabama. There's also one in Kenya, where Dr. Bostic hopes to send a Mt. Olive delegation next year.
While the Mt. Olive flock is largely African-American, the church also has sister churches in East Palo Alto and San Francisco that are Spanish-language, in response to the growing numbers of Hispanics in the area. Mt. Olive also has a Spanish teacher.
For Ms. Cash, who is Caucasian, race has become a non-issue. When she first came to the church in 1987, she says: "I was naïve. I felt like I was going off my turf." She soon changed her mind.
The mother of three had once been involved with drugs and had had her first child when she was 15, she says.
"The pastor and church helped nurture me and mentor me," Ms. Cash says. "They helped me change into a better person."
Mt. Olive members also hold regular services at other locations, such as the San Carlos Elms assisted-living facility.
"The residents look forward to it. I think it's a wonderful service for them because many can't get out to attend services," says Cynthia Alvarez, activities director at San Carlos Elms.
Belief in miracles
A hole in a man's heart is healed. Needed money for the church's building fund drive appears out of nowhere.
If faith is at the core of Mt. Olive, so is the belief in miracles caused by God, says Dr. Bostic, who is quick to recount these and other stories.
"We hope by the grace of God that we'll have people who have experienced miracles come to the anniversary events," she says.
Several Mt. Olive members say they fervently believe they lived a miracle in being healed of drug addiction after coming to the church. One is Sheila Holland, who started using when she was 16.
"Heroin, crank, speed, Ritalin, pills," she ticks off, perched in a pew in the church's sanctuary. "My mom drank, didn't make us go to school. We pretty much done what we wanted to do."
Ms. Holland says she got pregnant at 19 and tried to kick her habits, but couldn't do it. Her body started to break down from the drugs. Her heart enlarge and she couldn't breathe.
In the hospital in 1980, she recalls, "The only one I could call on was God." She starts to cry. "I prayed, 'You see I'm trying to stop. Why can't you help me?'"
Shortly afterward, she found herself at a Mt. Olive service, where Dr. Bostic told the congregation, "If you can't make it to the altar, just stand in your seat and we'll pray for you," Ms. Holland recalls.
"God healed me right then and there," she says. "I didn't have no withdrawal, no headache, no chills, no body aches."
In 1986, Ms. Holland says, she was diagnosed with several kinds of cancer: nose, neck, lungs, breast. She had her doctors, but says her faith is what healed her. Shortly after her diagnosis, subsequent tests and a biopsy were negative, without radiation or other treatment, she says.
These days, the woman who used to abuse drugs and was never trusted with money works in accounting and has sponsored other people fighting their way out of drug addiction.
"My testimonies could go on and on," she says.
INFORMATION
To honor Mt. Olive AOH Church on its 40th anniversary, there will be a special service at the church on Friday, December 26, with an anniversary dinner scheduled for December 27 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The events are open to the public. Call the church at 853-9715 for more information.
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