While working as a fashion designer, Christina found herself being the only girl volunteering with an army of tradesmen to renovate buildings for nonprofits—and she loved it! The amazing work of Servant’s Heart Ministry has turned out to be her true calling that she never could have expected.
I hosted a program, so I'm a program called Girls Shop Talk, which was a wood shop and Bible study for teen girls. And it was just.
Wood shop and Bible study. There's something I haven't heard yet.
Yeah, it was a weird combination, but it was just the coolest because I had all these thirteen to sixteen year year old girls come in and I rallied up some of my friends who are handy, and it was really cool watching them go from being terrified of a chopsaw to just like kind of hammer.
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in Inner City Memphis. And that last part it accidentally led to an oscar for the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks, US just you and me deciding hey, I can help. That's what Christina Mind does. The voice we just heard has done. After pursuing a career that was definitely not in the trades, Christina found herself being the only girl volunteering with an army of tradesmen to renovate buildings for nonprofits, and she loved it. The amazing work of Servant's Heart Ministry has turned out to be her true calling. And I cannot wait for you to meet Christina. Right after these brief messages from our general sponsors, Now we begin by hearing from Christina on growing up in North Jersey.
Both parents worked all my life, but always always made time to kind of be with family, and there was always always some type of margin no matter what the season is for serving and volunteering.
And so yeah, let's talk about that. So what did your mom and dad do service wise?
Yeah, so every season was kind of different. I mean, I grew up in church, so they were kind of first first a church, last a church, you know, anywhere, from my mom kind of spending all of our years leading nursery, my dad teaching in Sunday school. And then any event like a coffee house or something, they were always kind of the first coffee house.
Like.
Like back then they used to churches used to kind of host like kind of a coffee house vibe with like a speaker and uh and like.
List speaker, drink coffee.
Yeah, yeah, like a kind of cool event to kind of bring people into the church kind of thing.
Yeah yeah, so pure coffee.
Yeah yeah. So, you know, my my parents both really modeled that nothing. You know, you're not too good for any kind of job. And so I I joined him one night and he was kind of running the back end of serving coffee and stuff and helping and volunteering, and I think they didn't need me there. So I kind of went off and another leader had instructed me and a friend that was that was with me to go and clean the toilets, the bath you know, in the church. And so you know, one would think, Okay, you know, I was in middle school at the time. You know, one would think, oh man, she probably was like grossed out by it. But yeah, right. But honestly, I think it's a testament to who my how my parents instilled this. But I just thought, Wow, I'm doing the grown up job. I'm doing the important job that like needs to keep this thing running. Like like you know, like they thought to ask me to like go and serve in this.
Way, so you embrace honor.
I did, And it's so funny because I like, I remember that fondly, and I went home and I told my mom. I was like, guess what I did? And my mom was so upset that they asked me to clean toilets. But I went home being like, look look at the important job I did. And and I think, I think it's testament to my parents, because nothing, no job. I didn't know any better, Like I didn't know it was a lowly thing to do. I was like, I wanted to serve, and I wanted to be like my dad and serve, and I was given a job that you know isn't given to everybody.
So yeah, but you know what Christ clean feet, so metaphor, I think cleaning the toilets was about as christ like thing as you could do.
And it's funny how it's stuck in my brain all these years. I mean, there's loads of things that I got to serve with my parents, but that's the one thing that's stuck and I got and I gotta believe it's like God reminding me I'm never too good for any job. Like it needs to stick in my brain, so I can remember.
You know, your dad's what's his name, nor Men does Yeah, you hear that, mister and missus Mendez, Your kid did it right. So your parents were working full time, both of them, raising two kids, doing the best they could to keep your words, to keep you in the I guess a good neighborhood is what it sounds like you're saying to me. But they always found time to certain Yeah.
It's it's interesting because now as an adult, I realized there's a million things that pull for your time, and there's it's I sometimes I'm kind of amazed. I mean, you hear about kids that are like traumatized from having working parents because they never had time for them and stuff.
Give me a break. I know, it's so ridiculous, but life.
Yeah, yeah, but they always just had this balance of like they work hard. You know, I was the last to be picked up at soccer practice, but that's okay because the weekends were dedicated to us. But but yeah, it was always kind of modeled for me that no matter what the season is, there's some margin. There's some margin for serving people and sacrificing your time.
Where do you think that came from?
And them, you know, that's a good question, you know what.
I mean, they modeled it for you? Who modeled it for them? Or did just come from their their faith and their time in church or maybe even the way they came up.
Yeah, probably there's an element of the way they came up that maybe they just were kind of instilled of like they know, you know, my mom had a pretty you know, kind of normal childhood. My dad kind of came from rough beginnings, and so.
What does that look like.
So my dad's family, so his dad wasn't really around. They were pretty poor living in Greenwich Village, which was it, I'm Greenwich Village, New York, Manhattan.
Yeah, so which I moved. His parents moved from Puerto Rico straight to Greenwich Village.
Yeah, but his dad was never really round. It was really just his mom. But that area. I don't know much about it at the time, but it was that they kind of were allowed to live there because I think the Catholic Church kind of helped them out. And so anyway grew up. Yeah, really poor. Tells me all kinds of stories, but you never really know it because he only talks about all the good stuff, you know. But it wasn't until like this year that he actually told me. So I thought his mother had passed when he was eighteen, because then from there he went straight into the Marines. But I found out this year that she actually passed when he was sixteen, and he was basically like living on the streets for two years. Your father, Yes, and you how does he He is sixty.
Five and he just told you this, And he just told me this.
But you know what, I think. You know, he's telling me this just a few months ago, and I'm sobbing thinking about this story and he's like, I, oh, no, it was what it is. And I was like, wasn't that hard? Like traumatic? And you know what, I think, it's so funny. You meet him and you would never he would never ever play the victim card. He would never ever dwell.
I was just about to say, it sounds like your dad refuses to be a victim of circuit.
Yeah, I mean he you know, obviously, my both my parents really love the Lord and their faith is really important to them, and so he sees everything as you know what it was the season and it all goes into the story that made me and how God provided for me. And yeah, I mean he's I mean, you can kind of see it. He's he's just a super grateful man, you know, And I guess I can now as an adult and hearing this story piece together a little bit of why he is the way he is. But you never know it. He would never he would never brag about the hard times. It's always it's always I've only heard the funny stories of him and his buddies growing up and him and his sister, and I've only heard the good stuff. I mean, I've always had an idea of a tough life because he'd give some details, but yeah, he would never sit in that. And so it's probably what makes him work so hard, because he's like, I've got this life to live. God's provided for me. I've come this far, and I know maybe it's just part of how he's made up.
Christina was a creative kid, but she's also very practical and so she thought that fashion design could be a great career. But it's something creative that you can get an actual job in and you know, pay those pesky bills. This is interesting, you said, Okay, Well I went to school, got out of grand fashion, got the job in fashion, making a living doing it. Nah, I'm gonna quit and go volunteer for nine months, yes.
And actually it started as six months. You know what's so funny is I at that point I wasn't known to be the spontaneous person I just I was. I'm very much my personality is very much planned but for some reason, and honestly, like my faith plays a huge role in that.
Right.
So I felt like I'm gonna do something. But if I'm gonna do something, I need to know what the needs are in the world. And so I've got to figure out how I'm gonna apply this fashion. And I really felt like called from the Lord to go and serve, and so I sign up for this. I like, kind of I'm googling places to serve and that's it, and a lot of a lot of the places kind of have this weird like come see this beautiful country while you work in an orphanage. And I was like, that seems like like volunteer tourism or something. But I came back.
There is such a thing. No, there is such a thing called philanthropic tourism. Oh yeah, exactly. What you say is it's it's it's it's service light, it's where you go somewhere for six months, and you serve a little and build a dam or proof on a hut, but you spend a lot of time seeing the country, yeah, hanging.
Out, which to me, it's like, I want to do something that's actually going to impact them and not myself.
So what you do?
So I found this website for this anti human trafficking organization and they had.
Ever been involved anything like that.
So I had learned a decent amount over the last maybe like three years before that point, a little bit about human trafficking, and so then I kind of switched my search to that. But the problem is is it's very hard to find, or at least at that time, it was hard to find, because so much of it is like protecting, you know, the victims that they're serving. So I found this site, which at the time wasn't very developed, but it was a nonprofit in Cambodia that had what they called a reintegration home where they housed girls ages six to sixteen who had either escaped the sex industry were at risk of it. Six yeah, yeah.
And now a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first I hope you'll consider becoming a premium member of the Army at normal folks dot us. By becoming one for ten dollars a month or one thousand dollars a year, you can get access to cool benefits like bonus episodes, a yearly group call, and even a call with your sturely me frankly guys. Premium memberships also help us to grow this army that our country desperately needs right now. So I hope you'll think about it. We'll be right back now. Let's return to Christina on serving survivors of sex trafficking guys as young as six years old? Were you mentally prepared for that?
You know?
I don't know how you could ever be mentally yeah, I.
Mean how old is I? What like twenty three? I think you know? Naive? I don't know now. I signed up for a volunteer role, so they had like professional counselors and mentors. I wasn't going and I wasn't allowed to ask them about their trauma or anything. So it wasn't so much that I was in there and I'm hearing all this stuff and wasn't prepared for it. The the emotion of part of my role was like going in and teaching English and and teaching art and stuff, but still impactful. You see a six year old like full of life, like wandering around and you're like, my brain can't even.
Get me neither. Alex reminds me of a podcast we did not too long ago, Jessica Lamb's Stories Unbelievable.
I didn't finish it yet, but I paused it in the depth of really tough stuff and I was like, Okay, I'll have.
To her story. Haven't done this work?
Yeah, I mean it's it's hard to identify when I'm not I'm not a victim of it, but I I could hear her story. I could hear her story right, right, And it's.
Why in the world did you choose this? Because that's heavy?
Yeah, you know, I think I had already heard so much about it, and I it became a passion of mine to learn more and figure out how to help, because it's such a giant problem that you're like, what do you do about it? And so I kind of went over there just to be your average volunteer. But then when I got there, they were like, you know, fashion, and they had this little micro enterprise where they would like employ the girl's parents to make things that they would sell. And part of that is because most of the world, the reason you know, a kid falls victim to that is because the parents are poor, right, poverty except for in the US. Actually in the US's broken families, I think. But anyway, so I went over and kind of got thrown into designing this whole new line that would kind of impact them. And long story short, I got to six months and I was like, well, I've got to implement this before I leave. So I ended up extending it three months. And anyway, it was that I think that trip was kind of the the shift in kind of shifting me to kind of eventually leave fashion.
How did you did you save up money? I mean, nobody, how do you survive?
So I ended up yeah, I know, I know, I know. So I ended up quitting my job early in fundraising, so I saved up a little bit. I fundraised for maybe like a month or two, and then made enough to kind of sustain me for.
The okay, And so then after nine months of that unbelievable work, you come home, but you need a job.
So you're back in the fashion back in the fashion industry. But I'm kind of trying to process you know where. Now I've I've seen all of this. I'm now like, okay, I'm going back to Bergen County where we sit in our little bubbles of consumerism, and and I'm like, okay, I gotta I gotta start serving. And somewhere around that time, my dad had started volunteering at Servants Heart Industry where I work now.
Well, at that time, tell us what Service Art Ministry was.
Yeah, So Servants Heart Ministry was then basically a ministry where every Saturday a group of volunteers, skilled and unskilled, but mostly the ministry started from skilled tradesmen who wanted to serve the community. So they would go and partner with these other nonprofits and ministries that are serving community fix their buildings to enhance their work. So, for example, a ministry like a New City Kids, which is an after school program in Patterson that gets kids into college, teaches them music and helps them study their work. They want to take in more kids, but legally they need more bathrooms, right, So Servants Heart says, oh, we'll build your bathrooms, So come in, build their bathrooms, build their stage, and then it enhances their work in the community. So that's kind of the model servant's heart is going and doing community projects to kind of help out all these nonprofits that are struggling for funding, are in these tough days.
That's volunteering on Saturdays.
Yeah, so he's working his full time job. He's going on Saturdays.
And what's he doing on Saturdays? Is he a tradesman?
Yeah, I mean he's he's always been kind of handy, but he's he's going in and doing what he can, and then the crew that are a little more skilled are teaching him, and he's kind of growing in understanding construction and he kind of over the course of his life had learned things and pretty handy around the house. Still a lot for our house that we lived in, and so and so.
One day he said, why don't you come with me?
Yeah, you know, he came back. So they did a mission strip to New Orleans.
And a mission strip to New Orleans to New Orleans. Interesting, you said, Costa Rica, then corrected to New Orleans.
Well, I was gonna say Katrina because the Ministry had been serving down there since Hurricane Katrina. I see, So I got stumbled over my words. But he had just gotten back from that and they were working on they were working on a project. He tells me the story about this project where they took this this building that for like years was used as like brothel kind of center for drugs. This is this is New Orleans and they ministry had bought it and they rehabilitated it and basically it was going to be a home for women and children. And he came back with that story.
They turned it from a brothel into a place serving formerly women who were formerly in the life right.
Right, Absolutely, that's.
Kind of perfect. That turns that thing out here, doesn't it.
It's it was really cool and it really impacted me because I was like.
So your parents join or went on a quote mission and basically went down there and helped do the construction work, same type thing they were doing in Jersey. Yeah.
Absolutely, So the Ministry goes down my dad goes with the whole crew of guys and women who were down there. They helped fix up this building in a matter of a week. And then he comes home tells me about the story, and I'm like, what a what an incredible, amazing like way to serve the community, Like what a redemptive story and how that models like life right? And so I was like, Oh, I started watching A Fix a Rubber And I was like, is.
That a TV show?
Fixed Rubbers a chip? And Joanna gains, Oh, I know what you're talking. Yeah, yeah, this has nothing to do with that. I just was like, oh, no, I know.
But what I'm saying is is that the show?
Yeah, yeah, they're in Waco, Wa.
Waco, Utah, Waco somewhere over there. Actually that dissimilar in terms of anyway. But you tell you tell Waco, and what they do is they go in and buy houses and fix them up and flip them. But you're not watching to flip houses and make money. You're watching to see the war that they did.
Yeah. So I'm like, oh, it'll be cool to learn some things I want to. This story was really powerful. And I'm trying to figure out a way to serve the community and get into Patterson, which is basically a few times over for me, and and I want to spend some time with my dad. So I was like, this would be a really cool way. But I was like, I don't know, Dad, I don't know. I don't have any skills, right, I have no construction skills. And He's like no, no, no, people come all different skill levels they teach you just come out. So so yeah, I go on a Saturday and like that first Saturday, we're like hauling cases of tile up three floors. Oh how I am? Man? My god, do the math. So this is probably like seven years ago, so I'm probably twenty seven.
Okay, So you're twenty seven and you show up on a Saturday with a fashion degree, yes, but admittedly spent nine months in body, which is probably I mean, it's definitely third world, so you're used to a little bit of dirt and dust and stuff. What's the crew look like that you show up with on this Saturday?
Yeah, so all guys my first two years of serving are all middle aged men kind of.
All who are carpenters and plumbers just giving of their time, just giving of their time, guys. But there's twenty seven year old girls running around now except for me, And so what are they doing? Looking at you? Going, what do you do? You know what you're doing?
Right? So that's kind of what I expected, right. I was like, I was thinking I was going to be like the go fetch?
Were you uncomfortable at first?
At first? I was like, I'm not sure what I'm going to walk into because I'm like, they're going to I'm gonna go get pails of water or something.
And you know, like pails pails of water in two ten, This is not in eighteen four. What are you going to water the mules? What are they paiales water something?
I don't know water, and I don't know what I'm doing.
Fetch coffee or something.
I figure, you know what, whatever, my dad's gonna show me what to do. I'm just gonna follow him all day. So anyway, they I show up. The director John is there and introduces himself and he's like, We've got to haul up all these giant cases of tile up three flights of stairs and then I'll teach you how to tile, and so I was like, yeah, so much. Yeah, So we haul it all up and then my very first day I learned how to tile the wall. And I think what was cool? Yeah in a bathroom.
So yeah, like to a boys bathroom. So that example that I used that after school program, this is this.
Is your first day you have and then you didn't know how to do anything.
Yeah, I didn't know how to do anything.
We'll be right back.
All of the guys. What I quickly learned of the culture of the guys that were there were that it was just it was they all want to teach you. So right off the bat, they hand me a trout and they say, you gotta put the mud on the wall like this, and they let me put mud on the wall and lay tile, and I thought, Wow, they're trusting me to like do this this work. And it was a really cool full first day because I came in expecting, Okay, I know nothing, I'm just gonna be kind of watching, maybe help my dad with something, and by don't fail with water because something I had no concept of what they need water, but fair. But by the end of the day, I had like tiled an entire wall with their help and guidance, and I just had this confidence of Wow, they entrusted me to do it. And then so I decided to keep coming back.
And it was I guess that was especially gratifying.
Oh man, look at what I said. Yeah, absolutely, and feeling capable of something like feeling first of all that you trusted me to do it, you took time to teach me how to do it instead of worrying about getting the job done fast. Because this is important for the Ministry, and then I got to engage with the director of the Ministry and kind of hear a bit more about the ministry and what they were doing.
I gotta believe your dad was so proud.
Yeah, I imagine I imagine he was.
And I think he was none of those other dudes had there out there.
Yeah, I imagine he was.
You know, maybe, I don't know. This is kind of I don't know. I mean for an artist person. I mean, you're also using your hands and create something that had to I guess fill some bit of thing that you liked.
I guess absolutely. I quickly learned. What kept coming back were quite a few things, but one of the elements was I was like, how cool. There's something creative about this. The construction by nature is creative. You're creating these structures of nothing. There's more systems to it right for it to be functional. But there was this element of like, I'm making something with my hands, and then not only is there a product at the end, but the purpose behind that product and imagining all these kids that get to come in and have this safe place in Patterson to learn and be mentored and grow and you know, have and change their lives and so it was it was real cool moment. And the other element was it was a group. There was an unexpected shift, right. I came from working only in this world of women in fashion and being in this environment where I had a certain expectation of how I would be treated, and you know, they were just the coolest group of guys that just loved the Lord and loved people and wanted to serve and teach me right like quickly, very quickly, I learned every time I was on a site, you know, I'd ask for some direction and instead of just giving me the minimum for me to just do the job, they would you know, I still have this memory of one of our board members willly teaching me and he he took time to explain the entire processes as if he's entrusting me because he's expecting that I'm going to grow and learn and be able to do this on my own. And there was there was something really confidence building and empowering about that. And I just observing all these guys that dedicated every single Saturday, on top of their full time jobs, to coming and serving and doing hard work.
Yeah, and it's one thing if these guys are sitting behind a desk five days a week and then volunteering, right, But these guys are working their backs off five days a week and then volunteering to do it again a six.
Day absolutely, And like I would say, about half of them are our trades guys. In the other half are the ones that don't get to do this work and serve on it. But they do it because it's you know, well for all the reasons, but also they get to work with their hands. They don't get to do it.
So you go back and back and back.
I go back and back and back for about a year and a half. And then and then the director asked me, if I want to quit my job and work for a servience Heart, it's kind of a heart.
Was it a large organization at this point?
Very small, so it's own separate five ohoe C three Right, it was an official organization. It started out of a church and wake off. But at this point only the director is on staff, but not really because he's also a pastor at that church. So really, Servant's Heart isn't really paying anybody, right essentially, So I'm it's.
A beautiful thing, but it's not. It's not a big thing.
No, not a big thing. A lot of volunteers coming out and committed and accomplishing a lot of things. But at that point, I think right before I came on, they hired one person, one of one of our staff that's still with us today, and he's kind of a trades guy that kind of does electrical and stuff, and he came on staff. But after that I was only the second staff member pretty much.
And so you know, when I was reading this, I kind of thought to myself, you're kind of a nonprofit for nonprofits.
Yes, yeah, I mean.
Because you don't. You're not out there sakh homes or places to fix up on your own. You're out there helping other nonprofits who do this. You're helping them pull it off right at very low cost because you're donating all the skill, talent and labor.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's really cool.
It is very cool, And I think that's one of the things that drew me to love it was it was like, you know, I don't know how it is everywhere else in the world, but by me, all these nonprofits and churches, not all of them, but a lot of them kind of function. We're going to do it and we're going to do it on our own, and we're gonna this is our We're going to try to do everything.
This is our mission.
This is and like I hadn't seen a lot of different entities working to their strengths to serve the community and partnering together. And it was very cool to see not only the partnership between all these nonprofits, but then even the people serving were from all different churches coming together and doing a very specific thing. That was how they were uniquely wired.
Do you think it is that some of the nonprofits and or churches doing this work wanted to be so singular in focus? Is it ego, is it wanting to be able to to claim the project as on their own or is it that's interesting that you say that, because often I hear, you know, there's there's this nonprofit working at this school, this nonprofit working at this school, this nonprofit work at this school, and this nonprofit work. So for nonprofits serving for schools. But if those for nonprofits came together and pulled all their resources, those for nonprofits could now maybe provide services to twelve schools. In other words, you can exponentially do more. But so many times we have all these resources, but none are communicating or reacting with each other. And are you finding that yours bring some of that together?
Yeah? Yeah, you know, I don't know what it is. If it's a cultural thing. I mean, we kind of live in a very individualistic society kind of where community is kind of hard. But I think that's it. I think the Servant's Heart embodies that partnership and it's really beautiful. And it's also like kind of a metaphor for us as individuals, like we don't have to do everything, but we need to know what we're good at and then use that to serve. And what was cool was all the people that all the guys that were drawn to this ministry. You probably see them on a Sunday morning in the church and they'd be kind of quiet, reserve. They're not the ones standing on stage. They're not the ones in, you know, necessarily in like kids ministry, teaching the kids. You know, you wouldn't you know. They kind of seem like they'd come in and out. But then you see them working as hard as they do on a Saturday and it's like they're in their element, Like this is what they were made, this is how they were made to serve. And I think that was such a cool part about it because I feel like they were all these guys that are kind of doing the unseen work that doesn't always get the credit, and.
It was it sounds kind of like your dad.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. My dad will do anything and never receive any credit for it and doesn't need credit.
Doesn't even care.
I mean it kind of shows that. I what I learned about him just recently, it's like he doesn't he doesn't need you to see that he overcame a lot because he doesn't think. He doesn't think it was in his own strength. It was a part of his life, and he's doing what he can do.
And you're saying, these guys that do this work oftentimes are a collection of men much like that.
Don't worry about absolutely no, I'm just here to help and absolutely just me on the back.
I'm happy to do it. It makes me feel good and I'm moving.
On absolutely absolutely. And it's very very humbling, and it was a very cool environment to be adopted into. I felt like, I'm not one of you, but I just want to be one of you.
And that concludes part one of my conversation with Christina Mendez, and you will not want to miss Part two. It's now available as we dive deep into the awesome work of this Servant's Heart team. But if for some strange reason you don't, make sure to join the Army of Normal Folks at normalfolks dot us and sign up to become a member of the movement. By signing up, you'll receive weekly email with short episode summaries in case you have to miss an episode or you just prefer reading about our incredible guests. Together, guys, we can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll see you in Part two.