They say nothing spells lovin’ like something from the oven. As the scent of fresh cake spread throughout the house this was probably the thought of one Texas woman, visiting her father for the weekend.
The cake took the shape of a heart as it was expertly crafted and adorned by hands that have done this many times. The woman, who bakes wedding cakes for a living, was not baking this particular cake for a bride and groom, but instead to say “Thank You” to the staff at the Manos Juntas Free Medical Clinic for treating her father the week before.
Manos Juntas is located in
“I love cultures, I love people,” Hughes-Tremper said. It is this love of people that she says has inspired her to devote her life to making her world a better place.
As 9 a.m. rolls around, patients begin to file through the doors of the church. Hughes-Tremper makes a point of greeting each patient in their own language; at last count she knew 11 different greetings. Though she knows several ways of welcoming patients, Hughes-Tremper is only fluent in Spanish and English.
“On average we have about 80 [patients], we can go as high as 130; sometimes we only have one doctor,” Hughes-Tremper said. In the past the pastor of the church has not always worked at the clinic, she said; but Hughes-Tremper does.
“The clinic is the biggest mission of the church,” Hughes-Tremper said with a smile. “We have more people here on Saturday than are at the services on Sunday, so as a pastor how could you not be here?” She said she sees the clinic as a way to serve the community.
Service has always been an important part of Hughes-Tremper’s life, she said. “In 1967 through 1969, I served in the Peace Corps in
“I had to go to seminary,” Hughes-Tremper said. She has been in ministry ever since. “In 1981 I started working as a chaplain supervisor,” she said. “For 20 years I have taught people how to be chaplains. Then five years ago I felt called to be a pastor.” For the last two years she has done just that.
Hughes-Tremper does mostly managerial work at the clinic, including meet-and-greet, organizational work, and designating jobs for volunteers to do. Without computer records, however, the organizational aspect of her job can be a tall order. Sometimes patient files go missing and have to be tracked down. One such patient was left waiting for about an hour.
After a massive search for the prodigal file, an exhausted Hughes-Tremper, half-buried in manila folders, exclaimed, “This is eureka!” as she held up the elusive folder with the exuberance of someone who had just won the Super Bowl.
Alongside the clinic Hughes-Tremper facilitates other community minded ventures, including a thrift store known as Le Shoppe, where people can buy garbage bags of clothing for one dollar.
Hughes-Tremper has also instituted legal clinics and adult education programs, including English lessons for the large Hispanic and Vietnamese population in the area.
She has also offered programs in art and dance. “Everything is the same if you do it in love,” Hughes-Tremper said.
This type of community involvement was exactly what Elaine Gragg was looking for when she moved to
“I knew I wanted to be a part of a missions oriented church,” Gragg said, claiming she had found that at Epworth and with Hughes-Tremper.
Hughes-Tremper has faced many obstacles in her journey to where she is now. Not only was she the first female Methodist Reverend but when she became pastor at Epworth she inherited a building in decay.
Water drips through the ceiling of the fourth floor of the church, into trash cans and old paint buckets while the wood floor underneath has warped with age and the elements. “This is our bucket room,” said Hughes-Tremper with an amused sarcastic grin. Someday she said she hopes to use the floor for classrooms.
The third floor is in only slightly better condition, having just been repainted after being vandalized in recent months, said Hughes-Tremper, who seems only to focus on the potential the area holds.
The second floor used to look the same way, but one would never guess looking at it today, she said. “When I got here I was very discouraged about getting all of this cleaned up. “But I realized that we just have to take it one job at a time.”
Even though much of the upper floors of the church are in disrepair, Hughes-Tremper said she still thinks it better to give back to the community. “It costs the church $20,000 a year to operate the clinic,” Hughes-Tremper said. She added that they had just received the Racial and Ethnic Minority Grant for $5,000 for the work they have done in the community.
The clinic also offers some students on-the-job experience. Grace Taylor, an OU zoology senior, volunteers at the Manos Juntas Clinic regularly. “I started volunteering at the clinic a little over a year ago; about 13 months,” Taylor said.
Though there are other opportunities to gain experience closer to
Taylor describes Hughes-Tremper as genuine, patient and congenial. “All three of those are exemplified in her work with the patients,”
After taking care of a patient Hughes-Tremper asked herself, “What did I eat this morning?” in a rare idle moment in the Manos Juntas Clinic. She never came to a conclusion, for she immediately began attending to the next order of business. Maybe she should have tried the cake.
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