Called by a carpenter

By day, Deputy Paul Mixon’s boss is Okaloosa County Sheriff Charlie Morris.

In the evening and on weekends, it’s a Jewish carpenter.

Mixon is founder of Out of This World Ministries, a home repair ministry. The group currently is made up of seven members from seven area churches.

“We’re nondenominational,” Mixon said. “We have no barriers there.”

Mixon started the unique ministry in February. It grew out of Mixon’s personal search to find what work God wanted him to perform.

“It was an idea I had, but I feel it was God’s idea,” he said. “I had started praying really hard for a purpose in my life, to find where I should be going.”

Volunteers supplement the ministry’s core of seven board members, their number varying depending on the scope of the project they’re tackling.

“We really feel it’s God’s purpose to be a home repair ministry for folks who can’t afford it,” Mixon said.

The group’s first project was installing a handicapped ramp on a home in DeFuniak Springs.

Then the group came to the rescue of Dorothy Bess, a Crestview woman whose roof caved in during a storm.

They then tackled making a house wheelchair-accessible when one of its residents became mobility-impaired.

HOW TO HELP

To volunteer with Out of This World Ministries, make donations of funds or building supplies, or for home repair assistance, call Paul Mixon at (850) 362-8846, or write 7582 Hwy. 189 N, Baker FL 32531

Learn more about the group in the Saturday edition of the Crestview News Bulletin.