Furnishing a Future — Joseph Ciembroniewicz

This story was photographed and written in October, 2025 at the Mountain Workshops in Maysville, KY.

Debbie Craycraft greeted Gordon “Gordy” Jones as she entered Sprinkles of Hope bakery and deli. Debbie said Gordy helped her pay her utility bill when she was facing eviction. She described him as a “wonderful person.” After she sat down, she told him from across the room, “I love you, Gordy, and I love Cathy,” his wife.

Pastor Gordon “Gordy” Jones was 4 when his father bet the family’s furniture on a poker game and lost. Their furniture was taken, and his mother filed for divorce.

“He left. I never saw him again,” Gordy said. Until a year and a half ago, he didn’t know that the bet was what had contributed to his family’s struggles. The realization motivated him to form the “furniture ministry” at Shepherd’s House Church.

“When I was a little boy, we needed furniture through no fault of our own,” Gordy said. He knew that there were other people without furniture that he could help. In addition to Shepherd’s House’s food and clothing banks, Gordy estimates that the furniture ministry has given out 500 pieces of furniture in the past year.

“I help the community of people that feel less than,” he said, “and maybe part of that’s because I felt less than growing up.”

Without a father figure, Gordy found role models in coaches and self-esteem through athletic prowess. He tried out for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but was told he was not big enough to ever play in the major leagues.

Instead, he went to college. There, he became “a longhaired fraternity brat” and developed a drinking problem. If it weren’t for his wife, Cathy Jones, he said, “I’d have killed somebody or myself” because of drinking.

When their son Jeremy was 18 months old, Gordy realized he needed to change. So he took the beer out of his refrigerator and put it in the trash can. He hasn’t touched a drop since. The couple has been married for 50 years. Cathy also brought Gordy to Christianity, and 27 years later, he was ordained as a pastor in 2003.

As Gordy played bass guitar while practicing with the Shepherd’s House Worship Team, his focus was apparent in his face.

Cathy Jones struggled to exit the furniture ministry storage building behind Shepherd’s House Church, as Butch Gifford and Gordy moved a recently donated recliner into the shed. The three unloaded the bed of Gordy’s truck after they took part in a Shepherd’s House Worship Team band practice.

Gordy believes his role is to “show God’s love in a practical way,” and his community keeps him busy. On Thursday, Terri Marshall needed two lamps and two side tables. She didn’t have a way to pick them up, so Gordy drove these items from a storage unit in Aberdeen and carried them through her front door.

As he picked up a coffee from Kenton Stories with Spirit, Doris Woollard asked him to pray for her son, Jimmy, and Gordy, who keeps a physical prayer list at home, made a note, and told her he would. Rhonda Sims had several truckloads of clothes, furniture, and food from her late mother, Helen Vice’s house, that she and her sister wanted to donate to Shepherd’s House. Gordy drove there, and as he loaded up his truck, a neighbor, Roy Furby, walked across the street to ask Gordy if he could use a mattress and a box spring.

Larry Henry helped Gordy move furniture from his garage to Gordy’s truck. Larry and his wife, Cheryl, donated the furniture to the Shepherd’s House Church furniture ministry.

Larry Henry and Gordy shook hands after working together to load Gordy’s truck with furniture.

Aydin Myers, 5, tossed his football as Gordy (from left), Nikkita Myers, Chris Myers, and Rhonda Sims stood in Rhonda’s late mother’s house. Rhonda contacted Gordy to donate some of the contents of the building to Shepherd’s House. The Myers family moved from Newport to Maysville that day. They contacted Gordy because they needed to furnish their new home.

Gordy said he begins most days with an “order my steps” prayer. He gives thanks and asks his Lord: “Help me to encounter somebody that needs some hope.” More often than not, he does.

The Myers family, which was moving from Newport to Maysville, heard about Shepherd’s House, and Gordy connected them with Rhonda, who gave them canned goods and household items.

As Aydin Myers, 5, carried pillows to the trailer behind his family’s car, he turned to his mother and told her, “I’m gonna be comfy tonight.”