Sold on prayer
History repeats itself at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church
Every morning, Aprille Williams wakes up in the home where her grandmother Lucille Whitaker once lived. She then drives the same few blocks to her job at St. Christopher’s Resale Shop in Spring Branch, tracing the route her grandmother took to the store, where she served as a devoted volunteer.
It wasn’t Williams’ plan to follow in her grandmother’s footprints. Everything just worked out that way, almost as if by fate.
In fact, Williams considers the story to be a bit of a miracle.
“I finally feel like I’m on the right path,” she said. “And it’s the path that my grandmother laid out for me.”
Whitaker was the type of grandparent who easily served as a role model.
“She was always put together,” Williams recalled. “She had a style — and a get-it-
done attitude. She was always friendly and patient. She was also stern. She wasn’t going to let you get away with anything.”
Whitaker has fond memories of a childhood spent in close proximity to her grandmother.
“I never went to day care or to a babysitter,” Williams said. “I went to Grandma’s. I was very close to her.”
They went to St. Christopher’s Church together on Sundays — and during the week, Williams would tag along to the thrift shop.
The store was created by a group of members — all young mothers — who had leftovers from a garage sale. They banded together to raise more funds for outreach efforts — and Whitaker served as chairwoman of the project.
The first location was on Long Point Road. Williams said playing among the donations and making friends with the women who volunteered was her favorite pursuit.
“I spent my childhood running around that shop,” she said.
In 1980, the thrift shop moved to the church campus, 1656 Blalock Road. Williams was in middle school and still came by to help her grandmother with work.
As time went on, however, Williams’ visits became less frequent.
“Like a lot of people, we grow up in the church, then life comes along,” she said.
Williams pursued a career as a props designer, and her work brought her to theaters around the country. She traveled a lot and lived in various states.
“Then, I got to a point where I really needed to come home,” she said. She returned to care for her parents.
“I found myself right here in this neighborhood again,” she said. “It was natural to gravitate to the church.”
At the same time, it was bittersweet. Her grandmother had died while Williams was living out of the state — and the church brought back many memories.
Sometimes, Williams grieved for her loss — and other times she was comforted by being in a place that was so dear to her grandmother.
At first, she could not bear to return to the resale shop — worrying that the memories might be too overwhelming.
Still, Williams felt almost called to take up where her grandmother had left off.
“It was going to be hard to walk into that space, without my grandmother,” she said.
Williams found herself praying to find a way where she could work in the shop full time and support her grandmother’s vision.
One day, after service, the Rev. Robert P. Goolsby approached Williams and asked her to come to his office.
“He told me about how he had a vision,” Williams said. “He wanted to hire a full-time manager for the thrift shop to bring it into the modern age and start making it run like a real business. He wanted someone to take charge of it — and he was hoping I would be interested.” Williams was in shock. “I sat there dumbfounded — stunned that words going around in my head were coming out of his mouth,” she said. “It’s been three years now, and it still feels like an answered prayer. It’s been wonderful.”
Goolsby knew that Williams had what it took to turn the shop around.
“For a long time, the shop was run entirely by retired women,” he said. “There was good work being done, but I felt like there wasn’t a high enough level of professional management. Then, I met Aprille. The timing was perfect.”
Williams’ first day on the job was the first time she returned to the building since being there with her grandmother. “It was a whirlwind of emotions,” she said. “I was so grateful, but I was missing her. It was the happiest and saddest moment.”
She did not have long to linger in the moment. Instead, she had to roll up her sleeves and get to work bringing the space up to her standards.
Williams guided the center’s volunteers through a massive reorganization.
“They needed some strategy,” she said. “But now it’s done. It looks exactly the way I wanted it to.”
Williams said that now the store has been able to increase its outreach efforts and has gained more volunteers.
Goolsby said that she also has improved the store’s use of social media for marketing.
“The store overall has a more organized layout,” he said. “Aprille doesn’t settle for mediocrity. She wants to beat sales records and increase the needs we’re able to meet.”
The nonprofit shop provides funding for a number of partners, including Houston Hospice, Lord of the Streets, Mission of Yaweh and the Monarch School.
“The more we do, the more we sell, the more we expand, it just widens the circle,” Goolsby said. “More and more organizations benefit from the work we’re doing.”
He said the store also serves the neighborhood. “We offer quality secondhand items to purchase them at a reasonable price,” he said.
The shop also offers items for free to those in an emergency situation, like after Harvey.
Williams said she is excited to go to work every day — and takes pride in being part of an effort that has been going strong for more than five decades.
“That’s 55 years of service and dedication to the community,” she said. “And I want everyone to know about it. We want everything to get bigger and better.”
Williams said that Houstonians can join in — by simply shopping, volunteering or donating at St. Christopher’s.
“Those three things are everything to us,” she said. “Those are things that everyone in our community can do.”