'A very good example to follow'

Anyone who wants to know what the Rev. Duane Mevis and his wife, Carol, are about might drop by the Washington Street bridge in Naperville around noon the third Saturday of the month.

The couple, along with other members of End the Occupation, holds vigils to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine -- drawing support, hostility or indifference from passers-by.

Or the retired pastor and his wife might be found at Loaves and Fishes Community Pantry in Naperville helping to distribute food to the needy.

Participating in the Naperville Area CROP Walk each October is a must. Duane Mevis has coordinated the event for 25 years. This year it drew 650 walkers and brought in $70,000 to feed the hungry locally and around the world.

"He's not only leading it. He's out there doing it too," said Mary Lou Miller, missions chairman at Wesley United Methodist Church in Naperville, where Mevis led the congregation for nine years and now serves as pastor emeritus.

Wesley Church member Doug Seifried has participated in the CROP Walk and in mission trips Duane Mevis has led to Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Pass Christian, Miss. He says Mevis' influence still is strongly felt.

"In a quiet way, he provided leadership. He was very well-liked by our church,'' he said. "To me, he's just a very good example to follow."

The Mevises' commitment to social action and service to others was recognized this fall when the regional chapter of Church Women United presented them with a Human Rights Award.

Duane Mevis said they were surprised and a bit uneasy at receiving recognition for accomplishments that were achieved with support and help of others.

"Christ always seemed to reach out (and) accept the marginalized and those in need -- and that has become our calling too," he said.

The calling came early. Growing up on a farm in Wisconsin, Duane Mevis always knew he wanted to go into ministry.

Carol Mevis, the daughter of a pastor, met her husband at his graduation from Evangelical Theological Seminary, then occupying part of the campus of North Central College in Naperville.

The couple had their first pastorate in Forreston, Ill., where they led the church in helping to resettle a Cuban refugee family the couple still keeps in touch with today.

They moved on to a church in Peoria in the 1960s in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. They lived in a neighborhood of blacks and poor whites with their two small children amid rumors of riots.

"We never did have a riot in Peoria," Duane Mevis said. "We felt safe among the people we were living with."

The couple helped start an inner-city ministry that continues today and an integrated preschool.

Carol Mevis' love for children led to her to take in pre-adoption foster care infants when the couple was sent by their denomination to Villa Park. Over the next 17 years, she and her husband provided foster care to 60 babies, many of whom were born to drug-addicted or alcoholic mothers. At a time when some foster parents were afraid to accept children of another ethnic background, they took in white, black and mixed-race children.

"(We) had a baby in the house all the time," Carol Mevis said.

The Mevises continued to do foster care when they were transferred to a church in Aurora and then to Wesley Methodist in Naperville.

"I think that infant care marks them as people who are willing to give over and over and over again," Seifried said.

Duane Mevis led numerous youth work trips to the Appalachian area to help the poor in the 1980s. In 1988, the couple participated in a weeklong, 100-mile trek in South Carolina as part of a celebration of Habitat for Humanity's 12th anniversary.

Coming back inspired, the Mevises helped start the Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity. The organization has built 34 homes in Aurora and Montgomery for people in need since its founding in 1989.

After leading Wesley Methodist from 1981 to 1990, Mevis was transferred to a church in Hinsdale, where he helped organize a CROP Walk as he had in Aurora and Naperville.

After retiring from full-time ministry, the couple returned to the Naperville church in 1997 where they remain active.

They lead annual work mission trips to Midwest Mission Distribution Center, a United Methodist warehouse near Springfield that collects items for disaster victims and those in need in the United States and around the world.

Duane Mevis is putting together the church's third mission trip to Pass Christian, for April. Participants have cleaned up muck, repaired houses and, this time, will build new homes.

"Eighty percent of the homes in Pass Christian were destroyed or severely damaged," Mevis said.

Naperville has developed ties with the Mississippi community ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and Naperville Responds raises money to build homes in Pass Christian.

It was on one of his seven trips to the Holy Land that Mevis met a Christian Palestinian pastor whose family became refugees after the nation of Israel was formed in 1948.

"What impressed me about him was he still had a gracious, loving and forgiving spirit," Mevis said. "(He believed) that Israelis and Palestinians could share the land. I think his dream became my dream."

The Mevises joined End the Occupation, formed in 2001. Duane Mevis admits the group's monthly vigils draw a variety of reactions.

"We probably get 20 percent support, 20 percent anger and (the rest) trying to ignore us," he said.

The couple also laid the groundwork for Wesley Methodist to become a "reconciling" congregation -- with a statement in the church bulletin that it welcomes all people regardless of their backgrounds or sexual orientation. Duane Mevis said they held classes and brought in gays and lesbians to tell their stories.

"It was pretty well-accepted," he said.