By Vicki-Ann Downing, Brockton Enterprise

The simple bungalow on Everett Street in Taunton doesn’t look like a place where grace struck two decades ago. But it was there, on a Sunday night in March 1988, that life changed forever for James and Theresa Orcutt, empty-nesters in their mid-40s, full-time employees at the Paul A. Dever State School.

That moment grew into their Christian-based ministry, My Brother’s Keeper, which operates now from a 15,000-square-foot warehouse on Congregation of Holy Cross land next to Stonehill College. It has an 11-member board of directors and an eight-member development team and is funded entirely through private donations.

My Brother’s Keeper will mark its 20th anniversary with a dinner on Wednesday. at the Marriott Hotel in Quincy.

Each year, volunteers deliver furniture and food to thousands of needy families in 25 communities from Dorchester to Taunton and Pembroke to Mansfield. There is no pre-qualification process. People need only ask to receive.

The couple also has a Christmas program, which began at Terry Orcutt’s urging in 1991 when toys and clothing were delivered to 14 families in Brockton.

Last Christmas, with operations running around the clock for two weeks, My Brother’s Keeper delivered gifts to 1,836 families in 59 communities from the North Shore to Cape Cod. More than 1,300 volunteers helped, 550 for the first time.

One day at a time

On that evening in March 1988, the Orcutts sat down to watch a made-for-television movie, “God Bless the Child.” Actress Mare Winningham starred as a mother battling homelessness to provide for her young daughter.

Their plight touched the Orcutts deeply. Perhaps, they say now, the seeds had been planted weeks before, when they each took part in a Cursillo retreat at the Holy Cross Retreat House in Easton.

Jim said Terry stood in the doorway of a small bedroom at their rented home, looking at the twin bed, dresser, lamp and chair. With tears in her eyes, she told Jim, “This is all they needed: Some place to stay and someone who cared.”

The Orcutts stayed awake talking until 3 a.m. “It was the most important conversation of our marriage,” Jim Orcutt said.

They held hands before a crucifix and made a covenant with God, which Jim points out has always been a two-way agreement: “God, we’re serious about this. We will spend the rest of our lives bringing your love and hope to people. If you guide us, there will never be another day for the rest of our lives when this won’t come first.”

Twenty years later, the Orcutts can report that both they and God kept the bargain.

“If God had given us a flash-forward back then, showing me a brand-new building adjacent to a Catholic college, a fleet of trucks and thousands of volunteers, I would have put my head in my hands and said, ‘Oh, no, we can’t do that,’” said Orcutt.

The Orcutts believe they have succeeded by never losing sight of their mission: “To bring the love and hope of Jesus Christ to those we serve.”

Charity began at home

The couple began by collecting donated items and storing them on shelves in their basement. Jim Orcutt transported everything in his 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier with 120,000 miles on it, topped by a roof rack borrowed from a nephew.

In search of people in need, they called agencies and shelters in the telephone book. One day, MainSpring House, the homeless shelter in Brockton, said a woman was moving into an apartment and had no furniture. Could the Orcutts help? They had found their niche. They began collecting donations of furniture.

“As quickly as we were collecting it, we were giving it away,” Terry Orcutt said.

Jim switched to the night shift at work to free up his days for deliveries.

“After three months, word started to come back to us: ‘Jim and Terry Orcutt, they’re wonderful people, they help anybody,’” he said. “But our covenant wasn’t to glorify Jim and Terry Orcutt, it was to bring God’s love to people.”

One day, making a delivery in Brockton, they handed a woman a crucifix, telling her, “This is the man who sent you the furniture. We are just the delivery people.”

The woman began to cry.

“We knew we were on the right track,” said Jim. “At that moment our ministry began. We were bringing the love and hope of Jesus Christ to people.”

This year, My Brother’s Keeper will deliver its 15,000th crucifix. To recipients who object, volunteers say, “Whoever your God is, that’s who sent you the furniture.”

It really doesn’t matter what their volunteers carry up the stairs of a tenement or apartment house, said Jim. It might look like a refrigerator, a carton of food or a box of Christmas presents. What the volunteers really deliver is hope.

Typical of the letters from recipients received by My Brother’s Keeper is one from Jacquelyn in Quincy:

“We are very grateful for what you guys are doing for me and my kids. Without you, we wouldn’t have any Christmas. Thank God you guys exist. God bless you and the whole crew of My Brother’s Keeper.”

Looking ahead

In January, Jim Orcutt stepped down from the daily administration of My Brother’s Keeper, leaving that work to the newly named executive director, Erich Miller.

Miller, a Notre Dame graduate, was the ministry’s first paid employee in 1998. Now there are three others: Stonehill graduates Ryan Thorley and Josh Smith and Assumption College graduate Beth Sheehan. All began as student volunteers.

Jim, now 68, and Terry, 63, have never received money for their work at My Brother’s Keeper. They remain members of the board of directors, with Jim as president and Terry, secretary.

They are a daily presence at the warehouse, where Terry still takes calls from people seeking assistance.

In their 37th year of marriage, they live in a rented house in Easton and drive older cars. Their three children have given them six grandchildren. Their only income comes from running retreats at the Holy Cross Retreat House for 30 weekends a year.

They remain confident that God will continue to guide the work they began two decades ago.

“God is the focus of what we do,” said Terry. “If we stay focused on him, then everything else falls into place. Hopefully what we do, we do for the glory of God.”

Getting help

My Brother’s Keeper Helpline, 508- 238-4416, is answered on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 12:30 and 3 p.m. Due to the volume of calls, voice messages are not accepted. To donate furniture to My Brother’s Keeper, call 508-238-7512. Furniture pickups are scheduled between January and mid-November. For more information on communities served and where furniture is accepted, visit www.mybrotherskeeper.org. Financial donations may be sent to: My Brother’s Keeper, Inc., P.O. Box 338, Easton, MA 02356.