 The Harry Denman Evangelism Award recognizes clergy, youth, and lay persons for outstanding service in evangelism. Those eligible for this prestigious award practice the Great Commission and faithfully carry out the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The award is named for the late Dr. Harry Denman Distinguished Evangelist who Billy Graham called My Mentor in Evangelism. The award was made possible by the Foundation for Evangelism which was founded in 1949 by Dr. Denman who felt it was the business of every Christian to be an evangelist. The Foundation's mission is to promote, encourage, and provide resources for responsible evangelism enabling the United Methodist Church to bring people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and help them grow as His disciples. Multiple nominations were submitted. The winner of the Youth Award was selected by the Conference Council of Youth Ministries and the winner of the Lay Award was selected by the Conference Board of Lady. The Denman Award for Adult Lady goes to Billie Jean Baker. Ms. Baker is a member of Oakland United Methodist Church in Dallas and participates in ministries at Union Coffeehouse as well. Despite hardships in her own life, Ms. Baker's passion is sharing the love of Christ with other folks living on the margins and advocating for them when their voices are not heard. Ms. Baker once lived unsheltered on the property of Oakland but after joining the church, she quickly became an evangelist and brought many unsheltered neighbors to church with her. One cold night, she asked if she and her unsheltered friends could sleep in the church building because temperatures were going to dip below freezing. That idea launched a commitment on the part of Oakland UMC to become a place of refuge during inclement weather. As a result, the church has welcomed a long list of unsheltered neighbors into worship as well as membership, many of whom made professions of faith and were baptized. Ms. Baker also has become very involved in Union's ministries on the campus of Oakland. During the coronavirus pandemic, she's been participating in Union's weekly worship gatherings. But she does so outside, out of doors, connected to the service by a speaker so that neighbors may listen with her. Ms. Baker is always an advocate for others, especially persons of color and people who identify on the LGBTQ spectrum. Her advocacy for unsheltered neighbors and her joy as an evangelist has, without question, saved lives and mobilized two congregations to be better followers of Jesus Christ. It is our great joy to celebrate Billie Jean Baker as she receives this award. I help people because it's the right thing to do. I've had a lot of help over the years myself and there's a lot of people that are just like me that don't know how to ask for help. So if I go and offer it to them, then they're more comfortable and they're able to get the help they need. And the reason why I do it is because I know it's the next right thing to do. And that's what God tells us all to do is to do the next right thing and that makes him happy. So in the end, it'll make me happy. Billie Jean finds ways to take care of people's spiritual and physical needs. And that's what it means to be a Methodist. I came to the church here and I was sleeping on the property and I thought well if I'm gonna sleep on the church property, I like the church service anyways. I ought to attend church. And for some reason the rest of the homeless community wanted to follow my lead and follow me through the doors. It was a Sunday morning in late December that Billie Jean came up to me between worship services and said pastor, I want to talk to you about maybe the possibility that I could come inside tonight. You know, I kept blankets and clean clothes and stuff. So I stayed warm but there was a lot of homeless out here on the streets that were freezing to death overnight because they didn't acquire the things that I had. So I was singing in the choir here and then going to church and the night before I had had on the Saturday night, I had three of the homeless see me walking around and tell me well I'm a member of this big old church. Why don't I go and see if they open the doors and let them sleep inside. So the next morning at eight o'clock that morning when they open the church doors, I went in and I grabbed Reverend Rachel's arm and I said come I need to talk to you. She said no I need to go. I said no no this is important it's life and death. One thing led to another and by the time we had our next service we announced that we would open for our very first shelter on that evening and we're able to rally folks to come and volunteer in that next service. We had food and everything and the church doors were open for the first time and people slept right there in the sanctuary on the floor and on the pews and it's gone on since. That moment was groundbreaking for us here at Oak One. It's at the path for us to welcome people inside, not just on freezing nights and not just for shelter but also for a place of community and to experience what it is to be loved and so I'm so grateful for the witness of Billie Jean not just in paving the way for us to open shelter but also for building connections and relationships with so many people who found themselves in very similar circumstances to her. I believe that's my calling to to help the homeless folks and other people hear the word of God and you know just just be able to I stand up for those that can't stand up for themselves because I have a loud voice and I have pink hair so people are going to pay attention to me. I didn't know we would end up with like a campus of union at the Valencia O Apartments but in many ways that's what's happened because she brings our worship there. Since we have the pandemic and most of your churches are not open and stuff I have a bluetooth speaker and union does their church service live on Facebook and I hook it up to my bluetooth speaker and I set it outside. There's three little Latino children they can't go to church because of the pandemic right now so I play the church service for the union on Sundays and Tuesday nights and they'll come outside and they like the misfit band and they like to hear God's word. One of the little girls even brings her Bible all the time and then I even have a lot of my other neighbors that'll come out on their porches and stuff because it's not a bluetooth speaker and they can hear it just so they can hear the word of God. Billie Jean has continued to be exactly that kind of evangelistic spirit that you pray that your congregants will be. I'm really grateful for the ways that Billie Jean is in ministry the way that she's made union and Oakland better churches and more faithful to the calling that Jesus puts upon our lives.