Our Fall 1996 issue included a story about Fr. Fred Enman, SJ, and his work to turn run-down houses in Worcester, Massachusetts, into housing for low-income residents www.companymagazine.org /v141/hungry.html). In that story, Fr. Enman's "Matthew 25" (I was hungry, and you gave me to eat ...) project had just completed rehabbing one place and was hip-deep in plaster dust and plumbing challenges at the next. Fr. Enman brings us up-to-date.

Author Fr. Fred Enman, SJ, poses above in the "before" photo of a house at 22 Kingsbury Street in Worcester, Mass., which his organization took on as a rehab project.

To get the results apparent in the "after" photo, Fr. Enman has relied heavily on volunteer help, including that given by these Worcester Vocational carpentry students and their teacher, David Solomon (second from right). This house won a restoration award.

When the article about Matthew 25 appeared in Company in 1996, our little organization had just finished rehabbing 50-52 Queen Street in Worcester into four units of quality affordable housing for low-income families, and we were a little more than half-finished with our second project, a three-family residence at 22 Kingsbury Street. We were housing four families and had dreams of housing more. Today, we've not only finished Kingsbury Street but have also finished two other homes, purchased half a duplex, and started work on another house in Worcester and one in Boston as well. We are currently housing ten families; before long we will be housing five more. Our story is a story of blessings. Not long after the Company article, when I was making a retreat, I remember praying to God, giving thanks for the many wonderful people who had been sent to me through the work of Matthew 25. I heard this voice inside of me say, "And I am going to send you many more." I felt very much that this was God talking and providing me encouragement for the work to come.

A very good-looking work in progress describes this Greek revival house at 52 May Street in Worcester, Mass., built in 1840 (additions went on in 1851 and 1871). Matthew 25's current project, it will be dedicated to the memory of six Worcester firemen who died in the line of duty in 1999.

One group of people with whom I have been blessed are the teachers and students at Worcester Vocational High. They adopted our ministry as their shop project, providing our rehabs with virtually all of the skilled carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work needed and substantial help with the painting and decorating to boot. Their work has received recognition. The stately Second Empire–style Queen Street building (page 12), with its mansard roof and blue-and-gray trim evoking memories of its Civil War–era construction, and the Kingsbury Street residence (page 10), whose pink, peach, and heather hues rival San Francisco's painted ladies, caught the attention of the community and garnered restoration awards from the City of Worcester.

I realized how much the teachers and students of Worcester Voc meant to me when we lost one of them to a heart attack in 1998. Carpentry teacher Phil Solomon had been with us every school day since May 1994, overseeing every aspect of his seniors' work on our first three houses with enthusiasm. We named one of our projects, a house at 24 Humes Avenue, the Phil Solomon House in his memory, inviting his wife, children, relatives, and colleagues to the dedication.

Another invaluable blessing has been the students of Holy Cross, hundreds of whom have volunteered time, doing fundraising and on-site grunt work in equal measures. Nearly all of the interior demolition on the first four houses was done by Holy Cross students along with helpers from other colleges and some church groups.

Holy Cross helped in another critical way. In the fall of 1997, when I moved to Boston College for a half-time position in campus ministry, I needed someone to cover day-to-day operations in Worcester. Since that time it has always been a Holy Cross grad holding the position of Worcester area director for Matthew 25. Matt Wally ('97) served for two years, Brian Magner ('95) served for one, and Terrence Butt ('95) is currently in his third year of service.

Plumber David Gouveia takes some final swipes at waste pipes he installed at 50-52 Queens Street in Worcester. Fr. Enman has cultivated an ability to attract volunteer help, foundation dollars, and professional assistance as a way of living out gospel values.

Where would we be without the resources to buy all that is needed to rehab abandoned houses? Fortunately, many generous benefactors have stepped forward. Each year, during the holidays, I write to family and friends, and they give generously to support the work. I am blessed with Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Jewish family and friends who further our mission. On top of that, students at Holy Cross help me write to alumni of the school; about 1,000 of them have responded, many of whom give year after year.

I also write to members of my own class and other classes from St. John's High School in Shrewsbury, and I receive an annual gift from over 100 of them. All in all it's about $60,000 a year to help support the work of Matthew 25.

And then there are the foundations that have also taken an interest in what we are doing. The Greater Worcester Community Foundation's yearly grant of $10,000 helps support the salary of our Worcester area director, the only paid position in the organization. The Fletcher Foundation and the Stoddard Charitable Trust have given grants of up to $10,000 for each of the houses we have worked on; the Fuller Foundation's $30,000 grant is going toward the work we are currently doing at 52 May Street (above). The Neighborhood Services office of Worcester gives us $15,000 in federal HOME funds for every unit of affordable housing we generate.

Before and after photos of Matthew 25's first project at 50-52 Queens Street are dramatic evidence of what this program has been accomplishing.

This support helped to complete our first two houses and to tackle other projects as well, including one with an interesting academic twist. In 1996, John Power, a St. John's High and Holy Cross alumnus, spent $37,000 on an abandoned house and gave it to Matthew 25. That house, at 10 Birch Street, is in the neighborhood of Clark University, which offers free tuition to children who grow up in the neighborhood and have the academic credentials to be admitted. We screened for a family with children with good grades in the hopes that one of them will be able to take advantage of Clark's neighborhood-friendly offer.

The blessings kept coming. In 1998 the Great Brook Valley Health Center offered us a two-bedroom ranch for free if we would move it, and they also sold us a nearby house lot for $20,000. We hired one company to prepare the lot, another to build the foundation, and a third to move the house! After the Worcester Voc team did their usual splendid wiring and plumbing work and added a third bedroom in the basement, it became our fourth success story.

And then in early 2001 we bought half of a duplex on Catalpa Circle after its tenant, a disabled mother with four children, told us her landlord planned to sell; she and her family had nowhere to go. With some reserves and the help of a bank loan, we bought the unit to preserve her in place. She is very grateful for this assistance.

You will find us today at 52 May Street, a Greek revival house built in 1840 with additions dating to 1851 and 1871, from which we will fashion two units of affordable housing. It will be dedicated later this year to the memory of six Worcester firefighters who lost their lives battling a warehouse fire in December 1999.

Our achievements attracted the attention of The Mustard Seed Catholic Worker Community; it donated a residence it owned at 9 Merrick Street, which had fallen into disrepair, and Worcester's St. Vincent de Paul Society of the diocese came up with $50,000 to rehab that house.

My Fr. Fred Enman, SJ , serves as assistant to the dean of students at Boston College's law school in addition to his work with Matthew 25. prayer is that Matthew 25 will continue to grow and serve. We began to move beyond Worcester when we bought an abandoned house from the City of Boston at 81 Woodrow Avenue in Dorchester. With the help of friends from Boston College's class of 1987 and many other BC alumni, we have built up funds to rehab it. I have been talking with friends about expanding into Connecticut, and, with the help of the Lord and many generous souls, it will happen.

When I think back to Matthew 25's beginnings I recall my days in theology studies reading The True Church and the Poor, by Fr. Jon Sobrino, SJ, who wrote about the need to make the values of the gospels concrete. Matthew 25 becomes concrete when people give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcome to the stranger, clothes to the naked, comfort to the sick, and visits to those in prison. It struck me very deeply. All I can say is be careful what you read. It can change your life forever!