The Rustic Furniture Saving Place (619 E Dewey Ave), is a fairly nondescript building sitting next to the railroad tracks on Dewey. But if these walls could talk, you might believe the stories you’d hear.
He left home at the age of ten and lived on and off the streets of California for a couple of years. Battling drug and alcohol addiction, Missionary Evangelist Todd Sloggett somehow found himself in church and gave his life to the Lord at the age of twenty-five.
He wasn’t pleased with what he was seeing in American churches, firmly believing the Body of Christ needs to get their “boots on the ground” by ministering to the hurting on the streets and to think outside the box.
He, his wife, and children sold everything, including their home and landscape business, and traveled across the United States for four years in a borrowed truck and trailer. They hit the streets talking to people, ministering, researching, and learning the best ways to help those in need using his first-hand experiences to meet people where they are.
Ready to settle down, Reverend Sloggett felt the Spirit of the Lord leading his family to Oklahoma. One thing led to another and they landed here in Sapulpa, where their non-profit ministry, Holiness Missions to American (HMA), was born.
They started their journey by partnering with an established resale store named Christian Friends Apparel off Highway 97, which also housed their ministry offices. In 2007, they acquired the three-story building at 619 E. Dewey that sits by the railroad tracks. Starting as a thrift-store selling used furniture to help fund their ministries, soon led to selling new mattresses. Their business has turned into Rustic Furniture Saving Place. They sell beautiful, brand new, hand-made western, rustic, and farmhouse home furnishings and décor.
This building is also the national office for HMA, which currently oversees seven hundred ministries and outreaches, along with several churches, in eighteen states and five countries. Three hundred full-time volunteers, a few full and part-time employees, and a handful of secretaries help to keep everything moving along. They serve the homeless, battered women, human trafficking victims, prisoners, orphans, widows, and specialize in drug addiction.
It takes at least $1,000,000 ($1 million) annually to fund the ministries, with $200,000 – $300,000 coming from donations.
Reverend Sloggett not only believes in “thinking outside the box but inside the bible” but also being a good steward with what the Lord blesses us with. He believes our country would be blessed more if there was less waste…of food, clothes, resources and more. With that in mind, they renovated the top floor of their building by using nothing but free, recycled materials (flooring, wood paneling, and paint) and using their own manpower.
He tells his volunteers and staff, “Everything moves all the time, this is not about comfort.” While they may have an office or delivery truck one day, if it is needed for ministry purposes, that need will be met. He believes in running HMA within their means and making do with what they have.
He humbly told of the “Wall of Faith” that was on display, which was damaged in the 2019 tornadoes, along with their buildings. People visit to see hundreds of pictures: thank you notes and mementos from people HMA has helped and mentored over the years. Most items were salvaged and a new display will be set up across the street at a newly-acquired building, helping to expand storage for the furniture store and space for their ministries.
In 2018, Reverend Sloggett was awarded President Donald Trump’s Volunteer Service Award. In one of three letters, President Trump wrote, “One of our nation’s greatest strengths remains the compassion of our everyday citizens, who give so willingly of themselves and their lives for the benefit of others. Each generation of hardworking and kindhearted volunteers helps to write a new chapter of American greatness, and our Nation is proud [for] your commitment to this honorable tradition.”
It is apparent the Lord has blessed the Sloggatt family’s ministry efforts. The Reverend’s story is one of redemption and hope, using what he learned during his trying times to help others and spread the love of Christ.
His Facebook profile reads, “You wouldn’t believe me…” proceeding from a homeless drug addict to being President of a million-dollar ministry may seem pretty unbelievable to some but with God, all things truly are possible.
Reverend Sloggett does a monthly podcast, has published books with HMA’s Vice President Pastor David Lamb, has five media platforms, curriculum, two clothing stores that fund mission work to name just a few irons in the fire. Two of their affiliate ministries currently in Sapulpa are “Peanut Butter and Jesus” that Sapulpa Times reported on a few weeks ago and “Martha’s Heart Women’s Home” which takes in young women who have aged out of adoption.
The furniture store is operated by one of the Reverend’s sons and custom orders can be made with accents like stains, cowhide, leather trim, and stamped leather to most furniture pieces. Whether you are in the market for a new bedroom suite, kitchen table and chairs, wall hangings to honor veterans or first responders, bedding or accents, Rustic Furniture Saving Place probably has what you are looking for in their thirteen showrooms. Your money will be going to aid in ministry, helping to reach the “least, the last and the lost.”
Visit hmaministries.com and RusticFurnitureSavingplace.com to learn more about these ministries.
