By David Taylor Managing Editor
CROSBY — Jeff Holloway D.D. has spent much of his life serving others, from the churches and classrooms of Crosby to remote mountain villages in Honduras. Now, the longtime minister and missionary has returned home to lead Churches United in Caring, the Crosbyarea nonprofit known for helping families facing poverty, hunger and other needs.
Holloway, a Crosby native who moved to the community when he was 7 years old, has been named executive director of Churches United in Caring, commonly known as CUIC. For Holloway, the role is both new and familiar. He remembers when the ministry began in the early 1980s after local churches responded to needs in the community, including families living in “tent cities” near the San Jacinto River.
“I was around when we first started it,” Holloway said. “I remember when it started and how it started. We helped out all those years with our church, and there were a lot of people from our church serving her
e.”
Holloway said he has long admired CUIC’s mission of meeting immediate needs for struggling families.
“There’s a great ministry here,” he said. “I love their mission — to help the impoverished and help meet those needs in their life.”
His return to Crosby follows five years of mission work in Honduras, where he and his wife, Michelle, served among the Lenca people in mountain villages near the borders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Holloway said the Lenca were considered an unreached people group, with fewer than 2% identifying as Christian.
“My heart is with going to where we’re needed,” Holloway said. “We were able to help the ministry develop those areas, especially education, discipleship and helping pastors learn how to share the gospel and make disciples.”
The work went beyond church ministry. Holloway said he helped support villages through evangelism, discipleship, biblical financial training and practical assistance aimed at helping local churches become stronger and more self-sustaining.
“We wanted the indigenous churches to not rely on foreign help to grow,” he said. “They need to be on their own.”
That same concern for long-term stability is part of
what Holloway hopes to bring to CUIC. While he said his first task is to learn the organization, support volunteers and understand the scope of ongoing services, he also sees opportunities for the community to think more broadly about poverty, homelessness and financial stability.
“The immediate future is me just growing and learning how to help best here so that I can facilitate our volunteers to do what they’re doing,” Holloway said. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
Holloway said CUIC’s volunteers are one of the nonprofit’s greatest strengths.
“You don’t realize how much is going on here until you get in here,” he said. “There are so many people. We have such great volunteers.”
He also praised Leanne Lockwood for her work with fundraising, volunteers and daily operations.
“She’s been holding down the fort for a lot of things,” Holloway said. “She’s an amazing lady.”
Looking ahead, Holloway said he would like to see the community explore ways not only to meet emergency needs but also to help people move toward self-sufficiency. He pointed to his experience in Honduras, where biblical finance training and other practical efforts were used to help families work toward stability.
“I’d like to see us begin to see people lifted out of poverty and help them,” he said. “That’s sort of what I did in Honduras as well.”
Holloway said homelessness is becoming more visible in Crosby as the area continues to grow and shift from a smaller bedroom community toward a more urban setting. He said local churches and
community partners may have an opportunity to respond before the problem grows larger.
“We see the homeless situation growing in Crosby,” Holloway said. “I think if we get ahead of the game instead of wait until we get inundated, it’d be important for us.”
He said he is interested in models that help people rebuild community, relationships and faith while also addressing practical needs such as jobs, financial training and housing stability. He emphasized that some of those ideas are personal hopes and not yet formal CUIC initiatives.
“I can’t say that’s a CUIC thing, but it is a me thing,” Holloway said. “I’d like to see more training to help people with their finances.”
Holloway’s roots in Crosby run deep. He attended Crosby schools, played college football at Ranger Junior College and later earned a scholarship to Howard Payne University. After college, he returned to First Baptist Church of Crosby in 1987 and served there for decades before moving to
Honduras in November 2020, during the COVID- 19 pandemic and between two hurricanes.
“It was a journey,” Holloway said.
His wife, Michelle, is also from Crosby and serves with him at CUIC. The couple has three children: Matthew, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in nuclear physics at Texas A&M University; Samuel, a mechanical engineering student at Lamar University; and Caroline, a high school student planning to pursue veterinary medicine.
Holloway also serves at New Direction Baptist Church, a small congregation on Crosby’s east side, where he said growth in nearby neighborhoods is creating new opportunities for ministry.
For Holloway, the work at CUIC is rooted in faith and service.
“Scripture just tells us clearly to love and care for people,” he said. “When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed me.”
CUIC also has several upcoming efforts planned, including school supply registration for established clients from 10 to 11:30 a.m. July 14, 16 and 18, and a thrift store sale Aug. 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
As he settles into the executive director role, Holloway said the focus remains on serving people where they are while looking for ways to help them move forward.
“The vision is to see us grow to be able to help people where they are in the need that they’re in,” Holloway said. “But also, I’d like to see us find better ways to see them come out of that.”
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