Jusst Sooup Ministry builds on its roots

It was an amazing week five years ago – the week that Hollywood came to town to film a segment of ABC's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

More than 2,000 volunteers – coordinated by project builder Schell Brothers – worked together to construct the Jusst Sooup Ranch off Route 9 in Coolspring near Lewes for the Rev. Dale and Ken Dunning and son Brooks.

The Schell Brothers nominated Dunning for the Extreme Makeover show after giving her a donation of six acres of land.

Volunteers and skilled craftsmen worked around the clock to complete the $1 million, 7,000-square foot project – including two homes and a commercial kitchen and a large dining room– in just seven days.

Highlighting the week were an offshore hurricane, a small tornado outside Lewes and even an earthquake.

The Dunnings, who left the Lewes area during the week of filming, were brought back for the reveal day Aug. 31, 2011. It was only nine days earlier that she learned she had been selected for the makeover as she served soup at Rehoboth Presbyterian Church. As that was taking place, site work got underway.

The show aired as a Thanksgiving special Nov. 18, 2011.

On Aug. 27, the Dunnings hosted a cookout to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the build and to offer thanks to those who were involved in the project.

“I'm blessed with new mercies all the time,” Dunning said. “This building expresses love to my soupers. It touches their hearts and changes them. Jesus gives us the best, and I'm trying to give them that too.”

As she talked about the community coming together five years ago, Dunning said she is almost speechless. “I will never forget what you have done for me,” she said.

The Dunnings are building a small chapel at their ranch. Ken did the design work, and Dale is doing most of the carpentry work.

Dunning now uses the large barn-like building in front of the property as her church and soup kitchen.

A new home for her ministry

For more than a decade, Dunning operated her ministry out of her Nassau-area home, getting up as early as 3 a.m. to cook soup. She took her soup to area churches where she fed and ministered to people she calls her soupers.

Using a old RV named Beulah, she also provided clothing and other essential items to those in need. It wasn't unusual for her to use her own money to purchase medicine and provide housing for homeless people visiting one of her soup kitchens.

After the makeover as they settled in their new home, Dunning was looking forward to operating her own soup kitchen and getting off the road. However, the Dunnings ran into major roadblocks; zoning regulations and objections to their plans from their neighbors.

While a home-based business was permissible, a public soup kitchen was not permitted on land zoned residential, and only family members were permitted to work in the kitchen.

They were rejected by all three levels of Sussex County government. The county's board of adjustment denied a special-use exception application and planning and zoning and county council denied a conditional-use application to operate a soup kitchen.

That's when attorney Heidi Gilmore stepped in and helped the Dunnings establish a church at the site, a permitted use in residential zoning.

Three years after moving in, Dunning held her first church service at the ranch. Today, she has Saturday services and opens the dining room each Thursday to serve soup.

Thanks to donations and an endowment established by the Schells, the Dunnings have funds to cover bills. But, Dunning said, donations are still needed to operate her ministry. During the picnic, the Self Expressions Auto Club and the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club presented donations to the ministry.

Although he's retired, Ken works to raise money for the ministry by cutting grass, something he has done for more than 50 years. Most weeks, he keeps busy cutting about 50 lawns.

Looking back: An extreme week of weather

The 199^th Extreme Makeover build was one for the books. The work of volunteers and crew came to halt as Hurricane Irene threatened, and an evacuation of coastal areas was ordered. The storm cut one-half day off the work schedule and forced the reveal back two days.

All work stopped at midnight Aug. 26 and didn’t resume until the morning of Aug. 29 in time for reveal day on Aug. 31.

During the extreme weather week, on Aug. 23 an earthquake was reported along the East Coast and a tornado ripped the roof off a home in Nassau Station Aug. 27. The show's crew and volunteers pitched in to clean up damage from the tornado before getting back to work on the Jusst Sooup Ranch. It was a plot even Hollywood writers couldn't imagine.