By Gary Nager
I have known Pastor Dean Reule, Ph.D., since he and maybe a dozen or so people (“Three of whom were our kids,” he quips) used to meet together at the former Hunter’s Green Model & Visitor Center, almost a decade before he and his wife Hettie and their church membership together built what is now the beautiful Cypress Point Community Church on Morris Bridge Rd., just north of Cross Creek Blvd.
Cypress Point is more than just 30 acres of former cattle ranch land, more than just an impressive 30,000-sq.-ft. multipurpose building shaded by magnificent old growth oak trees (including one estimated at more than 500 years old that Dean says may be the oldest tree in all of Hillsborough County). Knowing Dean the way I do, and having met Hettie a few times as well, I can tell you with confidence that what has been happening and continues to happen at Cypress Point is more like a family coming together than “just” a house of worship.
And, that is exactly the way the Reules want it. Together, Dean (the church’s primary pastor) and Hettie (Cypress Point’s youth pastor) have seen their own family blossom along with their nondenominational Christian church family, and continue to provide love, guidance and service to the New Tampa community and beyond.
Since we last wrote about Cypress Point last year, the church has been building its Food Assistance Center, which is nearing completion and will allow the church to greatly expand its food assistance program, which already provides food for dozens of hungry families in the New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills areas.
“We have carloads of elderly ladies, many of them widows, but all of them who live on next to nothing,” he says. “They drive a long way for the food and are so appreciative that we’re here.”
He adds that, “When we complete the Food Assistance Center, a little more than half the building will resemble a small grocery store, where anyone in need can come and select whatever items they want. The rest of the building will feature a classroom-like setup that will offer long-term solutions that hopefully will do more for them than just treat the symptoms of hunger.”
For example, he says, “We plan to hold high school GED classes in here for the huge number of Spanish-speaking people who need a high school diploma to help them get ahead in life.” The Reules also envision expanding the program to include counseling, haircuts and even dental care.
“Obamacare helped some of these people get medical insurance, but it doesn’t include dental care,” he says. “We’re about six months away from being able to offer dental services here, but we plan to partner with several of the more than 400 dentists located within 10 miles of here.”
When you look at how much acreage there still is between the big oaks on Cypress Point’s magnificent property, you can understand why Dean and Hettie and their staff have such high hopes to still be able to do more for the community in the future.
“There’s a huge international population at USF and although some of the students’ home countries help them, we plan to have a furniture warehouse so students and other members of the community don’t have to pay for desks, couches and beds,” he says.
He says that one of the biggest fund-raising events the church has had occurred on March 22 of this year, when Cypress Point held a 5K “Race for Freedom” to benefit Bridging Freedom (BridgingFreedom.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting human trafficking, which has become a major problem throughout Florida, especially in the Tampa Bay area, where 76 human traffickers were arrested last year and where the number of teenagers (mainly, but not all girls) bought and sold for the sex trade likely numbers in the thousands.
“We were proud to help Bridging Freedom,” Dean says. “I can’t think of a more worthy cause.” The event raised more than $12,000 for Bridging Freedom, which has worked tirelessly to bring prevention awareness to the community as well as plan and one day implement an urgently needed long- term therapeutic safe home campus for rescued children from sex trafficking in the Tampa Bay area. (Note-We plan to do a story on Bridging Freedom in a future issue).
Among the other wonderful programs and ministries already at Cypress Point include “Celebrate Recovery,” which offers assistance to anyone suffering from addictions to the loss of a loved one, a Military Support Ministry, to help the families of those serving in the U.S. military while their loved ones are being deployed, a ministry to help provide food and encouragement to local fire fighters and many youth programs, including a great summer performing arts program called PACK (Performing Arts Club for Kids; photo above).
“We love serving God and this community,” Dean says. “Christ had people in need on his radar and we do, too.”
A Little Insight Into The Pastors
With an average Sunday attendance of about 750 (between 300-400 people at each of two Sunday services), Cypress Point Community Church has been a source of comfort for many New Tampa residents, thanks to the warm and caring co-Pastors. But, Dean says that for he and Hettie, it wasn’t “love at first sight.”
“I had just finished my freshman year of college and she was a high school senior when we met at Calvary Church in Charlotte (NC). We had known each other for a while and didn’t really get along, But, there was a church function we both were going to and she was the only one driving who still had room in her car. So, I guess you could say that we worked things out.”
If you visit Cypress Point any Sunday, you just may end up becoming part of this unique church family.
For more info about Cypress Point Community Church (15820 Morris Bride Rd.), visit CPCConline.com or call 986.9100.
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