Deville continues her work of ministry to South Side

On August 9, Carol Deville, prophetess with God’s Glory Revealed Ministries, ministered to a large group of people on Edward Knotoe Thomas Street in front of the old L&V Superette on Ville Platte’s south side. Clad in red to symbolize the blood of Jesus, she stood before the crowd, with a hearse and a casket behind her. Deville, a Ville Platte native, had returned to her old neighborhood to deliver a message of hope.
“Ville Platte, today I just want to tell you that God has a concern for you!” said the impassioned Deville to the crowd. “His heart is beating in this region. You are God’s heart beat in this hour. God loves each and every one of you!” She also said, “It’s time to intercede for the city of Ville Platte!” She implored the neighborhood to “stop the gun violence! Stop the hate! Stop the jealousy! Stop the gossiping! Stop pointing the fingers! Let’s come together in unity! That is my cry for this city. I love you.”
Deville reflected on the August 9 street ministry. She said some in the crowd seemed nervous, but she reassured them, telling them they were there to love them. She said the owner of the old L&V shut down the store to let them preach outside without interruption.
The street ministry that day came just two days after five-year-old Deamonte J. Wilson was shot while a passenger in his father’s car. He was shot near the old L&V Superette. A mere hours before the shooting, Deville and her team had put up flyers announcing the upcoming service. Deville attributes the coincidence to God’s timing. She said the shooting was a wake up call to everyone in the neighborhood.
In her younger days in Ville Platte, Deville found herself involved with certain transgressions in her neighborhood on Ville Platte’s south side, also called The Wood. Bishop Vernice Seriale, Sr., a Ville Platte native, would go to the Martin Luther King Center in town and preach for those in the community. He did this for 10 years. Deville was one of the recipients of these holy messages.
“This year is my 30 year mark of being delivered from drugs, from alcohol, from prostituting, and from the ‘hood. God delivered me.” She said her whole family was delivered under his ministry.
Deville’s past misdeeds come from a place of pain. She was victimized by a man she believed to be a deacon or pastor. “Right on the corner of Dr. Carver, in the ‘hood, I was picked up at the age of eight years old and molested. I remember a bible, a five-dollar bill and a baby doll.” That incident was a catalyst for her future transgressions. “That took me to a whole lot of places, but God has spared my life from many things ... bullets waiting for me ... I didn’t get killed, but the person I was going to be with did. There was a purpose. I was to come back here and bring hope to lots of people.”
Twenty-one years ago, Deville left Ville Platte for Houston with her husband, Wallace Deville, Jr. They left on their five-year wedding anniversary. After moving to Houston with her husband, Deville created God’s Glory Revealed Ministry on bishop Seriale, Sr.’s birthday. Even though she lived and ministered in Houston, Deville said her “passion” and her “heart” has always been for her old neighborhood.
“My bishop prophesied to me and told me God would send me back and do ministry,” said Deville. “And just like he said, it happened.” Since coming back, she opened up La Deville Bridal Salon. “I opened it for a year and just observed the community, because God told me He would come by way of that. When I left from here [all those years ago] I closed three businesses: a bridal salon, a clothing boutique in the ‘hood, and I had a game room for the neighborhood children.” The game room was on Rozas street. “The game room was for the children. They would come and play arcade games and shoot pool and we made nachos and hotdogs and we kept it clean. I’d take the kids to Houston to my bishop’s church. He had a really big church. We’d take them to Dallas. A lot of them never really went anywhere. This is all they know, so when we were here we did a lot of that.” The building is now used as a church.
“My coming back is divine appointment,” she said. “I never want to get the glory for nothing, that’s why my ministry is God’s Glory Revealed Ministry because I want God’s glory to be revealed,” said Deville. Her ministry scripture is Isaiah 40:5: “And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
The theme of her street ministry is “A Mother’s Cry.” Deville said, “My mother would cry. She was living in Houston and would call me while I was in the club and it hurt her, the life I was living. Mothers are crying because of drugs and alcohol, kids going to prison, gun violence, domestic violence. That was just to let these kids know it could be them in the casket. Just to let those guys out there selling the drugs know what they’re doing to the mothers. The mothers are crying for their children who are getting killed. And they have mothers, too, and I’m sure their mothers are crying because of what they’re doing. When I was out there, I could have went to prison for five years. God delivered me. I can go back to the streets now. If God did that for me, there’s hope for them.”
When deciding where to start her ministry in Ville Platte, Deville said, “I asked God ‘where do I start?’ He kept telling me to go to the L&V. Deville had a dream once when she lived in Ville Platte long ago. She dreamed there was a huge snake in the ditch along the street that is now named Edward Knotoe Thomas. “That dream came to pass. That snake was the devil himself who was coming back to destroy the community. This was a vision around 20 years ago. This whole thing came full circle. I know I’m here for ministry. I know I’m here to write my book. My book is going to be ‘Carol’s Story, God’s Glory.’
Deville thanked Owens-Thomas Funeral Home for bringing the hearse and casket. She also thanked Chief Neil Lartigue and Mayor Jennifer Vidrine for allowing her to minister to the community. Lawrence Levy, a street minister whose ministry is Freedom World Ministry of Lafayette, helped Deville to minister to Ville Platte’s south side. “I’m seeing the fruit of this. People tilled the ground and sowed the seeds, we watered and God is getting the increase. I see their hearts. They’re excited. There’s so much going on in the community. They came together and cleaned up. I’m just seeing God’s glory being revealed. I couldn’t have done it on my own.”
Deville said she had a vision while at her father’s house one day. “I was in the bedroom and I woke up and I was so overwhelmed and the Holy Spirit was over me and he was saying the Lord was showing me rain, and the grass was green in the city of Ville Platte. I was so overwhelmed I was crying. I’m seeing that. It’s just really blowing my mind.”
The next phase is to go back and minister more to the community. “I just want to be there for people. We want to do things for the kids. Pastor Freddie Jack is going to be opening his gym. They’re going to take them back old school with jump rope, marbles and jacks. The community is doing a lot. It’s beautiful.” She also plans to have “A Mother’s Cry” high tea for ladies in the neighborhood who have lost their kids to gun violence or prison. “We’re going to honor them. We can go to their houses and pray and believe in God to bring the women together so that we can intercede for the city and the children.”
Deville’s sister, Stephanie Ward, does youth ministry with Deville. Coach Lionel Anderson, councilman who represents the district containing The Woods, wants to bring back more activities for the children in the community. Since Deville’s street ministry, the Woods community has begun cleaning up their neighborhood by picking up trash and clearing debris.
Deville concluded: “My motto is to give God the glory for it all.”