September 11, 2026, will mark 25 years since the opening of Righteous Oaks, the men’s Christian ministry located in Chunky, Mississippi. Bro. David Ray Mock, Rev. Jack Giles, Pastor of Church of the Way, and Bro. Jerry Brown, the owner of the property where the ministry is located, discovered a common calling, a desire to begin such a ministry for young men with all kinds of problems. Bro. Giles had been traveling to Dodson, Louisiana, to preach at Mt. Grace, a ministry similar to the Home of Grace in South Mississippi. Bro. Mock told me, “I met Bro. Giles there when I got my life straight.” They patterned the Chunky home after these places. Bro. Mock recalled that Bro. Giles “had a vision.” They agreed, “God put it all together.”
Bro. Brown offered his property for the use of this ministry. He and his wife Jean Meadows Brown, were married over 59 years before she passed away in 2024. They had two sons. One, Richie Brown, died in 2009, while their son Dr. Brent Brown, is an ophthalmologist in LaGrange, Georgia.
The land had belonged to the Seventh Day Adventists since 1934, who sold it to Bro. Brown in April of 1999. The Adventists had lived on the property, operating Pine Forest Hospital and a school. To begin the ministry, Bro. Brown and Bro. Mock, partners in the operation of the ministry, had to renovate it, which required reroofing 31 buildings, including a church and parsonage. It opened for ministry on 9-11, 2001. In 2004 , Bro. David’s father, now 87, came to go through the program,was freed from his addictions, and has lived there ever since. I was told, “Everybody loves Bro. Ray!”
Righteous Oaks, presently serving 39 men, is a 501-3C non-profit ministry, sustained primarily by donations and scholarships. Bro. Mock manages the place, assisted by a staff and pastors who come on a scheduled basis to preach and minister. Monday through Friday the men attend three services/day, with two hours of chores in the morning and two in the afternoon. Bro. Giles comes every Saturday morning to preach, and there is also a Sunday morning service. The men are given structure, discipline, and routine, while they are taught to “love themselves and forgive themselves for past transgressions.” Naturally, the main focus of the “Refuge” is Jesus and the Gospel.
Bro. David Ray Mock, of Pascagoula, was born July 13, 1961. His parents were Rayvone and Reba Jo Barnes Mock. David has one brother, Ricky Mock, living in Pennsylvania. In 1979 David graduated from PHS, then served ten years in the Army. He had given his life to the Lord in a Pentecostal church when he was twelve, was baptized but backslid and began having, as he said, “a drug problem, a sin problem, and a living problem.” He was restored later at an Ocean Springs revival. God has used all his past experiences for what he has been doing these 25 years. On July 24, 2013, he married Tracy Karnes Mock of Barnell, Arkansas. She has two daughters, and five grandchildren who call Bro. David “Papa.”
I had known of “Righteous Oaks” for years but had not learned much about it until now. Thank God for ministries such as this and for people who are willing to give their lives to help others through the love of God, the gospel of Jesus the Saviour, and the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives.
People get ready, Jesus is coming soon!
