Talk about mission work in your own backyard. Some members of First United Methodist Church decided that's what their faith had called them to do. But instead of just volunteering to do good in one place or another, they decided to establish a whole, new, community non-profit.

Then, committed to a metamorphosis of whatever they touched, they called their nonprofit "Butterfly Community Ministries," and set to work.

Their first project amounted to showering kindness and attention, not to mention toys, clothes and food-on a group of disadvantaged youngsters on the other side of town. A couple afternoons a week these days a few Butterfly volunteers also offer tutoring to these kids, all members of the Sherman Park Our Club that meets in the old Argenta train depot.

Julie Drake, the church's program director and a Butterfly volunteer, said the idea for the nonprofit, completely separate from the church, grew out of a desire to "work outside the walls of the church."

But the larger idea, said Gail Schulte, who sits on the Butterfly board, was a true community organization here that some day might involve people of other religious affiliations, not to mention be eligible for federal grant money to pour into a wide variety of good works-all in North Little Rock.

"Then we began looking for a project we could start with," she said.

So it was that Butterfly Ministries emerged from its cocoon and took flight after Steve Nawojczyk, the city's director of youth services, approached the Rev. Russell Moore, board member of Butterfly and pastor of First United Methodist about working with Our Club.

"I invited him [Moore] down to take a tour, and after only about 15 minutes, he turned to me and said, 'This is where we need to be,' " Nawojczyk recalled.

Every Tuesday last summer, a handful of Butterfly volunteers went to the club to spend an hour playing games and visiting with the kids.

"We just wanted to let them know someone cares about them," Drake said. But they didn't stop there.

Last Christmas the nonprofit asked the congregation to support an "angel tree" with ornaments bearing the names of Our Club families for whom they were asked to help make Christmas merrier.

Now, Drake said, on a monthly basis, at least 70 congregation members are involved in one way or another, volunteering time or goods.

One women's circle brings snacks for the club; the children's Sunday School classes donated toys and food for Our Club kids at Christmas; and the Cub Scout group that meets at the church has collected books and games for them.

"People participate in a lot ways," Drake said, noting that every Sunday when she comes into her office, she finds three bags of groceries for Our Club families, yet she has no idea from whom they come.

But then, Butterfly Ministries also provided a new refrigerator for one family and an air conditioner for another, and last fall worked with members of the Sherman Park community to winterize area homes.

The group has also organized outings for Our Club, bringing the kids to the church for a movie or taking them to Funland in Burns Park.

As for the tutoring-mostly by eight retired teachers, librarians and businessmen-it has served to improve the performance of three students so dramatically that for the first time in their young lives they made the honor roll.

It is accomplishments like these that make Leifel Jackson, co-director of the Sherman Park Our Club, smile. As a reformed gang leader who served time in federal prison for selling drugs, Jackson knows the pitfalls of growing up poor as well as the temptations of the streets. Under his leadership the club has grown from about six kids to more than 40, and Jackson credits a holistic approach in sync with Butterfly Ministries.

"We not only work with the kids, but with their families and with the whole community," he said.

Small wonder Schulte sees Butterfly's work as having only just begun. She's already talking about more projects, possibly even a teen youth center.

"We hope we're making a difference," Drake said.