Earlene Wohlers

The first Chehalis Church Messiah Sing Along was in 1996, but it really began years earlier and far away.

All her posterior teeth were rotted to the gum line. Jennifer, in her mid-20s, said she “had been a heroin addict," but she was trying to get her life back in order.

It was something like playing musical chairs, except the junior-age children were going around a big table instead of chairs, and no one got eliminated.The 10- to 12-year-olds at Chehalis Church packed plastic baggies with small personal items for...