Driving up the hill from Marvin Gaye Park along Division Avenue it is nearly impossible not to notice her at the bus stop in the 200 block with her microphone in hand. If you are a walker, whether going to school or just catching some early morning exercise, you are sure to receive a word of praise and blessings. Even, or especially rather, the members of the Sixth District police department, halting at the stop sign in their cruiser, receive a hail of “Hallelujahs!” Waves and smiles from the bundle of energy dressed in a red dress and heels resembling a parishioner at Sunday service.

Well, it is not Sunday service – it’s Wednesday, near dusk. Division Avenue’s own street preacher is spreading the Word of God.

Meet your neighbor – Eloise Archer.

Archer sets up her microphone, small coffee table dressed with a cloth to support her Bible and sign proclaiming “Jesus is Lord,” whenever she feels called to spread the gospel. Her usual times are in the early morning and in the afternoon when children are going to and from school. She sets up just next to the bus stop at the corner of Blaine and Division Avenue NE. She reads scripture from the Bible, sings spiritual songs and offers prayers and smiles to those who come by.

Archer began preaching and singing on the corner a little over two years ago. Before then neighbors could often hear her singing on her back porch. When a neighbor approached her sharing that the music was uplifting, Archer decided to take to the streets. She describes herself as a “voice crying out in the Northeast Wilderness … like John the Baptist was doing.”

Archer is different than many preachers, she doesn’t take up a collection for her ministry. “I don’t need money,” she shares. “I do it for the least, the lost and the unfortunate; those that have less than I do.”

There are times when passersby drop money near her. “I just leave it there and then put it in the church.” Collecting money is not her purpose. “My purpose is to say the Word.”

Archer also is very active as a singular force in beautifying her neighborhood. Each morning she walks her block and cleans the streets picking up trash that has been strewn over the streets, sidewalks and lawns.

“I don’t like trash in the neighborhood,” she says plainly with absolutely no fanfare. By herself she has decided that she will, in her words, “persistently and consistently” keep her block clean. Where she preaches the Word of God, she holds no judgments against those who litter in her neighborhood. When commuters come through and drop trash in the community, Archer does not say anything to the offenders. She patiently waits for them to leave and humbly picks up the offensive garbage and deposits it where it belongs.

“Even cigarette butts,” she says, and you can nearly hear “ewwww” somewhere behind her words.

She is the mother of four and now has four grandchildren. She proudly talks about the legacy of her parents who have formed her. She emphasizes how hard-working and neat they were. Not quite a “native” Washingtonian, Archer has been in DC since she was 5-years-old and can claim Washingtonian status. After leaving Georgetown in 1969, her family moved up to Kansas Avenue, where she lived when she graduated from Roosevelt High School. “Rough Riders. Orange and Blue,” she gleefully shares.

Back home, neighbors and strangers alike have stopped at the neatly picked corner to pray with Archer, to give their testimony and to sing on the mike. Children call her name, and many others yell “God Bless You.” Many just toot their horn and smile.

However, Archer’s amplified voice has caused problems with some neighbors. One neighbor regularly complained to her to turn down the mike. Archer suspected he had called the police on her on a couple of occasions. One afternoon the neighbor was sitting in his truck with a dead battery. Even with past complaints, he chose to go to Archer for a jump.

“You’re asking me for a favor?” she had asked him recalling the story with no hints of comeuppance.

Without any reservations, she provided the electrical spark that got his battery going. The neighbor is no longer on the block, but Archer is still offering a charge to anyone who comes along the 200 block of Division Avenue. A spiritual charge and an encouraging word. And please don’t drop anything, but be assured that she will pick up after you.