World Changers bringing help home

Mary Watkins has been in her Greenwood Avenue home for 46 years, and she'd like to stay a little longer.

Thanks to some of the 390 World Changers volunteers in Chattanooga this week, she'll be able to.

"My roof was leaking," Ms. Watkins said. "I needed (help)."

World Changers, a ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, had 32 crews doing home renovation and other jobs for low-income families at 31 local work sites in Chattanooga over the week.

Next week, several hundred more volunteers will do the same thing at other local sites.

Across the country this summer, 23,000 junior high school, high school and college students and staff members will fan out with the organization to do work in 95 United States locations and 28 international ones.

Paris Gorham, who is serving as the local communications coordinator for World Changers, said the Southern Baptist Convention and the city's Department of Neighborhood Services and Community Development are supplying materials for the work.

The city is furnishing about $70,000 worth of materials and supplies for the two weeks, according to Beverly Johnson, administrator of the Department of Neighborhood Services.

Each volunteer pays $260 "to work on the roof and sleep on the floor," Ms. Gorham said.

The teens and adult workers sleep at Brainerd Crossroads, a ministry center that is part of Brainerd Baptist Church, and are fed at work sites and at the church by members of various Baptist congregations.

Aaron Langston, 19, a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Pleasant Grove, Ala., said as "encourager" for the team at Ms. Watkins' house, it was his job to keep the workers' spirits high on and off the job site.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham student said working with others to benefit people they've never met -- while at the same time offering an example of what Christians are and what they do -- is what compelled him to volunteer for World Changers for a third consecutive year.

"The opportunity to serve is something I enjoy," he said.

Ms. Gorham, a student at Towson State University in Maryland, is in her first year as a staff member after two years as a volunteer. She said World Changers is a positive outlet for youth who don't work or feel they have nothing to do with their spare time.

"It's wonderful seeing people come together in tough economic times like these," she said.

Molly Willoughby, 12, a member of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Lumberton, N.C., said she has met a lot of other people and had fun in her first year as a World Changers volunteer.

"It's a good opportunity to serve God and help these people," she said.

The 12-member team at Ms. Watkins' home tore off the rear portion of her roof, jacked it up for better water runoff, replaced some of the decking and reroofed it. Team members also painted the home's trim, fascia and shutters.

The homeowner said she'd heard about the work of World Changers from somebody at her church and applied to have work done at her house.

"They've been very good," she said.