World Changers has reached the midpoint of its two-week summer home repair ministry in Chattanooga.
More than 170 student and adult volunteers of the Southern Baptist mission tackled 15 projects for needy, disabled and elderly families across the city last week. This week, a similar number of volunteers will tackle home improvement tasks for another 20 projects. Typical work includes exterior painting, fencing, landscaping and building wheelchair ramps.
"This is awesome, having all these lovely young people helping us out," Epiphany Turner said Thursday, mingling with volunteers in the front yard of her grandmother's home of 40 years in the Orchard Knob neighborhood.
Turner, who takes interdisciplinary studies with a sports emphasis online with the University of Memphis, said the 11-member team has transformed the house, which she guessed to be at least 70 years old.
"It was all dingy, stuff was falling, wood was rotting," Turner said. "Now it's just much better."
Dressed in jeans, T-shirts and ball caps, volunteers talked and laughed while they worked in the morning warmth. Some brushed white paint on the home's siding or replaced wood paneling in the roof over the front porch. Others caulked windows or did yard work, then broke for a short devotional service before lunch.
Launched in 1990, the LifeWay Christian Resources initiative has sent volunteers to Chattanooga since 2004. The work is part of Chattanooga's Summer Home Repair Program, in partnership with the city's Department of Economic and Community Development. The ministry provides the labor and the city provides paint, lumber and other supplies.
World Changers volunteer Taylor Martin, 19, of Saluda, S.C., said the ministry goes beyond fixing up people's homes. This summer makes the third time she has participated in the program, which requires volunteers to pay $340 for the opportunity to work in the heat for strangers in another city.
"We're working on houses, but the most important thing is getting to share the gospel," Martin said. "We come here to serve other people, but you know, going home looking back on the week, we get more out of it than they do. God changes our lives as we work for these people."
This also makes the third year for Cory Henderson, 23, who echoed Martin's comments. The work gives him the opportunity to spread the gospel and share his spiritual experiences with others.
"I fell in love with it," Henderson said of his first work trip with World Changers. "I enjoyed working, and I enjoyed helping people and serving people any way I could."
Church groups from Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia filled the ranks of last week's work crews, a World Changers news release said.
Neither Martin nor Henderson considered the summer heat, the manual labor or sleeping on an air mattress as challenges they face during the weeklong ministry.
"When you are actually going out into the neighborhood and sharing with others, if someone doesn't want to talk to you or rejects what you're saying, it's really hard," Martin said. "It's just hard to not get through to someone."
The goodbyes can be tough, Henderson said. After a week, fellow volunteers aren't strangers anymore and you've made new friends.
Both said they have kept in touch with friends they made on past ministry trips.
"Working in this city is a way to demonstrate that teens can get out of their comfort zone, work hard and help others," said Jordie Skinner, World Changers' missions and communications specialist.
Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleach_tfp.