There are young people who eagerly pay money out of their own pocket for the privilege of spending a week putting a new roof on someone else’s house. The work is hard and dirty, the days hot and exhausting.
Bennett Graves, a student from Camden First Baptist Church, installs roofing felt at a World Changers worksite in Greenville.They are Christian teenagers who seek to change the world one roofing project at a time, and this summer more than 19,000 of them are fanning out across the U.S. and Canada as part of the World Changers ministry.
In its 22nd summer of operation, World Changers, an initiative of LifeWay Christian Resources, assists cities across North America to alleviate substandard housing. This summer, 90 projects will take place in more than 85 cities.
Seventy-six World Changers spent June 11-16 replacing roofs on 10 homes in Greenville and seeking to build relationships with the homeowners. They came from churches in South Carolina and Alabama. For many of them, it wasn’t their first time.
“This is something that’s very meaningful to me,” said Alex Sherman, 18, of Birmingham, Ala., a World Changer volunteer for the fourth straight summer. “A lot of youth trips are retreats where we pull into ourselves, but this is more about serving and sharing what we’ve been given in a meaningful and concrete way.”
Sherman, who just graduated from high school, wants to be a missionary or a youth minister. Next year, he will delay his college education to spend six months with an organization called Experience Missions, where he will work with people in New York, Haiti, Jamaica and Costa Rica.
For Kayla Cook, a 17-year-old rising senior at Lugoff-Elgin High School, the Greenville project marked her third summer to work with World Changers. “I love doing things to show what Christ has done for me,” said Cook, who has served with the ministry previously in Nashville, Tenn., and Cherokee, N.C.
Christine Chandler and Erin Brown, from Birmingham, Ala., sweep debris off a roof after scraping away a layer of old shingles.Cook traveled to Greenville with 12 fellow students and six adults from her home church, Camden First Baptist. She said re-roofing a person’s home sometimes softens a skeptical heart and opens up an “opportunity to evangelize.”
Erin Brown, 16, a member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., said she decided to be a World Changer for a second summer because it was an opportunity to “follow Christ’s example to serve.”
The first thing she plans to do when she gets home? “Take a nap.”
World Changer participants went through a six-part training session before tackling their first project. Edwards Road Baptist Church hosted the students and adult leaders for the week.
In Greenville, the World Changers initiative was a partnership between the City of Greenville, Greenville Baptist Association and area churches, said Joel Thrasher, missions strategy leader for Greenville Association. Thrasher has worked with World Changers since the organization first came to town in 1999.
“The students are enthusiastic, and they’ve also been engaging people in conversations,” he told the Courier. “It’s been a great week.”
Edwards Road Baptist Church in Greenville served as home base for 76 World Changer student volunteers and adult leaders.