Teens build faith through home repairs

By JOHN SKENDALL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Teenagers from Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and other states gathered in Youngstown this week to volunteer their sweat and prayers to the area needy.
The teens -- 140 in all -- are taking part in the Southern Baptist program called World Changers this week by repairing roofs and porches for disadvantaged homeowners, visiting nursing homes and offering puppet shows, games and stories at local parks.
Margarita Prado's East Avondale Avenue home is being re-roofed for free, thanks to the program.
"I think it's a blessing that somebody can afford to help us," said Prado.
The single, working mother of two applied for help through Jubilee Urban Renewal Corp. and found out recently that she would be getting the new roof, free of charge. Prado said she couldn't believe it.
A group of workers at a house on East Warren Avenue will build a new porch on the home, paint it and plant flowers.
Other homes
Six other homes will benefit from the construction.
"Helping others shows the love Christ has for us and other people," said Chris Clement, a 15-year-old from Bryant, Ark.
A group of boys leaned on the bed of a pickup truck Monday, wearing jeans and ragged T-shirts, ready for the day's work.
They were waiting for lumber and hardware while a group of girls followed up on their idea of planting flowers, crew chief Rodney Hays said.
Many of the teens said they have done service trips like World Changers before, including Habitat for Humanity.
The teens paid on average more than $100 to travel to a different state and work all week for no pay.
Team leader Jacqueline Ward of Huntington, W.Va., is traveling across the country this summer to supervise the 82 construction and community service projects hosted by World Changers.
She hopes neighbors will be inspired to see young people working hard and making a difference in an adult's life.
Lizzie Carlton, 15, of North Carolina, gathered piles of shingles as they rained down from the two-story roof, where more than a dozen of her team members were hard at work.
Purpose
The group's purpose is "to do what God wants us to and minister who we can, how we can," Carlton said.
She said her friends were supportive of her service trip but were not going to run out and follow her across the country to do volunteer work.
Making physical improvements to neighborhoods is only one part of the World Changers mission. Their focus is to spread a Christian message of charity and love and to change people's perceptions.
"They see that people actually do care and that they are willing to help," Carlton said.
World Changers came to Youngstown through the Steel Valley Baptist Association and the Greater Youngstown Coalition of Christians. They have worked on a total of eight houses, visited two nursing homes and hosted vacation Bible school at four local parks.
The goal is to have a revitalization and a rejuvenation of people in their community, said Joe McGeorge, a coordinator of World Changers and director of Warriors Inc., a Baptist business organization in Youngstown.
McGeorge said he wants to see people get involved, take pride and work together again in the community, as well as turn to God for salvation.