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Michigan volunteers give helping hand to Youngstown church
YOUNGSTOWN
Preaching and pipe organs took a back seat to power tools and paintbrushes last week at Martin Luther Lutheran Church on the South Side when a group of out-of-state volunteers visited to help renovate the building.
Twenty members from Knapp Street Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., traveled to Youngstown to spend the week volunteering. During their visit, the volunteers have repainted rooms, replaced a buckling floor in the church’s gym and renovated the building’s youth room and its restrooms.
Martin Luther Lutheran Church was built in 1936, and while much of the building is still in working order, several spots throughout the church have sustained water damage, rot or – in the case of the gym – warped flooring.
Members of Knapp Street Church have taken similar trips to help churches in need of repairs every other year for the last 10 years. Scott Rollenhagen, one of the organizers of the trip and a construction contractor in Grand Rapids, said the trips began as an alternative to spring break.
“I wanted to give my daughter an opportunity to do something that focused on service and practical discipleship with her spring break. The trips grew out of that idea,” Rollenhagen said.
On Thursday, members of the volunteer team were on extension ladders painting over recently dried plaster and cleaning up debris from the gym-floor renovation. The two churches were brought together by a mutual contact in Youngstown.
Martin Luther Lutheran Church has one of the only full-size basketball courts on the South Side in its basement, which is open to local teams for practices as well as neighborhood youths. The basketball court is a major draw for bringing students in off the streets, so the church’s pastor, Pastor David Kamphuis, was especially pleased with the team’s work on the floor.
“Practically speaking, a lot of what needed repaired had to be done for the church to continue in its mission in the neighborhood,” Pastor Kamphuis said. “The gym is especially crucial – we have people using the gym every single day.”
The visit is of mutual benefit to both churches: Martin Luther Lutheran Church receives free renovations, saving them tens of thousands of dollars in renovation costs, and the volunteers receive a practical opportunity to put their faith into action and meet with individuals from various backgrounds and perspectives.
Pastor Charles Hudson, Martin Luther Lutheran Church’s after-school program leader, runs the Bondage Breaker program, which he began in 1987 in South Central Los Angeles. Hudson, originally of the East Side, has spent the majority of his adult life working with inner-city youths and gang members. His son, Charles Hudson Jr., was killed in 1995 after a drive-by shooting in Youngstown, prompting him to return to the area and continue his Bondage Breakers program locally.
Hudson’s after-school program, which incorporates sports, computer work and open communication between leaders in the church and the students, attracts students from across the city.
“I don’t care if you’re white, black, Christian, Muslim, whatever. You can come here, and we’ll love you all the same,” Hudson said. “We’re all one race, one blood ... just different types.”
While volunteers from Grand Rapids were painting, local volunteers from Martin Luther Lutheran were spending time with a group of neighborhood girls, showing them how to make paper roses. Later, the volunteers planned to show the kids how to make a quilt. In the basement gym, paying no attention to the construction dust kicked up during the renovations, a pair of boys took turns shooting a basketball.
Dawnlynn Suttorp, a volunteer from Michigan, was reluctant to receive any praise for her group’s visit.
“We’re just here to help,” Suttorp said. “The real story is how much this church does for this community.”