One look at Lexi Moon and you know exactly what she’s been up to.
The boot on her left foot has a large splatter of white paint and her jeans and T-shirt are smeared with paint, too. Her hands are covered in it.
“Hey,” she said in mock protest. “I’m a good painter. I may not be a neat painter, but I’m a good painter.”
Moon is one of 134 volunteers who are in Lowndes County this week as part of a Christian-based service project called World Changers. The young volunteers, who are supervised by World Changer and local adults, are spending the week working on projects at 14 homes in the area. The homeowners, who were identified by churches from the Golden Triangle Baptist Alliance, are elderly, poor or disabled.
“The work we do, they couldn’t do for themselves,” said Shelby Hazzard, pastor of Woodland Baptist Church on Ridge Road. “They either don’t have the money to do this work that’s needed or they aren’t physically able to do it. Most of the time, it’s both.”
World Changers is an initiative of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Christian Resources. The program is in its 27th year. This summer, approximately 10,000 youth and young adult volunteers will spend a week of their summer vacation improving homes in more than 50 cities in the U.S. This is the fourth consecutive year World Changers teams have worked in Lowndes County.
Around the country
At 22, Moon is an old hand at this.
The senior nutrition and food science major at Georgia Southern University is one of nine members of her church group from Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Cochran, Georgia, here this week.
She went on her first World Changers trip as a 13-year-old and has volunteered every year since. She can rattle off her trips with ease — Talladega, Alabama; Birmingham, Alabama; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Owensboro, Kentucky; Waco, Texas; Smithville, South Carolina; Rock Hill, South Carolina; Augusta, Georgia and, now, Lowndes County.
“I got involved when our youth pastor, who is our pastor now, came aboard,” Moon said. “He really wanted to get involved in mission work, and one way to do is through World Changers youth trips.
“I fell in love with it. Every year I meet great people and serve great people and tell them about the most important thing in my life, which is Jesus,” she added. “It’s really awesome, a great time to bond with your church group but also meet new people and learn about them.”
Of the 14 area projects, it’s hard to imagine any are in more need of help than the one Moon and her fellow volunteers are working at in Steens.
Hazzard knew immediately this was a site that needed the help World Changers could provide.
“One of my members mentioned (the homeowner) to me and I came by and visited with her,” Hazzard said. “She was a single mom with four kids, one of them disabled.
“She told me she had been in an abusive relationship and had to get out,” he added. “Her dad got her this old trailer, but that was about all he was able to do. He didn’t have the money to fix it up and, as you can see, it needs a lot of work.”
The World Changers’ punch list for the trailer is extensive — repairs to windows, the front door, building a front porch and handrails, extensive repairs to ceiling and sheet rock, along with repairs to plumbing and electrical.
When finished, the trailer will be livable, at least.
A collaborative effort
In addition to Moon and two of her companions from Georgia, members from Victory Baptist Church in Guntersville, Alabama, are working on the project, along with a local, 23-year-old Will Breen of Caledonia who is a member of Woodland Baptist Church.
“I went to Birmingham on a World Changers trip when I was a teenager,” Breen said. “I’ve picked up a lot of skills since then, just about anything you need to do to build a house, so I thought I would help out here.”
The World Changers projects rely heavily on participation of local churches, who not only identify the homes that the groups will work on, but help in a variety of ways.
For the second straight year, Woodland is providing lodging for the workers and serving breakfast and dinner. Fairview Baptist in Columbus provided those accommodations the two previous years. The cost of materials — the average project is around $1,000 — is raised by the local churches as well.
“We couldn’t do any of this without the help of the churches in these areas,” said Jordie Skinner, a World Changers staffer. “It’s really a team effort.”
The work of the local churches may not be finished when the youth return to their homes, either. World Changers came to town; the Weather Changers did not. The forecast calls for heavy rains through the rest of the week.
“Hopefully, we can get all the work done,” Skinner said. “If it rains, there are a lot of projects that need inside work, so we can do that. And we do have a contingency plan so that if the projects aren’t completed by the end of the week, they’ll all be finished.”
The local churches have agreed to complete any unfinished projects.
Although Moon will be a college graduate by the time summer rolls around next year, she said hopes to return for her 10th World Changers trip.
“This is definitely not my last trip,” she said. “I’ll be back next year, somewhere. I’m not retiring my paint brush.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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