World Changers renovate Pittsburg homes
By Tori Lyle
White paint-streaked hair breaks free of its rubber-band bonds in the 95-degree Texas heat. The hair belongs to Pittsburg teenager Alexis Thrapp, who also sports white paint on her arms, legs, shoes and the paintbrush she’s holding. The teen worked last week in Pittsburg with World Changers, an national home repair mission group. Miss Thrapp just returned from a different mission trip to Guatemala, but worked last week to help Pittsburg homeowners with simple home repair while at the same time strengthening her relationship with God.
“One of the thing we talked about in Guatemala is how your mission shouldn’t stop when you get back home,” she said. “Your mission should spread to your home. I wasn’t expecting this much hard work, but I’ve enjoyed it though.”
Miss Thrapp is one of more than 30 students from Pittsburg assisting the 175-member group of World Changers, an initiative of LifeWay Christian Resources, now in its third year of bringing its home-repair ministry to Pittsburg. Members of First Baptist Church once participated in the ministry in other cities, but are now able to bring it to their hometown. There were 13 jobsites last week and homeowners received services such as exterior painting and roof repair.
Aaron Chan traveled from Houston to be able to work with World Changers and said he felt like he was giving back to a community in need. “I feel like I’m gaining good experience,” he said. “I live in the city, so we don’t do manual labor that much. I like helping people and giving the owners a new home or at least a better home than what they had before.” Nine church groups from Texas and Georgia participated and everyone lodged at First Baptist Church.
Terra Dodd, World Changers staff member, said participants come together each night in group fellowship before breaking apart into individual church groups. “They talk about what they’ve accomplished and how they’re growing,” Ms. Dodd said. “They talk about what they feel like God is doing through them.”
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