Video: ‘World Changers’ Build Relationships while Rebuilding Homes

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NORTH MISSISSIPPI (WCBI) — With funding from the Golden Triangle Baptist Association, well over three hundred teens and young adults from the christian organization World Changers are on a mission. Twenty-nine crews from 16 churches across the south are revitalizing substandard housing. R. H. Brown visits a few of the 29 work sites where various kinds of construction projects are being hammered out.

Before the sun gets too hot, immediately after day break and under the watchful eye of World Changers crew chief John Osborne, a house in Oktibbeha County is getting some much needed repairs.

“Taking and replacing some rotten wood around the facial around it. And replacing some boards around the bottom that are rotted out. Doing some painting for them. So, just trying to make the place look a little bit better for them.”

“This is something we needed done and now we can’t, we weren’t able to you know get up to do it and it’s a blessing to have this done, it is. R. H. Brown Couldn’t go up high on that roof could you? Margie Hubbard No I sure couldn’t.”

“This is a nice group of people here. They came out this morning and then they all gathered up and got in a huddle. They prayed before they did anything. That’s great.”

“This is our 8th year doing this. We’ve been all over the south. Tupelo Mississippi, we’ve been to Birmingham, went to Birmingham last year. Huntington, West Virginia, Memphis. So we’ve been to a few places.”

Dedicated high school and college students, often giving up a Summer vacation and making other sacrifices to help a neighbor they’ve never met. Another crew in West Point are doing some roofing. For Joshua Matthews and his wife Tiffany, who gives herself an A plus when it comes to roofing, That dedication for them means providing this service to others… on the eve of their first wedding anniversary on Wednesday. Its become a source of joy and fulfillment as they work for a divine cause higher than themselves.

“Why do we do it? To help other people. Its always a good feeling when you can help someone out and they truly appreciate it.”

“We just love helping people out and I mean its always fun to come to World Changers. I mean its always a great experience for us and I mean its our second year.”

This concept of neighbor helping neighbor seems to be catching on, and not only are minor repairs being taken care of… people and relationships are being cemented together across the south.

“And I’d like to introduce this project to my church. And hopefully, you know I can get my kids to do the same thing. I call them my kids at my church.”

World Changers is an initiative of LifeWay Christian Resources and is in its 23rd summer, working to improve substandard housing.