Changing the world one house at a time

They're trying to change the world, and the Valley is as good a place as any to start. World Changers, a Southern Baptist-affiliated group of middle school- and high school-aged students and their youth group leaders, were in the Valley this week, completing home repairs at eight sights from Big Lake to Palmer.

While they are helping others, they are also helping themselves, leaders said.

"They raised a lot of money to come up here and work on the roof hammering nails in the rain for people they have never met before on their summer vacations," said Chrisynda Moore, a World Changers spokesperson. "They do it for one reason. Their love of Jesus."

Churches from Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and here in Alaska supplied the 100 volunteers for the Valley work.

Previously this summer, different World Changers crews spent time in Nikiski and Anchorage performing home repairs.

The repairs are paid for by grants obtained by the Alaska Community Development Corporation (see sidebar), and carried out by the young workers.

"The opportunity to work with these young people is astounding," said team leader David Humphries of South Carolina. "They are willing to do everything, and they are excited to be here helping others and serving the Lord. This is all for Jesus. That's our bottom line."

Humphries and his wife were going to take a cruise to Alaska this summer as a vacation. Instead, they decided to come with World Changers, to give something back, he said. On Wednesday, he was leading a team that was putting a new roof on a Big Lake home. The students were putting shingles on one side of the roof while the other side was caulked and completed. A stairway with a chair lift and a new landing were also being installed.

"The residents, they see what you are doing for them and they are amazed," said Tony Legato of Michigan. "When we sit and pray, they are amazed."

The students all have to raise the $350 registration fee to come to Alaska, which is more expensive than other locations.

Many come back mission after mission, because they enjoy being a part of the World Changers atmosphere of Christianity and positive influences.

"I come because of the friendships we make. Crew-wise, we've got a good bunch of us and I like meeting people from around the country," said Legato, whose father, Kim, was a team leader of a job painting a Wasilla-area home. The Big Lake project was Legato's seventh World Changers project.

Mandy Weeks of Michigan also worked on the Big Lake home. She said Alaska's weather was easier to work in than her previous World Changers mission -- last summer, she was in Puerto Rico to help fix up homes there.

"It was 108 degrees, humid and we were on a tin roof," Weeks said.

When school starts in the fall and people start turning in their "What I Did on Summer Vacation" papers, World Changers volunteers won't have the most fun-filled essays. While others may go to Disneyworld or some other large amusement park, volunteers with World Changers can say they fixed a roof. But they wouldn't have it any other way.

"When you talk about what you were doing and why you came all this way to help others, that's what's important," Weeks said. "It's very rewarding, and we've had a blast."

That's exactly what World Changers is hoping for -- to get the word out what a great job young people are doing in the community -- communities they don't live in, either.

"The kids are excited to come to a new place, but they are ready to work, too," Moore said.