Thousands of Southern Baptist students — from teenage to college-age — will swarm into 93 U.S. cities this summer to work on 2006 World Changers mission projects to renovate substandard housing around the country.
Feb. 1 is the deadline for churches throughout the Southern Baptist Convention to pay $50-per-person deposits to “lock in” project and youth registrations. Created in 1990, World Changers is a mission experience packaged by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) enabling students to donate part of their summer to rehabilitate substandard housing. At the same time, they develop their mission skills, grow in their faith and share the gospel. Renovation projects will kick off June 10 and run through Aug. 5, said John Bailey, NAMB’s national manager for World Changers.
“We’ll hold our larger World Changers events, called our XL Projects, in Norfolk, Va., and Birmingham, Ala.,” Bailey said. “We’ll have 800 kids in Norfolk, which will feature well-known youth speaker David Nasser and Jami Smith and her worship band. In Birmingham, we’ll have 500 students and feature Mike Satterfield as speaker and the Warren Jacobs Band.”
Bailey said new cities participating in World Changers in 2006 include Little Rock, Ark.; Tulsa, Okla.; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Gallup, N.M. World Changers also is sponsoring several spring-break projects in March and April. In the wake of last fall’s devastating hurricane season, World Changers also is increasing the number of construction renovation projects in the affected states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. “Each year we’ve had from 1,100–1,300 Southern Baptist churches participate in World Changers by mobilizing their own youth groups and registering them,” Bailey said. “This year’s need is so great because of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, so we need even more caring churches to participate.”
World Changers construction teams are organized so that each team does work appropriate for the age group. Each team is headed by a crew chief — a Baptist builder or construction expert.
Students and/or their church pay an average of $260 each to cover the costs of the student’s food, lodging and transportation during the weeklong project. Churches that have not yet registered can go to the http://worldchangers.studentz.com site to sign up or see a list of project cities.
There is a $50 per-participant deposit, payable by the Feb. 1 deadline. This deposit secures a church’s registration. Churches can still register after Feb. 1. Balances are due either May 1 or June 1, depending on the project date and availability. For information call World Changers at 1-800-462-8657. (BP)
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