Jackson Lewis and his wife, Margaret, take trips all over the place doing missions work for the sake of the gospel.
But one week in the middle of July, the couple, members of First Baptist Church, Pinson, pulled together a group of teenagers from all over to help meet a need close to home instead.
The need: The home of Marion and Patricia Taylor in Birmingham’s Ensley community, a house with a falling-in roof and a desperate need for some repairs and paint.
Compared to some of the places the Lewises have been, the home is still a mansion.
But the help touched a place deep in the Taylors’ hearts, Jackson Lewis said.
“They’ve both been crying about getting the help, about seeing these teenagers’ faith in action,” he said. “This is the way Christ reached people — He ministered to their needs. And that’s what we feel like this is — a ministry.”
That’s the way hundreds of youth and adult leaders like the Lewises felt during this summer’s World Changers efforts in the state, taking place in the Birmingham area for four weeks in June and July, as well as:
- in Huntsville June 20–27,
- in Florence July 4–11 and
- in Anniston July 18–25.
These were part of a number of World Changers projects going on around the United States, including Puerto Rico, as well as Canada.
Huntsville is used to seeing hundreds of students arrive each year at the end of June, but they never cease to rock the community, said David Cochran, minister of missions and outreach at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, who served as project coordinator for Huntsville’s World Changers week.
“It went very well but it’s always good — this is our 12th year,” Cochran said.
About 275 participants finished projects at 20 homes during the week.
“The students were very faithful in their witness and there were more than 200 opportunities to share,” Cochran said.
Birmingham saw similar results, with 52 low-income homes repaired in June alone. During that time, 27 professions of faith were made, according to Birmingham Baptist Association.
That’s what it’s all about, said Josh Simmons, a 10th grader who came from Brandon, Fla., to work in Birmingham.
“I felt a call from God to come show them the same love God showed us — but in a different way, through sweeping or painting or roofing,” he said.
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