Members of IMPACT's Lumberjack crew work to repair damage from a roof on this property in Yadkin County last week during their mission work throughout the county. Members of the crew are front row from left: Jack Moss, crew chief, Rosie Crissman, Brittany Hutchens, Krystle Matthews, Jacob Boyles, Jamie Sloan, Alex Boyles. Second row from left: Brianna Pilcher, Diane Henderson, Weslyn Gough, Joy Lambert, Austin Hutchens. Third row from left: Gavin Hutchens, Renee Vanhoy, Joey Colvin. Fourth row from left: Adam Boles, Jim Hardy, Brady Williard. Other members of the crew not pictured are Sony Hobson, Monroe Hobson, Ryan Boles, Maurice Smitherman, Katrina Long, Bentley Pendry and Karl Kounce.
The week's worth of ministry and hard work has been in the planning stage for two years after a mission trip to West Virginia led four area youth pastors to realize the same work could be done for the residents at home.
The work involved on homes throughout the county includes helping single parent families, the elderly and disabled individuals with construction of wheel-chair ramps, roofing repairs, painting, building decks, siding, tree removal and many other things that homeowners may not be able to do or afford on their own.
All supplies and materials have been donated by the churches, local businesses and organizations. All work and supplies are free to the homeowners.
"Nick Poindexter, the youth pastor of Richmond Hill Baptist Church, Chris Hauser, the youth pastor of South Oak Ridge Baptist Church, Brent Winslow, the youth pastor of Union Grove Baptist Church and Jamie Reavis of South Oak Ridge Baptist put the plan together," Jack Moss, crew chief in charge of the project said. "Our church participated in a world event and some of the members thought our own county needed help as much as other areas of the country.
"DSS helps select the families as well as all the churches that are involved," Moss said. "There are 13 churches, 12 from Yadkin County and one from Maryland with 41 crews working all over the county. We have approximately 500 volunteers this week not counting the many volunteers of each church who are providing lunches at their churches throughout the county close to each work site. Then there are the volunteers of the churches helping to cook the evening meal that we have at the school. We have been truly blessed with the number of volunteers we have.
"Our Yadkin County school system has allowed us to use their facilities to house the all volunteer group, females in Forbush Middle School and males in Forbush High School and given us the opportunity to have this ministry here in Yadkin County."
Moss continued to say that churches all throughout the are had members who weren't scheduled to participate show up with tools and willingness to help out any way they could, whether for a couple hours or a couple of days.
"We have members this week who have taken their vacation time to participate to help out the residents in our area," Moss said.
"Blu Hutchens is over all 48 scheduled projects, but we picked up an additional three after beginning," he said. "There are eight supervisors who answer to Blu and each supervisor has six to eight projects each they are looking after. We had a lot of applicants who asked for help, over 70 I believe. Some of the projects were just to big to be completed in the week we had available.
"We have really competent, willing students as well as skilled adults working on the projects this week, and it's such a blessing to help out those who otherwise may not be able to have essential repairs made to their homes.
"The home we're working on now, the homeowner had a bad roof that was replaced by a few of the local churches a couple months ago, but the damage that was done to the inside of the house left the insulation and ceiling in terrible condition," Moss said. "We removed the plastic the homeowner had placed over the ceiling and replaced sheet-rock in the kitchen, living room and dining room along with all the insulation. We also painted the entire house and windows. New gutters are being added to the house also."
A few of the volunteer spoke of the work and the meaning of the mission in their lives.
"I'm of the administration staff of IMPACT and I just got back from college this week," Roseanna Crissman, age 19 said. "I've been going on mission trips for seven years. There has never been anything like this before in Yadkin County. There was a big planning process and we're hoping to help the community no only through our physical work, but through the sharing of God's love."
Jamie Sloan, 22, said this is her first mission experience, but hopes it won't be her last.
"I just graduated from Appalachia and I took a week off from work to be a part of this mission in Yadkin County," Sloan said. "I'm looking for a teaching position and this will only add to my learning experience.
"It has been an awesome experience so far," she said. "Being able to share Christ with others as a team working to help others is a great feeling.
"Our crew, the Lumberjacks began with 7 members, but as more people realize what we're doing and want to join, we now have 21 volunteers on our crew, all working to help others."
"I think mission projects teach us to not only serve ourselves, but to serve other people," Moss said. "We're serving God. The youth pastors heard God's call and initiated a response to honor him.
"It's a huge project in Yadkin county to benefit those in need and I hope that missions like this will continue here at home in the future," he said.
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