Each summer, Faith Presbyterian Church participates in Group Publishings' workcamp program. The primary goal is the spiritual growth of high school and college students. As the ultimate expression of Christian service, Workcamps offer a fun, challenging, faith-building mission adventure you'll never forget. Workcamps are an intensive week of community service offering teenagers an opportunity to perform hands-on home-repair projects for low-income families.
Students do not need to be experienced carpenters or painters to participate. Projects include carpentry, roof repair, step and porch construction, weatherization, wheelchair ramp construction, painting, and drywall.
Youth work with and make lasting friendships with Christians from all over. As they serve, their confidence and character grow like never before. Their faith ignites as they complete hands-on, meaningful work that really counts, and they discover a genuine appreciation for all God has given them.
Since 1977, Group Workcamps have offered fun, faith and friendship. More than 160,000 youth and adult leaders have deepened their Christian faith while serving thousands of disabled, elderly, and disadvantaged families across the US and Canada.
Some residents must choose between putting food on the table and fixing a leaky roof. The real repairs, however, are done not to the homes, but to the lives of those you touch. Workcamp is a character and faith building adventure you'll never forget!
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Today was the last day of Workcamp, on this day most crews have finished their jobs and were ready for some rest after a long week of work. It was also the day when most crews presented the residents their gifts. Many crews gave the residents something to remind them of who had been there and what had been accomplish. Also today the residents were able to visit the workcampers during the evening ceremony and participate in the singing, praying, and other end of the week activities.
Today, when we were all sharing our god sightings Dan shared a story with us about how he and his crew had adopted their residents neighbour as their resident. He also mentioned how the neightbour, Ms.Dixie, had jumped in front of a moving van in order to have a group prayer with his work crew.
Today, many important things happened. Many of the crews were able to finish at their work sites today enabling them to go to other sites and help even more people. Many people had a god sighting in the form of food from the residents, which was great considering the small amount of food we are given here. Katie also had a big god sighting, which was that her resident has had cancer twice, a hip replacement, two strokes, and several other things, but she still found enough strength and will power to be able to talk and pray with Katie and her crew. Once we got back from the work sites, Josh noticed he had some paint in his hair, so he decided to shave his head. Jack, Phil, Mark, and Dan all had a blast cutting off and shaving his head in the bathroom over the sink. With aerodynamic Josh ready to go, the group went to the evening program. Tonight, however, was special because it was cry night. The entire group had a chance to think of their lives and their relationships with God. There was a lot of crying, but more importantly there was a lot comforting among the group, which shows how close this church family really is.
Jeannie Mayo has been leading us each morning in our daily send off services. This morning, we started focusing on how our friends play an important role in our spiritual lives. As the day went on, we saw this lived out all about campus.
Work on the sites has been progressing quite well. Josh's crew is doing some interior painting and will soon be done at their site. Phil's crew will finish up their exterior painting job tomorrow morning and today his resident joined the crew for their devotion time. At the the age of 14, she was forced to leave her childhood home. Her story has really resonated with the youth who are of a similar age when this incident occured. She is still young and they had a God sighting today as the resident's son was acepted into a Christian school. Jack's crew is also close to finishing and they are really growing closer to their residents. They have joined in group devotions and shared extensively.
Tonight was a fairly emotional service which asked the campers to look at their lives and the choices they make. This particular camp has a lot of 1st time campers and few of them took the program seriously. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful group of young men and women and their commitment to taking this week seriously is something we cannot take for granted.
Tonight also marked the beginning of the faith competitions where Meghan destroyed everyone by successfully completing 16 pull-ups... Congratulations to Meghan for finding a way to humble Chad... Tomorrow's competition is the 100 yard dash and hopefully we will see a few of Faith's finest talents on display in the variety show as audiotions were today.
Tomorrow is a half day of work and we'll spend the afternoon exploring Savannah. Until then, keep the faith!
