When part of a dilapidated home’s roof fell in last winter, a Dodge Dakota truck literally became home for a struggling older couple with no place to turn.
Today, because of the outreach of two local churches, plus a national Lutheran outreach, Dave and Susan Spurgeon of Columbus smile over their rebuilt house on 10th Street. They are just two of a number of local residents helped by a recent three-day Lutheran Workcamp that attracted Christian teens from around the country to serve older people and the disabled.
“It originally was just downright pitiful,” homeowner Dave Spurgeon said of their desperate predicament.
But, on a recent morning, he sat under a shade tree in his front yard and watched a group of teens put the finishing touches of powder blue paint on his house exterior and shed. And, though he is an understated man of few words, Dave Spurgeon expressed his gratitude for the free assistance as best he could.
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“This,” the man said, “is really nice. Without their help, we probably would have ended up in a nursing home.”
The workcamp included 237 young people from 13 churches in 12 states. They came here to be the figurative hands and feet of Jesus, and to offer practical home help to people without the physical or financial means to do the work themselves.
Chicago resident Stephanie Rice explained simply her decision to give up part of her summer break.
“I just felt like I could come here and touch someone’s heart,” Rice said during a break in painting the Spurgeon’s home exterior.
She skipped her own high school graduation parties for this. As she saw it, she was going forth for the sake of others.
“This is so much more important,” Rice said.
One 80-year-old local female homeowner with few resources told the teens a couple days beforehand that she had prayed for five years for someone to paint her house. Then she heard about St. Peter’s project.
She was so grateful that she emotionally hugged each of the teens who worked on her place. One, Columbus resident Kate Spurgeon, said she hopes to check on the resident from time to time.
Part of the need for such help is because previous programs through area agencies have been trimmed or discontinued in recent years.
Avon resident Lexi Narvell, a Methodist among mostly Lutherans, wanted to “experience what it’s really like to help other people.” Accustomed to assisting her dad at home, she loves climbing ladders, painting, you name it. So she saw the workcamp as a good fit.
“The idea of doing this with random people all over the country seemed like a ton of fun,” Nervall said. “I have now made a ton of new friends that I never would have met any other way.”
Workcamp participants slept on the floor of Columbus East High School classrooms and used the locker rooms and showers each day. Cafeteria staffers fed them some of their meals.
For lunch, each crew at each home location would have sack lunches together under a yard tree. They also included devotional prayers to help them build their relationship with God. That included eye-opening thankfulness for their own lot in life.
“We often don’t fully realize that we’re so lucky because most of us live in a nice house that’s well-painted and in really good condition,” Nervall said. “To see these other people who didn’t currently have a home in great condition and then to be able to work to give them that is really amazing.”
In the Spurgeons’ case, a crew from First Christian Church completed a massive overhaul of the home’s interior a few months ago. One volunteer was at the home nearly every day for weeks making sure needed repairs got done, Dave Spurgeon said.
Then along came the local St. Peter’s Lutheran Church hosting the workcamp and initiating 44 total projects, from new siding on some homes to sprucing up garages, funded by the church’s budget. St. Peter’s has seen enough need that some restoration or repair efforts will be undertaken later this year, possibly alongside volunteers from First Christian.
St. Peter’s Lutheran youth leader Greg Patterson of Elizabethtown enjoyed the outreach.
“This is just one more way of serving God by serving others,” said Patterson, who also works with the international Christian outreach Samaritan’s Purse. “Working with the kids is just something I love to do.”
Temperatures reached the 90s all three days the crews worked locally. Rice joked that she easily lost five pounds in the first couple days’ toiling alone.
“Oh, it was brutal,” Rice said of the heat and humidity. “But hey, we got a lot done.”
And the greatest warmth? That seemed to have surfaced in the love and goodwill extended to the needy.
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3
Number of days for the effort
12
States represented
13
Churches represented
44
Number of local projects completed
237
Number of teen participants
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