cktimes.ca Archives for The Pastoral Lens
The Pastoral Lens
Work, Sweat, and Fun
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
By the time you read this article, the Wallaceburg/Walpole Island community will be buzzing with the sounds of pounding hammers, swishing paintbrushes, and squeals of laughter, as 290 youth and adults from various places in the United States keep busy at the Northern Lights Workcamp. The project, aimed at helping seniors and low-income homeowners with house repairs, is the brainchild of Group Workcamps Foundation, an organization situated in Loveland, Colorado. Thanks to the hard work and vision of Doug Friesen, a local youth worker in the area, our community will benefit from hundreds of hours of free labour on approxiamately 39 homes. What began as a great idea for a needy community has culminated into a full blown renovation project of homes and lives.This project is no ordinary construction job. The fleet of volunteers from the U.S. have each paid $415 U.S. for the privilege of giving 5 days (one afternoon off.....hey, we're not trying to bring back slavery, you know!) of work to various home repair projects. Some of their funds will go to supplement what local people have contributed for the materials (shingles, lumber, paint, etc.). Their deluxe accommodation includes a good night's rest in a sleeping bag on a classroom floor of the Wallaceburg District Secondary School.. Local contractors will assist in teaching the mostly teenage work crews the basics of the work to be done. Nevertheless, all the work will be done by these kids. They paid to come here and work, and that's what they're going to do.
I see this project communicating 2 fundamental messages to our community. First of all, the efforts exerted give tangible evidence to the homeowners that there is a God who loves them and cares about the needs they have. Any reading in the Gospels, the first 4 books of the New Testament, reveal this very nature of Jesus Christ. He spent His days teaching the people and ministering to their needs. We need to hear that message today. In a society where so many do without, all the while seeing selfishness abound, the efforts of this workcamp show that God's love is not lost and it isn't just happening somewhere else. Secondly, the bad rap that teenagers get in this community is confronted with an opposite message. Not all teenagers bust stuff and don't care. The presence of our American guests should serve as a reminder that we have some pretty good kids in this area, too.
Stay tuned next week for a report on how this project went......through a pastoral lens!
