WILKINSON — Like many work trip teams, Tracy Schweizer and fellow church members spent a week of hard work together, repairing a wall, ripping out carpets and otherwise fixing up a house that a family calls home.
But at night, they each slept in their own beds before coming together at church the next morning for breakfast.
Schweizer said in this season of life, as a mother of three children, it’s hard to consider a work trip abroad. But when Wilkinson Church of Christ planned a mission week July 23 to 27, one focused on tasks close to home, Schweizer was on board.
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“It was really inspiring,” she said. “I loved it.”
Rebekah Grubbs, an organizer of the teams, said the week was an opportunity for many to get involved in helping others close to home.
“We know not everyone will be able to go on a mission trip or a domestic mission trip,” she said. “We also see the need in our area and wanted to help families in our community.”
Working at her team’s assignment, Schweizer helped tear up floors, walls and siding as the team repaired and refurbished the home for a couple and the five young grandchildren who live with them. Her daughter, Teagan, was also part of the team and chipped in by pulling weeds, staining a porch swing and working at other tasks.
The family living at the house made arrangements with relatives so they could stay off-site during the team’s work, returning to their home that Friday evening after a dinner and celebration at the church.
“It was like we were not in our own home,” Rene Jackson said of the transformation. “My husband and I were both crying.
“It’s hard to believe people did this — people that didn’t know us.”
She said some of the children screamed when they saw their rooms, redecorated and stocked with school clothes and supplies. “One of the twins just kept saying, ‘Thank you, Jesus; thank you, Jesus.’”
The Jackson home was one of 11 sites where teams from the Wilkinson church worked during the week. When more members signed up than could reasonably work at one time at home sites, the church reached out to towns in the area. Teams planted flowers at Shirley Park and painted fire hydrants in Knightstown.
At another house, Charles Halcomb was part of a team that installed a furnace, laid carpet, installed new kitchen cabinets and counters, painted and more to transform another home.
With 20 or so people working inside and out, “It was about like a little beehive,” he said.
Through the week, his team met with others at the church for breakfast, prayer and announcements. Then smaller teams would meet for more specific directions before heading to the worksites.
Some team members lingered late at their sites to get the job done.
“I’d go home every night wore out,” Halcomb said, “but it was a very good feeling knowing what we’d done.
“We just didn’t want to leave. Nobody regretted doing it … (There was) a lot of love going on around there.”
