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This area is blessed with an abundance of riches, but not the type money can buy.
You can put a price on paint, wood, hammers, nails, ladders and other tools.
When you put together 200 teenagers and more than 75 adult volunteers who gave up a week of their lives to complete home repair projects for their friends, neighbors or total strangers, there’s only one word to describe it.
Priceless.
Once in a while, it’s nice to remember how rich — in a spirit of helping others — this community is and always has been.
Sometimes, it takes a group of teenagers to help us understand how good we have it here. While these 200 teenagers from eight states — some traveling 15 hours just to get here — rubbed off on us, maybe, just maybe, a little bit of us rubbed off on them too.
With the blessing of the DeKalb Eastern school district, this mighty army took over Eastside Junior-Senior High School for a week — some of them sleeping 10-16 to a classroom on air mattresses, cots and sleeping bags, boys and men on one side of the school, girls and women on the other side.
After working all day in sweltering heat and humidity, they ate, slept, rejoiced and weeped together at the school, brought together for a common purpose, to serve others and spread the word of God.
Ben Fliehman, who will be entering 10th grade at Eastside this fall, said, “I didn’t realize how big a scale it was. It’s pretty cool seeing this.”
Pausing while building a ramp at a rural St. Joe home, he said, “I can help my local community while serving God in the process.”
Mike Ford, 17, and friends Karla Lamoureux and John Quirk, both 13, were part of a group that traveled 15 hours from Braintree, Mass., to be involved in TeenServe.
Ford had heard about TeenServe from his pastor, who was in his 11th TeenServe mission.
Ford hadn’t been west of Springfield, Mass. before this week. “I got to see a lot of new scenery,” he said. “There’s not a lot of corn where I’m from. There’s more apple trees than anything.”
Ford’s group was originally enlisted to paint a house. The project became much more involved.
Brush and small trees had to be cleared away so scraping of the old paint could begin. This took all of one day, while scraping continued into Thursday. On one side of the house, some team members scraped the old paint, while on the far side, the rest spread the fresh coat of paint.
“I like to be able to serve God in a hands-on manner with others who love God,” explained Amy Longfellow, of Grand Rapids, Mich.
This was her second time with TeenServe and sixth mission trip. “Last year, we remodeled an entire house, including cutting down a ceiling,” she said. “It was a lot of work, but it’s really rewarding and the residents really appreciate it.”
“Not only are you spreading the word of God to other people, it helps you grow as a person,” explained Alisha Clements, part of a group from Plainfield, Ill.
“It helps you grow your relationship with God, which I like.”
This was the eighth TeenServe mission for adult volunteer Candy Johns of Pickerington, Ohio.
“I love teenagers,” she said. “They’re the best. It also helps us put our words into action.”
Johns remains in contact with many families and teenagers from past teams.
Zac Groskreutz, from Apple Valley, Minn., was on his first TeenServe trip.
“In the Bible, it says to be a servant to others,” Groskreutz explained. “This is one way to do it.”
Greg Merz, an unemployed mechanical designer from Columbus, Ohio, was in his fourth stint as an adult volunteer. He’s always ready for the next mission.
“It’s an opportunity to use my gifts to help out others and be a witness for Christ,” Merz said.
In the days leading up to TeenServe, St. Joe residents Jason and Vicki Holman, part of the local organizing group, wondered what impact this work camp would have. It didn’t take long.
“People would drive by, honk their horns and give us their blessings,” Jason Holman said. “People were shocked to learn these kids paid to come here to work on their homes.”
His team was originally slated to paint a Butler home. The project was expanded to rebuild the front porch and construct an 8-foot-by-10-foot deck.
“Our kids stepped it up,” he said. “They really wanted to do this for the family.”
Afterwards, the family expressed a desire to become involved in a church.
“If one person is affected and wants to give their live to God, that’s worth it,” Vicki Holman said.
Jeff Jones is the editor of The Butler Bulletin. Questions and comments about this column may be sent by mail to: The Butler Bulletin, P.O. Box 39, Butler, IN 46721, by phone at 868-5501 or 925-2611, ext. 47 or by e-mail at
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