About 100 youth converged on North Chesterfield last week to help with various projects on six homes in the Jefferson Davis Highway corridor.
It was the second year that Impact Mission Camps – a subsidiary of the non-profit Baptist General Association of Virginia – came to the area to help.
Glenn Maddox, the group’s missions mobilizer, said that North Chesterfield was one of five locations in Virginia and North Carolina where the teams helped.
Now in its 26th year, Impact Mission Camps makes repairs to owner-occupied homes to ensure the residents are safe, warm and dry, he said.
Some 20 adults served as chaperones and about 50 adults from the Richmond area also helped, Maddox said.
Examples of jobs the teams performed include: roof repair, building a wheelchair-accessible ramp, siding repair and painting.
“For me, it’s about helping kids engage their faith by helping others,” Maddox said. “I really love to see kids leave from camp excited about being on mission.”
Maddox’s son, Graham, 12, said he was really excited to help after having been around the projects in previous years. One must have finished sixth grade to be a team member, he said.
“I’m just glad we got to reach out to the community and help,” said Chesterfield resident Adam Sahms, 12.
C.W. Carter, 58, of Chase City, said he’s been involved with Impact Mission Camps for 14 or 15 years. His daughter helped with the project for six or seven years, he said.
“What got me was watching the kids’ worship after supper,” he said. “The kids enjoy doing stuff for the homeowners and working for the Lord, and you can tell it in their worship.”
Other sites where Impact Mission Camps helped this year were Bluefield, Danville and Cape Charles, along with Jones County, N.C., the latter which was heavily hit by Hurricane Florence last year, Maddox said.
Impact Mission Camps plans to do more week-long summer projects in the Jefferson Davis Highway corridor over the next three years.
