LINDA WORTHINGTON/UMCONNECTION | | Nicole Beach holds a ladder while her teammate scrapes paint during a recent workcamp. |
Five young people and an adult, all strangers to each other soon became fast friends as they worked together scraping and painting a house in Laurel. They were part of the 405 youth and adults and 25 staff who descended on Old Mill High School in Millersville the third week of June. They had come from seven states as far away as Arizona and Michigan and as close by as Nichols-Bethel UMC to spend a week painting and repairing homes throughout Anne Arundel County, at 51 sites within a half-hour's drive from Millersville. They were United Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Reformed and Roman Catholics. Nichols-Bethel UMC, led by Everette and Vicki Jordan, partnered with the Group Workcamp Foundation, referred to as 'Group,' to hold the first-ever Chesapeake Bay Workcamp. The Christian, non-denominational foundation has 29 years of experience in providing intensive, one-week mission trips for churches, Vicki Jordan said. The Nichols-Bethel-sponsored workcamp is one of Group's 56 such mission experiences this year across the United States, including several in Alaska. By the time the first vans pulled in at the school Sunday afternoon, the workcamp team and staff were ready. Classrooms were ready to be used as sleeping rooms, 'boys on one end and girls on the other,' Jordan said. The gymnasium had showers. They hired a summer cook staff, ready at the cafeteria to provide breakfast and dinner, with bag lunches to take to the sites. 'This (workcamp) is a great witness in the community,' said the Rev. Eric Lohe, a Presbyterian minister from Indianapolis on Group's staff, who was camp director. 'We make these connections in the community in the name of Christ.' For the past 11 years, Nichols-Bethel UMC took as many as 40-50 high-schoolers and their counselors on workcamps at some distance from home, Jordan explained. 'Five years ago we started learning about the behind-the-scenes stuff to hold a workcamp here in our area,' she said. The past two years were very busy, forming teams to cover different aspects of the activity, getting the county school board to agree to the use of the school, locating homes in which to work and interviewing the owners. 'We have to trust God's spirit will make the connections that need to be made. God will be there,' Everette Jordan, the church's lay leader and a part-time employee of Group, said. '(Nichols-Bethel) has really come out and supported us,' said Jordan, who served as emcee for the worship-devotional services held each evening after the workday was over. Each day a carload of five or six volunteers went to their assigned home site at 8:30 a.m., working at the planned tasks until 3:30 p.m. Then back to the school for dinner, recreation, group meetings and evening devotions held in their 'home' groups. Each day each youth from any given church is assigned to a different work site. 'They've been separated during the day and get together to share their experiences (in the evening),' Lohe said. We ask the workcampers to share 'God sightings,' Lohe said. 'Where in the midst of the day did you see God work?' Each person on a team has a role, Lohe explained. The adult participates along with the youth and also is the driver. 'They share together skills and knowledge,' she said. Most teams work at the same site throughout the week, getting to know the host family and each other, as well as having time to accomplish the task. A few teams of more skilled workers rotate between all the sites that need extra skill or expertise. Nicole Beach, 19, from Nichols-Bethel UMC and one of the oldest and most experienced youth workcampers, just finished her freshman year at Frostburg State. She has been on five Group workcamps. 'My first year was extremely scary,' she said. 'Now I love it.' Only three other participants from her former youth group at Nichols-Bethel had been on a workcamp before. Beach held the long ladder as Aime Trudel, 15, from Manchester, N.H., stood two stories up in the hot mid-morning sun, scraping old paint from the house. She and 10 other youth and four adults from St. Peters Roman Catholic Church, took two days to make the trip to Millersville. The workcampers held devotions at the site and include the families. Neighbors also sometimes come by, curious about the activity. Each contact is another connection, an opportunity to witness, to show people that God loves them, Lohe said. He described Nichols-Bethel's sponsorship as 'a discipleship method in the congregation,' the church's way of witnessing outside to the community and within the congregation as they provided the extensive support for the program, including both cash and in-kind services. The co-sponsoring church was responsible for $20,000 toward the materials for all the repairs for the 51 homes and some of the overhead. The residents paid nothing for the work and repairs. Each participant paid $400 to attend to help cover expenses. 'This is the largest, best church participation I've seen,' Lohe said. | 
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