Building for the kingdom

John Cannon/The Independent

Ashland October 06, 2008 11:08 pm

— If Melissa Thompson’s dream is realized, the Ashland area will be invaded on June 21 by a horde of teenagers armed with hammers, saws, power drills and a willingness to serve.
In the meantime, local organizers must prepare for the invasion by selecting work projects, collecting construction materials, planning meals, finding places for the teens to sleep, and doing numerous other things in advance of their arrival.
Although the first organizational meeting for the Kingdom Builders Kentucky project was just last week, the dates for it have already been set: June 21 through 27.
Thompson, a University of Kentucky senior from Ashland, is project coordinator for the project. She has spent the last three summers working with Kingdom Builders in Georgia.
“We have tons and tons and tons of work to do between now and June 21,” Thompson told the small group of potential volunteers attending the first meeting. “But I think, in the end, you will find it is all worth it.”
Kingdom Builders was founded 10 years ago with two purposes in mind, said Executive Director Joey Fennell of Statesboro, Ga. One is to do repairs on homes the homeowners otherwise could not afford. The other is to provide Christian teenagers with a “weeklong service and worship experience.”
During the organizational session, Fennell, Thompson and T. Scott Harrell, Kingdom Builders’ coordinator of service projects, gave a brief overview of how the project is organized.
To qualify to be a work site, homeowners must live in a residence that is in need of repairs, and they must show that they are unable either financially or physicially to make those repairs. Typically, 15 homes are selected as work sites.
The volunteers are teenagers from church youth groups who will travel to Ashland to share their time and talents to help others, Fennell said.
Kingdom Builders began with a pilot project in Boone, N.C., in 1999. Since then, more than 2,600 teens have participated in 180 Kingdom Builders projects in the United States and in the Bahamas. They have made repairs to homes, schools and churches.
The work teams do more than just make home repairs.
“Not everyone’s spiritual gift is swinging a hammer,” said Fennell. “In fact, if that’s not your gift, I don’t want you swinging a hammer.”
Instead, those teens who lack the ability or the interest in making home repairs are assigned to work as community volunteers. The community service project can range from sitting with an elderly person to leading a Kingdom Builders Kids Club, said Harrell.
During most of Monday’s meeting, Fennell, Harrell and Thompson went over the “nuts and bolts” or organizing a Kingdoms Builders project.
“As Kingdom Builders enters its 10th year of ministry, I am confident the Ashland area can create a spectacular mission environment for the youth who attend,” Thompson said in a letter seeking volunteers. “I think we can agree that there are precious families in our community who are in desperate need of home rehabilitation and, more importantly, a touch of love fromthe followers of Jesus Christ.”
“Melissa has been praying for this for two years,” her mother, Mona Thompson, told Monday’s small gathering at Ashland’s Central Fire Station. “This is a faith-based project and with God’s help, it will succeed.”
To learn more about the project or to volunteer, call Melissa Thompson at (859) 230-7786 or e-mail her at melissa@kbministries.org
JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2649.