Dozens of youth from Marion and surrounding counties have been busy sprucing up the community as part of XChange 2017.
The projects were completed last week, and Bunker Hill Baptist Church Youth Minister Will Jordan said the program was a success. This year, the schedule for the event differed than in years past.
“We made it a Thursday through Monday camp and it seemed to work pretty well,” he said. “We had more than 100 kids; they came and went throughout the event.”
Numerous area churches were represented and others donated funds. In addition to Jordan, other youth ministers and pastors worked with the students during the long weekend, including Shannon Willis of First Baptist Church, Jonathan McLemore of Improve Baptist Church, Chris Morgan of Centerville Church in Tylertown, Dave Lee from Calvary Baptist in Columbia and more. Kane’s Catfish, Seafood and Steakhouse helped provide the meals.
“Some churches donated funds or resources and about 10 or so were represented,” Jordan said. “We had four main groups that went out. We had PCY, which was painting, construction and yard work. We worked at the county schools and did some things around people’s homes. We worked on things at Harvest Ministries. We also had nursing home ministries. We spent a couple of hours between the nursing homes and put on concerts every day. We went with people and visited. We also had a children’s ministry that had some changes to it. We did a backyard Bible study at Friendship Park on Friday, however, it rained on Saturday and it floods. On Saturday, most of that group went to East Marion and helped the group there. On Sunday, we did a children’s church and that afternoon we helped out First Baptist Foxworth with their Vacation Bible School stuff and we helped Calvary Baptist Church with their Bible School stuff. We had another group that spent a few days in Columbia and a few days in Prentiss praying for people. Those were the four main groups.”
The painting and construction crews completed a variety of tasks at schools.
“There are a lot of needs for painting hallways and things like that, especially in the county schools,” Jordan said. “They did a lot of shoveling and landscaping. They helped rake stuff and put rocks together. They painted the entranceways and got the facilities ready. We were at West and East this year, but we’ve helped Columbia High School and Jefferson Middle School in the past. The kids feel they are giving back to their community when they do this.”
This year marked the fifth year for XChange in Marion County, according to Jordan. A typical day also includes worship for the students.
“The first day, we came in and started off with morning worship and then they kind of played on Thursday just to get to know each other,” he said. “There are various things for them to do at Harvest Ministries and then we also have nighttime worship. Friday through Sunday, the students who stayed at the camp got up around 8 a.m. and had worship at 8:30 a.m. before heading to their sites. They would have lunch on the sites and then come back and have free time, then eat dinner and have worship around 7 p.m. After that, they broke off into individual church group times. A lot of the kids stayed at Harvest Ministries with us.”
Jordan said he was thankful for the students and churches that participated.
“We had a great time,” he concluded. “They worked hard in their service to their community.”
Pictured Above: XChange 2017 students work on a landscaping project at West Marion High School. | Submitted Photo
