Instead of setting out abroad, a group of 169 volunteers from multiple churches of various faiths completed their missionary work in Berks County for Mission Trip Birdsboro & Beyond on Saturday.
“We can stay right here in our community and partner together with a number of churches … and we can have an incredible impact on our community without having this huge budget of going across the world somewhere else to do work, especially when there’s so much needed right here in our backyard,” said Pastor Scott Campbell, Mission Trip Birdsboro and Beyond board president.
The interfaith, interdenominational ministry provides those unable to care for their homes the help needed for maintenance and repairs without worrying about financial burdens, personal ability or other limiting factors.
“It’s our opportunity to be a part of the community in a larger way than we have,” said Campbell, who leads Nazarene Church in Birdsboro. “We recognize that people are not able to take care of their house, for any number of reasons … and for us to just come and do some basic maintenance and upkeep and repairs on their house that goes neglected because they can’t do it is huge as any mission trip would be.”
There are seven partner churches that provide volunteers and donations plus other churches that participate, as well as volunteers who are not affilliated with a participating church.
“It is not just a church ministry; it is truly a local nonprofit that seeks to serve our community that is largely supported by local churches,” Campbell said.
From Wednesday to Saturday, volunteer work crews helped homeowners with painting, gutter repairs, yard maintenance, railings and access ramps, to name just a few things.
Volunteers also sat with homeowners — just to talk and be together and to offer prayer if they wish.
Their hope is that the mission work provides homeowners a sense of relief from feeling overwhelmed by their home repairs and maintenance.
“We hope we’re bringing a sense of normalcy and pleasure and joy out of their own home,” he said.
Starting as an “experimental” ministry founded by St. Paul’s UCC Birdsboro, a group of 25 church volunteers worked on four homes and at three community projects in 2014.
Encouraged by that first year’s positive response and success, Mission Trip Birdsboro doubled the number of projects the next year. More churches were invited to partner in the ministry, and the ministry continued to grow.
From that handful of volunteers at the start, the number of volunteers steadily grew each year to more than 100 annually while the ministry received dozens of applications for assistance.
The rate of growth led to Mission Trip Birdsboro becoming an independent ministry in 2021
In 2023, a total of 151 volunteers worked at 48 homes and on two community projects.
This year, volunteers worked at 54 sites, and organizers welcomed 65 first-time local volunteers, bringing the total number of participants to 169.
“What’s exciting is that we have more new first-time volunteers than ever before,” said Wells.
The ministry also established a youth service team tailored for volunteers ages 14 to 17 in 2022, which has since grown.
Natalie Aaron of Exeter Township, a member of Life Church in Reading, has been volunteering for Mission Trip Birdsboro for the past six years. She noted that she is not a member of one of the participating churches.
“This experience of spending four or five days with folks from different churches and different community members coming together to help the community, this experience isn’t like anything else,” Aaron said. “It’s working as a team, getting to know your neighbors, getting to know the people in the community,” she continued. “It’s neighbors taking care of neighbors.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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