Submitted
What can 250 people do to impact Hamilton County communities in one week in a significant way? Home repairs for 26 families!
A total of 250 people from around the country, mostly high schoolers, gathered in Westfield last week and completed repairs on 26 homes in northern Hamilton County. In conjunction with Group Mission Trips of Ft. Collins, Colo., CrossRoads Church at Westfield (ForOurNeighbor.Life) invited church high schoolers and their adult leaders from eight states from as far away as Nebraska, New Hampshire, and New Jersey to participate. In groups of five to seven people, each day they spent their days with a homeowner doing significant home repairs, including mobile home skirting, building wheelchair ramps, constructing decks, and doing exterior painting.
All of the repairs were free for the residents. The construction repair material costs are being paid for by CrossRoads Church, by the participants, and through a local Central Indiana Community Foundation grant. Senior adults, veterans, and families who are struggling with home needs were the primary recipients.
Part of an eight-state collaboration of young people working to spread Christ’s love through good works, this team from Ashland, Ohio, rebuilt the deck and added new rails and a ramp at the home of Rob and Ruth Griepentrog of Westfield. (Photo provided)
Ruth Griepentrog, whose 18-month-old daughter has physical challenges, said, “Our family had an amazing week. A team from Ashland, Ohio, spent five days working in our yard and giving us a new deck with ramp! The old deck was in really rough shape with lots of splinters and not safe for our daughter. They tore off the old deck surface and rails, resurfaced it, and added new rails, stairs and ramp. This team worked CRAZY hard to accomplish this incredible project for us and we are so very thankful to have a safe place for our daughter to play outside with her family.”
Eric Lohe, pastor of CrossRoads Church at Westfield, said, “This effort is one of four church initiatives called, ‘For Our Neighbor.’ We are trying to meet, know, enjoy, and serve the needs of our local neighbors.” CrossRoads wants to both be good neighbors and also involve others in helping community neighbors.
Lohe emphasized, “Westfield Washington Schools was an incredibly great community partner in this effort by housing the 250 people at Westfield Middle School for the week. The Rotary Club of Westfield and the Women of Westfield provided an awesome meal for the participants and Westfield Welcome provided water bottles and sunglasses for everyone. Culver’s of Westfield donated ice cream for the whole camp celebration on Friday evening. We live in a great community that cares about all of its neighbors!”
“Group Mission Trips (groupmissiontrips.com) serves in 25-plus communities in the United States each summer and does week-long youth mission home repair camps,” Lohe said. “I have been attending these camps since 2005 working as staff and a volunteer. Our church has sent a number of students and adults to these work camps. This year we got to bring this to our community and hope to be offering this to our neighbors again in June 2023.”
As part of its For Our Neighbor initiatives, CrossRoads Church at Westfield also provides free pet food to Hamilton County residents the first Saturday of each month from 9 to 11 a.m., offers free Zumba every Tuesday evening on their campus, and is sponsoring their annual fall festival and Premier Chili Cook-off, Wild, Wild Westfield from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2. The event is free to the public and will include games, inflatables, food, and a mechanical bull.
CrossRoads Church is located at 19201 Grassy Branch Road in Westfield. You can find out more online at ForOurNeighbor.Life or by emailing at ForOurNeighborinfo@gmail.com.