“It was like dark to daylight,” World Changers logistics director Jon Hodge said, describing the difference in appearances in the places where teams visiting in the Du Quoin area worked.
More than 180 young men and women from 10 churches came together in Illinois for one week in July to work on 16 homes in need of repair. They painted, built wheelchair ramps, sided a house, and filled in an old in-ground swimming pool.
Not only were there physical changes, but spiritual as well. Volunteers prayed for 96 people, made 42 gospel presentations, and saw two people profess belief in Christ. In all, 140 lives were changed.
Before and during the project, students participated in mission studies. They learned how to share their testimonies, including using Bible verses known as “The Romans Road” to share the gospel.
Hodge, who lives in Jackson, Tenn., once served on the staff of First Baptist Church in West Frankfort. He recalled a World Changers project in the Illinois town where a seventh-grade girl who had been nervous about sharing the gospel was cleaning up for lunch after painting. An elderly man walking by their work site stopped and asked why she was there.
“The girl told him, ‘I’m here because I love Jesus. Do you know my Jesus?’
“And he said, no. She said, ‘Can I tell you about my Jesus?’ And he said, ‘Sure.’ So, she did that and wound up leading him to the Lord,” Hodge said.
“As I pulled up, she was jumping up and down, saying, ‘I did it, I did it, I did it! And he was jumping up down, saying, ‘I’m going to heaven, I’m going to heaven, I’m going to heaven!’”
Five participating churches were from Illinois: Ditney Ridge in Norris City, First in Du Quoin, Friendship in Plainfield, Jackson Grove in Benton, Nine Mile in Tamaroa, and Ten Mile in McLeansboro. Volunteers from the other churches represented Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and North Carolina.
World Changers is celebrating its 35th year in 2025. This is also the ministry’s fifth year operating independently from Lifeway, which discontinued it in 2020 due to Covid and a decline in participants. David Flatt, a pastor from Panama City, Fla., led a group to purchase the ministry, which he now leads.
Photos courtesy World Changers