by Paris Gorham

CLOVIS - Broken pieces of shingles surrounded the house where 10 high school students scurried up and down ladders and carried fresh lumber through the yard.

Seventeen-year-old Jason stared out his window at the World Changers crew building a fence and reroofing his home in Clovis.

Climbing up to the roof, Bryant Kwok, 20, spied Jason through the window and decided to not only reroof a home but also make a difference in the life of a resident by sharing the love of Christ.

World Changers, a ministry of the North American Mission Board, provides students and adults with opportunities to meet the physical and spiritual needs of others, most often by replacing roofs and tackling other home repairs. Volunteers pay around $250 to work on these houses and to share the love of Christ with homeowners and neighbors.

Kwok, a past participant of World Changers, said he looked forward to the week because "it's a really effective way to serve people in the community."

More than 310 students and adults participated in the Clovis project July 5-10. Tuesday through Friday of that week, they worked on 24 homes, completing tasks such as roofing, painting and building wheelchair ramps. During evening worship times, participants learned how to live a life unhindered for Christ.

"World Changers holds a double purpose," Kwok said. "I'm not here only to help the homeowners, but more importantly to witness to others."

On the first day of work, Kwok walked into the house to share the gospel with Jason. He began by asking questions about Jason's spiritual background, learning that he was a Mormon.

"I prayed in my mind and heart that God would lead Jason to the truth through the words He'd have me to say," Kwok recounted.

He talked to Jason about the Bible, telling him about his own relationship with Jesus and how he too could follow Christ.

Although Kwok was nervous about sharing his faith, he continued to spend time with Jason each day because he knew "everything is a part of God's planning."
One day Jason told Kwok he always runs into a dead end with any religion and has doubts about all this "Christianity stuff."

"I told him, 'A lot of people have doubts and that's okay, but not everybody wants to find out the answer. Just look for the answer in the Bible because Christ will never give you a dead end,'" Kwok recalled. "Nothing would make sense if the Bible weren't true. Even though God doesn't need us, He chooses us because He loves us."

Toward the end of the week, after several conversations with Kwok and other members of the World Changers crew, Jason made a profession of faith in Christ.
Kwok and the crew celebrated with him.

"I'm glad God took over Jason's heart. The best joy is when a new brother or sister gets saved," Kwok said. "I trusted God and He did the rest.

"It's amazing how God placed every person in this crew so that it would work out so I could witness and lead Jason to Christ."

The City of Clovis July 9 honored the World Changers, who traveled from around the country, for their hard work painting homes, repairing and painting fences and fixing up yards  in lower-income neighborhoods.

The Clovis Community Development Agency teamed up with World Changers for the neighborhood upgrades, providing materials for the projects and identifying people/families most in need of assistance.

"The scope of the project is something financially the city could not have accomplished on its own," Clovis civic leaders said. "At the same time, this venture allowed World Changers to fulfill its objective of offering first-rate mission experiences to meet the needs of others."

This is the seventh time World Changers has taken on tasks like this in Clovis. So far, young people have helped 151 lower income people/families with much-needed home improvements and upgrades.

This was the only World Changers project in California this year, which also marked the 20th anniversary of the North American Mission Board missions effort.
Twenty years and more than 20,000 homes later, World Changers is still changing the lives of residents and students.

"I have watched in awe through the years as the continuing blessing of God has sustained and strengthened World Changers," said Mike Day, one of the founders. "I think His greatest blessing, of course, is the ever-growing commitment of churches to mobilize their students for mission.

"This approach, no matter how creative and innovative, would have no appeal if God was not doing a work in the hearts of churches and students that drives them to minister to others," Day said. "His blessing has also sustained the initiative through financial challenges, leadership changes, and even the reorganization of the SBC. Among the best blessings of God have been the talented and creative leaders and staff members who think in terms of 'movements' rather than 'event' and in terms of 'ministry' rather than 'programs.'"

Since day one, World Changers has sought to provide opportunities for participants to live out their faith. This summer, more than 23,000 teenagers and adults shared God's love by providing free labor to communities in need. Students paid $249 and gave up a week of their summer to sleep on the floor of local schools and work eight-hour days in 90-degree heat.

By providing opportunities for students to share the gospel while meeting someone's physical needs, a spark for missions and evangelism is ignited and carried out into the world.

Bryant Kwok would agree.

After experiencing the joy of leading Jason into a relationship with Christ, he prayed that God would continue teaching him how to keep up his unhindered behavior when he gets back home.

"Here at World Changers I have a spiritual high because I'm surrounded by other Christians who expect me to do exactly what I just did," Kwok said. "But to actually be unhindered back at home where people don't always expect me to do the right thing is the real challenge."

Kwok said the week at World Changers prepared him to live for Christ when he got home.

As Kwok said his goodbyes to Jason, he realized he had helped Jason reach a new path in Jesus.

Jason's once crumbled life is now rebuilt through the unfailing love of Christ - a life where there is no dead end, but the beginning of a relationship with Christ that will last forever.

Other milestones for World Changers this summer included the 30th project in Canada, the 10,000th church group and the 300,000th participant.  

(Gorham served as a summer missionary for World Changers. Carol Pipes of the North American Mission Board and the City of Clovis contributed to this story.)