GILBERT, S.C. — A church in Gilbert, along with mission groups across the country, are helping repair homes in Lexington County.
Cherokee Presbyterian Church hosted the workcamp this week. They're working with Group Mission Trips.
230 teenagers and adults from nine different states traveled to South Carolina to help with home repair projects. The groups are coming from North and South Carolina, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky.
There are multiple groups repairing homes in Gilbert, Lexington, Pelion, Batesburg-Leesville and West Columbia. All the repairs are free to the residents.
Kyle Eggers came down with Roscoe United Methodist Church in Illinois to help repair homes in Lexington County. This is the fourth mission trip he's been a part of.
"We are building a deck with a wheelchair ramp for our resident because she is having some difficulties moving around as she gets older," said Eggers. "We just want to make her ease of life a lot better and the wheelchair ramp will help do that."
Eggers and his group will be on working on one home this week.
The first year he did carpentry work with a mission group, helping to build a wheelchair ramp. Eggers was glad to have the same job this year since he already had experience building one before.
"I just have always loved helping other people and this is obviously a great chance to do that, and also you get to meet a ton of new people, make better connections with the people you already know," explained Eggers. "That's just really important to me."
The wheelchair ramp the group is building is for Frances Cook in Gilbert.
"By luck and by blessing, I just happened to be looking at Facebook one particular day and I saw this thing about the workcamp," said Cook. "Just took a chance and filled out the application. Lo and behold, I was accepted."
Cook says they're building a ramp for her because she's been having issues with mobility and being able to get up and down stairs.
"This is really going to be a blessing for me, make life a lot more easier for me," Cook explained. "I'm just grateful."
Cook went on to say, "I am just ecstatic to see such young children out doing such a blessing and helping people. As I told them this morning, there will be blessings coming their way that they're not going to be able to believe what's going to happen. They're giving us their time when they could be doing other things, but they chose to do something to make someone's life different. Make change in someone's life."
Bill Rich, who goes to Cherokee Presbyterian Church, is one of the adults who is a consultant on the project. He's been showing the teens how to level things, how to dig post holes, put in concrete and more.
"I'm truly enjoying it, teaching the adults, teaching the young adults and letting them know what we're trying to do and trying to serve the people of the community," Rich said.
While Cherokee Presbyterian Church has been sending people to other parts of the country for mission work, they're happy to see other people coming to Midlands to help those in the community.
"In today's times, it's very important to help other people. We're extremely divided," Rich explained. "The more we can do for each other, the more we'll learn to do that in our everyday life."
They plan on finishing the ramp for Cook's home on Friday.
The following story is from a previous story.