World Changers serve in Pine Bluff
Before Bo Han enrolls at the University of Texas at Austin, the 18-year-old from Flower Mound, Texas, is spending a week of his summer serving Pine Bluff through acts of goodwill for a higher purpose.
“We’re all Christians here, so we’re moved by God’s spirit, and we just want to share the same love that God has for everyone and help the people out here so they know that Jesus is here for them and that everyone is praying for them and everyone is caring for them,” Han said.
He is one of about 60 teens from across mid-America who have volunteered at locations across Pine Bluff this week through World Changers, a Panama City, Fla.based organization that reaches out to student ministries to organize missions across North America. This is the seventh time World Changers has served in Pine Bluff, according to Ken Thornton, who is hosting the volunteers at First Baptist Church.
“World Changers and the area churches that are supporting by feeding them and doing other things for them, all this is done to honor our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, to show His love to this community,” said Thornton, who will retire after his final sermon as First Baptist pastor on Sunday.
The group has been in Pine Bluff since Monday prepping, painting and cleaning up at sites like Regional Park RV station and the Boys and Girls Club of Jefferson County at Townsend Park.
Many of the students were working inside the old First Ward School on Sixth Avenue, helping to transform it into the Opportunity House homeless shelter for men.
Thornton said the projects were developed in cooperation with Mayor Shirley Washington’s office and the city’s Economic and Community Development and Public Works departments. The volunteers will wrap up projects today.
“We love this community,” he said. “We wanted to continue to work with World Changers all the way to the time I get to retire. Our church has had an ongoing great relationship with the city, community and with World Changers. We’re just glad to be a host church, as well as other churches that have come alongside to help us minister to the city.”
Other churches have reached out to World Changers by providing meals during the students’ stay, Thornton said.
Kori Kessel, 17, of Cisne, Ill., came with some of her fellow church members to help and spent her Thursday morning painting.
“God sends us to do so many things here, and it’s amazing to see everybody working together just for the reason he brought us all here, to help make this into something that could be used for great, to help give people a second chance at life,” Kessel said, sitting atop a ladder and focusing on painting a window border near the ceiling of an old classroom.
The city of Pine Bluff received a $250,000 grant from Lowe’s in 2021 to begin cleaning out the old elementary school and shaping it into a homeless shelter. The school is a landmark in a town of almost 39,000 – smaller than the student population at UT Austin.
“Well, it’s definitely bigger because I come from a town of about 500,” Kessel said, asked about her thoughts of Pine Bluff. “I don’t even know what the population is here, but it’s huge and there are so many people. I would have never imagined living in a place like this, but it’s great to be here.”
This is not Han’s first time to go on a mission. He served in New Mexico four years ago but hadn’t been on another such trip due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“As a church, we’re all close together and we’re meeting other churches,” he said. “I think we have 60 people around here, so it’s a smaller group so we can grow together and get to know each other more closely. It’s all about fellowship and working together for the same good cause Jesus called us here together.”
For many youths including Kessel, this is their first mission experience, according to Travis McCormick, a project coordinator from Benton helping World Changers through the Arkansas State Baptist Convention.
“Several of them had been in World Changers for a number of years, and they do this intentionally on purpose for the experience. They love to come to serve,” McCormick said.
The youths have come not only from greater Dallas and southern Illinois, but Gosnell in northeast Arkansas and Rolla, Mo., a college town southwest of St. Louis.
One might wonder, McCormick suggested, why a student would pay money – five-day missions typically cost $290 – and sleep on the floor at a church just to volunteer.
“They do this because they want to show that God loves them and cares about them in a tangible way and help them see that He does love them and He does care,” McCormick said, walking down the halls of the old school. “They’re having a good time and a great week. They’re tired. They’re worn out. They’re obviously busy. They’re doing a good job. When you walk down this hall, you’re going to see all the work they’ve done in this short amount of time.
“People are often surprised but it’s amazing what students can do when they’re motivated and when they want to do something,” McCormick continued. “These students came here to serve. That’s what they want to do and that’s what they’re getting to do this week, and they love it.”