Press Releases:
Volunteers make a difference at Shocco
Special to the Daily Home
They hail from all sorts of places under all kinds of monikers, but
they’re mission is the same -- offering a helping hand at Shocco
Springs Baptist Conference Center.
Throughout the year, you’ll find SOWERS, Servants on Wheels Ever Ready,
RVICS, Roving Volunteers in Christ’s Service, Campers on a Mission,
Carpenters for Christ, MMAPers with Mobile Missionary Assistance
Program, and others whose handiwork can be seen throughout the 725
acres that define the Shocco footprint in Talladega.
According to Shocco Executive Director Buster Taylor, invitations
started going out about 20 years ago to volunteer groups to come to
Shocco and help. “It has turned into one of the most valuable things
we’ve done.
Taylor estimates that six months out of the year, volunteers are on
campus. They reupholster furniture, paint and do all kinds of
electrical work. They wash and fold thousands of linens and change
hundreds of batteries in smoke alarms.
“We do what regular staff doesn’t have the time to do,” said Tina
McGhee of Cleveland, Tenn. Her husband, Jerry, a retired pastor, heads
SOWERS, who was part of a group signing on for three weeks worth of
work at Shocco in March.
SOWERS, a couples ministry, travels the nation in RVs, volunteering the
fruits of their labor at places like Shocco. “We get to meet a lot of
good Christians,” said John Miller of Lebanon, Penn. He and wife Martha
were group leaders for the Shocco project, which ran the gamut of work
to be done on motel rooms on the main campus -- stripping them and
getting rugs out to redo ceilings -- and rewiring and mudding bathrooms
in the Adventure Camp.
“The host puts in what they need,” Miller said, “and the Lord puts in the people that are needed.”
It is uncanny how it all comes together, McGhee said. “If we don’t need an electrician, we need a plumber, a plumber shows up.”
Men shoulder the heavy work while women tutor, work in the office, paint, do laundry and other tasks.
They begin each day with a morning devotion and then they work
side-by-side, doing whatever needs to be done. “It’s an interesting
phenomenon,” McGhee said. “You gather basically as strangers on Friday.
By the end of the second week, you’re family.”
Similar stories are played out all year long by other groups who come to Shocco to lend a hand.
Weaver Chapel was built almost wholly by volunteers from around the
country. Every building on campus is renovated every nine years on a
staggered basis, and volunteers are at the center of the work on each
of them.
When considering the enormity of the campus and the comprehensiveness
of the facilities that accommodated 45,000 people representing 500
religious and nonprofit groups from all over the world in 2009, the
impact of volunteers is evident.
“We could not do what we’ve done without the aid of volunteers,” Taylor said.
© 2010 Shocco
Springs. All Rights
Reserved.
