Homer Alaska - News

Photo by Michael Armstrong Volunteers with the John Day, Ore., Church of the Nazarene build a gazebo at South Peninsula Haven House on Wednesday. From left to right are Gene Essex, Glenn Palmer and Rich Sladky. The men are part of a 16-member group doing community service projects in Homer. The Oregon church team is partnering with the Homer Church of the Nazarene.

"A lot of Oregonians were introduced to pushki this weekend," Helping Hands Coordinator Greg Armstrong said.

Armstrong, accompanied by 17 men and women ranging in age from 25-75 years, ventured to Homer to participate in community service projects around the area. The team is based out of the John Day Church of the Nazarene and each year takes time to travel to a distant location, sometimes international and sometimes domestic, to work on local projects free of charge.

Helping Hands is a regional project encapsulated by the larger national Nazarene program, Work and Witness that has been in operation since 1974. Through the Church of the Nararene's website, workandwitness.org, communities list projects and needs that prospective volunteer teams can peruse. That is how Armstrong came into contact with Jon Ralph, pastor of Homer's Church of the Nazarene.

Ralph had originally applied for assistance in setting up a septic tank, but Armstrong's team only has a budget of $6,000, so that project was way beyond the financial support they could offer. Ralph, however, liked the idea of getting his church's name out as an active contributor to the betterment of the Homer community, so Armstrong's team and Ralph's church teamed up for a nine day bout of volunteer projects around the area.

The laborers' hard work resulted in the construction of a new gazebo, freshly painted sheds and yard work at the Haven House. The front deck, porch, inside office and flower boxes at The Friendship Center received fresh coats of paint, a number of homes in town had fields cleared of brush and debris and the Church of the Nazarene had its outdoor 100-yard-long staircase repaired.

Projects completed in the past have included improvements to a kindergarten and music school in Armenia, conversion of a Showgirls club to a church in the Mat-Su Valley, and a foundation was dug for a women's drug and rehabilitation clinic in Ukraine. Bible schools, events and activities for children are held in each location the team labors in as well.

Each year, in addition to nationwide and international projects, the group does volunteer work in their own community of John Day as well.

"We do work across the street and across the world because we can't focus in just one place without missing something," Armstrong said.

The church works year round to acquire the money for their "project fund." The fund covers lodging, food and materials while in their community of choice. Laborers are asked to pay for their won airfare, but two to three individuals that have the heart and desire just not the cash are brought each year on scholarship, Armstrong said.

Next summer Armstrong's team is headed to the Caribbean. It's the first time in six years they won't be returning to the former Soviet Union for their international service work.

"We do this first and foremost for the spiritual message," Armstrong said. "But this work also broadens our world perspective when we travel outside our specific community. John Day is a community of 2,000, and small town America needs to leave and experience other cultures and ways of life. We must expand our horizons, otherwise we

start feeling sorry for our own predicaments instead of being a motivator for change and an example for others to follow. We have to get outside of our comfort zone and help others."