Winchester service week changes lives through relationships

On any giv­en July after­noon in Winchester, you might see teenagers car­ry­ing lum­ber, climb­ing lad­ders or rolling fresh coats of paint across a weath­ered porch. Look a lit­tle clos­er, though, and you’ll notice some­thing else. 

They’re laugh­ing with home­own­ers over lunch around a kitchen table. They’re pray­ing togeth­er before pick­ing up a ham­mer. They’re learn­ing to use a drill for the very first time. And despite car­ry­ing cell phones in their pock­ets, they’re rarely look­ing at them. 

For one week each sum­mer, Winchester becomes home to some­thing increas­ing­ly rare in today’s world: hun­dreds of young peo­ple who vol­un­tar­i­ly give up part of their sum­mer vaca­tion — and pay to do it — in order to serve com­plete strangers. 

For the eighth time in nine years, approx­i­mate­ly 300 stu­dents and adult lead­ers from across the United States came to Winchester through Group Mission Trips’ Workcamp pro­gram, spend­ing the week repair­ing homes for elder­ly res­i­dents, peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties and fam­i­lies in need. 

By week’s end, decks had been rebuilt. Wheelchair ramps had been con­struct­ed. Fresh paint cov­ered aging walls. 

But ask almost any­one involved, and they’ll tell you the real work was­n’t done with ham­mers and paint­brush­es. It hap­pened through relationships. 

For local co-spon­sor Shannon Cox, that’s what has made Winchester one of the orga­ni­za­tion’s favorite destinations. 

“We’ve been doing Workcamp here in Winchester for eight of the last nine years,” Cox said. “We’ve done almost 500 homes now, and none of the res­i­dents have ever paid any­thing out of pocket.” 

The projects are coör­di­nat­ed through local agen­cies, while church­es, busi­ness­es, donors and vol­un­teers come togeth­er to make the work pos­si­ble. Cox says the com­mu­ni­ty has embraced the min­istry from the very beginning. 

“We treat these kids for a week like they’re ours.” 

That hos­pi­tal­i­ty has become part of Winchester’s reputation. 

Throughout the week, church­es brought cook­ies and ice cream. Neighbors stopped at job sites with pop­si­cles. Residents wel­comed vol­un­teers into their homes — not just to work, but to share meals, con­ver­sa­tion and prayer. 

It’s some­thing vol­un­teers notice almost imme­di­ate­ly. Ryan and Sam know first­hand how pow­er­ful those rela­tion­ships can become. 

Now cel­e­brat­ing their first year of mar­riage, the cou­ple first met while serv­ing togeth­er on a Group Mission Trips Workcamp three years ago. Assigned to the same crew as sum­mer staff, a shared week of serv­ing oth­ers even­tu­al­ly became the begin­ning of their own story. 

Today, they con­tin­ue return­ing to Workcamp together. 

Ryan says Winchester stands apart because vol­un­teers are able to return and see the last­ing impact of their work. 

“The best part of Winchester is that we have a long­stand­ing rela­tion­ship here,” he said. “I’ve got­ten to meet res­i­dents I worked with three years ago and see how they’ve grown and changed. The youth get to see the impact they make in somebody’s life, and that’s life-changing.” 

Sam remem­bers arriv­ing at Workcamp years ago as one of the teenagers who was­n’t exact­ly excit­ed to be there. 

“I was one of the peo­ple who was kind of forced to come,” she admit­ted with a laugh. 

Now she watch­es that same trans­for­ma­tion hap­pen every summer. 

“There’s always a camper who shows up not super thrilled to be there. By the end of the week, they don’t real­ly want to leave.” 

Then she smiled. 

“Maybe it is cool to love Jesus.” 

Those are exact­ly the kinds of moments long­time site coach Morris keeps return­ing for. This sum­mer marked his 60^th Workcamp since first vol­un­teer­ing in 1993. 

A retired design engi­neer from Illinois, Fee now spends his sum­mers teach­ing con­struc­tion skills to teenagers while help­ing home­own­ers com­plete projects they couldn’t tack­le alone. 

“It’s a good feel­ing to know there are peo­ple inter­est­ed in serv­ing oth­ers and know­ing God,” he said. 

When asked how some­one could under­stand Workcamp with­out attend­ing, his answer was short. 

“You have to expe­ri­ence it.” 

For AJ, a first-year sum­mer staff mem­ber who works in res­i­den­tial remod­el­ing back home, the week has been equal­ly transformative. 

“I wouldn’t have the ener­gy or dri­ve with­out the Lord,” he said. “I’ve learned to sur­ren­der every­thing to Him. I’m just His vessel.” 

Working along­side stu­dents every day, he has wit­nessed count­less moments when uncer­tain­ty gives way to confidence. 

“They don’t think they can do the project,” he said. “Then some­body shows them how, and you see that moment when it clicks.” 

That con­fi­dence isn’t lim­it­ed to construction. 

Lydia, a stu­dent from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, spent the week help­ing build a wheel­chair ramp and repaint a deck. She also shared lunch­es and dai­ly devo­tions with the home­own­ers she had only recent­ly met. By week’s end, she said the expe­ri­ence had changed her. 

“I’ve got­ten over a lot of my fears,” she said. “I’ve been able to be more open about my faith.” 

Then she summed up the week in a sen­tence that seemed to cap­ture what many oth­ers were feeling. 

“It’s see­ing the good in human­i­ty again.” 

That feel­ing was­n’t reserved for the volunteers. 

Winchester res­i­dent Deatra Newell opened her home to one of the crews this week. While they replaced dam­aged deck boards and paint­ed around her home, some­thing else hap­pened every afternoon. 

Everyone gath­ered around the kitchen table. Together, they ate lunch. They read Scripture. They shared stories. 

“It has been so ben­e­fi­cial,” Newell said. “We’ve learned about each oth­er dur­ing the process.” 

Watching young peo­ple from dif­fer­ent states, dif­fer­ent church­es and dif­fer­ent back­grounds serve togeth­er remind­ed her that what unit­ed them mat­tered more than what made them different. 

“No mat­ter what the denom­i­na­tion is,” she said, “we all still serve God.” 

She noticed some­thing else that sur­prised her. Although every stu­dent car­ried a phone, they rarely used it. Instead, they worked side by side. 

“They all work as a team,” she said. “Nobody’s sit­ting around say­ing, ‘I did more than you.’ They’re all will­ing to pitch in.” 

For Cox, those moments are what keep bring­ing Workcamp back to Winchester. He recalled deliv­er­ing mate­ri­als to one home­own­er before work even began. Her home was spot­less. As they talked, she qui­et­ly admit­ted some­thing that stayed with him. 

“Nobody comes to vis­it me anymore.” 

Her chil­dren had all moved away. 

Within days, her home was filled with teenagers. By the end of the week, they weren’t strangers any­more. Some of those rela­tion­ships con­tin­ue long after the paint dries. 

Cox recalled one Winchester home­own­er who stayed in touch with the stu­dents who worked on her house for four years. When one of those vol­un­teers grad­u­at­ed from high school in Illinois, she made the trip north to attend the ceremony. 

It’s a sto­ry that per­fect­ly illus­trates what Group Mission Trips has qui­et­ly been build­ing in Winchester for years. 

Not just repaired homes. Not just safer decks and new wheel­chair ramps. But last­ing rela­tion­ships between peo­ple who oth­er­wise would nev­er have crossed paths. 

By Friday evening, hun­dreds of vol­un­teers packed their bags and climbed aboard bus­es head­ed home to Virginia, Iowa, Minnesota, Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois and beyond. 

They left behind fresh­ly paint­ed homes, repaired porch­es and grate­ful homeowners. 

They also car­ried some­thing home with them. 

New friend­ships. A stronger faith. A deep­er appre­ci­a­tion for serv­ing oth­ers. And mem­o­ries of a Kentucky com­mu­ni­ty that, for one week, treat­ed every one of them like family.