By Morgan Mizzel

NATCHEZ — More than 100 students from across the country spent this week in Natchez working on various home improvement projects as part of World Changers’ 25th summer to improve substandard housing.

World Changers is an initiative of LifeWay Christian Resources out of Nashville, Tennessee.

“We had 6 states and 6 churches represented here this week,” Jon Hodge said, a full-time missionary out of Memphis, Tennessee who oversees projects in more than 17 cities across the country. “Our local contact person is Dale Little, and he really helped organize the projects and volunteer resources we need while we were on site.”

Hodge said Little and the rest of the volunteers here did a great job of organizing lodging, meal planning, materials delivery and more.

Participants arrived Monday, and were divided into teams and were assigned their projects. Work began Tuesday.

Hodge said the kids worked on a variety of updates for homeowners, including building wheelchair ramps, painting, installing doors and replacing rotten boards.

Each group had breakfast at 6 a.m., and left for their site by 7. They worked each day until 3 or 4 p.m., depending on how much work they had left to complete. After they ate supper, they had worship service every evening.

Lance Sudduth, of Lucedale, Mississippi, served as the project coordinator for this area. He said the process to be selected as one of the homes involved a few steps such as an application process and then the determination of available manpower.

“We looked at the projects needing to be done and the resources we had available,” Sudduth said. “We get the materials and we get the work done. Our goal was to select the ones we believed we could complete in the week, or four work-days, we had.”

There were at least ten work-sites active this week.

Sudduth, who has participated with World Changers for more than 5 years, said this was his first year to have such an important role. He has been training for this since January.

“I enjoyed the experience,” Sudduth said. “Everyone worked together so well and Jon and his team have been great and I will do this as long as they will have me.”

Hodge said the groups rotate the areas they are in every year. Some cities participate every year, but the Natchez area is usually a bi-annual participant.

Jill King and her team from Marion, Illinois have participated will World Changers for 3 years.

“It is an interesting experience,” King said. “You don’t often find a bunch of kids who work so well together. We were excited they worked so well together and got the job done.”

King’s location, on State Street, was a more involved project. Homeowners Nell and Robert Moss were excited to see the progress made by the group including new paint on the exterior of the home; rotten boards being replaced and the instillation of a new kitchen cabinet and sink among other things.

“The kids worked so hard,” Nell Moss said. “I wish there was a stronger word than, ‘Thank You,’ because that doesn’t seem to cover it.