serving on THE FOURTH OF JULY

LSCC volunteers give up holiday to make an impact in the Ozarks.

JULY 2009

By Bob Raukar

A "crazy" group of volunteer workers from LSCC dodged rainstorms to complete a host of tasks for a small church during an annual Fourth of July outreach to the Lake of the Ozarks community of Ivy Bend.

The outreach began several years ago as a personal effort of LSCC's Curtis Brown and his extended family to aid Lakeview Baptist Church and its congregants. The annual event, which has grown to include volunteers from LSCC, helps meet the physical and spiritual needs of the church and community.

This year's projects at the church included staining a deck, installing a swing set and motion detector light, painting a shed and completing the painting of the church itself – a project begun but not finished the previous year. The team also painted a church member’s home and added waterproofing to the church baptistery. The major project, though, was to completely rebuild the bedroom floor of a church member's home, including floor joists, sub-floor and floor covering.

Rain on Friday night that soaked the church's deck prevented the completion of that project.

"It kept raining on us so we did not get the whole deck stained," said LSCC's Jerry Brown, who volunteered to coordinate this year's efforts because Curtis Brown (no relation) was preoccupied with a daughter's wedding. "We did do a lot of it," he added. "If the church doesn't get to it we may go down there to finish it."

The remainder of the tasks, though, were completed. "We got to pretty much everything else we wanted to do," Jerry said.

Rain not only played havoc with the work schedule, it impacted social times as well. Rainstorms returned Saturday night during a barbecue and fireworks show hosted by church members for the visitors.

"That was a good, fun time," Jerry said. "But, again, right as it was getting dark, it poured."

Brown praised the time, effort and money the 22 volunteers donated to the ministry project.

"They're crazy," he said. "They're crazy generous. They gave their money. They drove down there to work for two days during a holiday."

Not all of the time was devoted to physical labor. Worship was also of paramount importance.

"The main thing was we were able to have quality time with the church body," Jerry said.

That included Sunday morning when the LSCC volunteers gave Lakeview Baptist members a break from leading church so that they could be on the receiving end of ministry.

"In addition to all the work, we relieved them of the responsibility of having to lead church services," Jerry said. Josh Paxton gave the sermon, while Don Akers led music. Many LSCC members helped lead Sunday School.

Brown was so impressed by the dedication of the volunteers that he believes other such projects could be undertaken.

"I think if we had several of these going on each year, people would sign on," he said, noting that many people expressed interest but were unable to break free during the holiday.

"I know there were some people who said they would have gone if it hadn't been the Fourth of July,” he said. “If there were more of these I think more people would go."

Bob Raukar is a former newspaper editor and member of LSCC.