On Friday, June 1, 7 members of the Church of Our Saviour community joined up with 83 other volunteer youth and adult participants in the 2007 Homeworks Jr. High Mission session.

Youth Groups from seven Episcopal parishes gathered at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Augusta, Georgia with ready hands and hearts to be put to work, saying, "Here I am Lord, send me."

All of the youth were split into work groups that were assigned different tasks. Most of our group worked at the Heritage School, a Christian school that was founded in 2000 to give a helping hand to youth in lower income areas, to provide educational support through grade 5. The school recently acquired an old school building and is completely renovating it from the inside out with the help of volunteer teams and benefactors.

Our youth were put to work scraping paint from window sills and cleaning 188 windows, inside and out! Some youth did yard work, pulling weeds, trimming hedges, mowing grass and generally improving the outside appearance of the facility. Other youth worked hard sanding down door frames and molding so that years and years of paint layers could receive a fresh coat of paint for the new school year.

Still other youth were put to work moving desks and furniture, getting things organized for the soon to be finished classrooms.

Each task and project was diligently attacked by the work groups. Stories, songs, games and conversation were used to pass the time. We worked hard our fist day! A few of the youth even wrote a song to the tune of The Lion Sleeps Tonight to capture the experience!