Summer fun

has been balanced with summer service projects for scores

of teens in Fayette County who have volunteered a day or

a week of their vacations to help their less fortunate

neighbors.

"We

live in a cornucopia area," said Linda Lake, youth

director at Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in

Peachtree City. "We do things with our young people

that expose them to another way of life." This week,

Lake took 10 teens to the Atlanta Children's Shelter,

where they performed a skit and played with the homeless

youngsters who stay at the site while their parents work

or try to find employment.

"They

love it," Lake said about the youth that

participated. "We're planning another visit for Aug.

2.

The group

included Laura and Anna Griffith, Kara and Sam Grubb,

Sara Cline, Jamie and Michael Ferris.

Members of

the LifeTeen group from Holy Trinity Catholic Church in

Peachtree City were part of a 300-member Catholic Heart

Workcamp assisting the poor and elderly last month in

Orlando, Fla. According to LifeTeen coordinator Andy

Costantine, their work focused on repairing and painting

neighborhood houses and spending one-to-one time with

children in the local day care center.

"Part

of this project is called `Paint the Town,'"

Costantine said. It is administered by the county's

health and family services agency.

Despite

sleeping middle school classrooms and taking cold

showers, Costantine said his crew "loved it."

"The

kids have really promoted it... next year we want to

bring three times as many." The work camp volunteers

included Kenny Jubb, Stella Kwak, Katie Cox, Jessica

Lovelace, Maribeth Nolan, Janee Patterson, Brittany

Poisso, Nicole Remillard, Brian Schmidt and Jeff

Schortmann.

McDonough

Road Baptist Church headed west to Superior, Mont., where

33 members of the youth choir and drama group -

accompanied by nine chaperones and for several days their

pastor, the Rev. David Chancey - led Vacation Bible

School at Superior Baptist Church. The group also

conducted a "back yard Bible club" and

performed at five different locations during the evening.

Their final

job included reroofing the pastor's residence. A letter

from Superior Baptist's pastor, the Rev. Randy Daniels,

sums up the impact the visit had on the community.

"The way they ministered in VBS, back yard Bible

club, the concerts and the roofing project still has me

in awe. They have done more to aid the ministry of this

church than anything else I have seen in the year and a

half I have been here, and, I believe, in the one-year

history of this church."

For the

fourth consecutive year, adult and youth members of

Fayetteville Christian Church traveled to Juarez, Mexico

to work with Casas por Cristo, a nondenominational

ministry dedicated to helping the poor through spiritual

and physical means, particularly by building houses.

Helen

Thornton, Fayetteville Christian's church secretary, said

the homes they have built are for families who have no

homes, or who simply live in cardboard and tarpaper

shacks. While in Juarez, the volunteers were housed in

the local church and worked under the auspices of Casas

por Cristos. In three days, the mission team constructed

a two-room house for a family selected by the

organization.

Thornton

said their house was built for a family of four.

These

structures cost approximately $2,500 for a single family

home up to $4,100 for a large house or church. Materials

are purchased in Mexico to stimulate the local economy,

Thornton explained, and the team provides all their own

food and necessities. Casa por Cristo is headquartered in

El Paso, Texas; phone (800) 819-8014.