County welcomes army invasion

By Phil Major
publisher@wood.cm
Posted 7/15/21

An army invaded Wood County last week.

Each summer, throughout the south and southeastern United States, as well as locations in the northeast, youth fan out taking on the work of helping …

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County welcomes army invasion

Posted

An army invaded Wood County last week.

Each summer, throughout the south and southeastern United States, as well as locations in the northeast, youth fan out taking on the work of helping neighbors.

Last week some members of the UM Army spent their week in Mineola and Wood County helping with a variety of projects.

The UM Army, which stands for United Methodist Action Reach-out Mission by Youth, consists of week-long camps where the youth take on projects from ramp-building to painting and yard work.

While the First United Methodist Church in Mineola hosted a group of campers from Nacogdoches, Baytown and Santa Fe last week, the church also sent its own team to a mission in Brownsville.

Among the beneficiaries were families in Mineola, Quitman, Hawkins and Grand Saline, as well as the Rainbow Room in Quitman which houses clothing for children who are clients of Child Protective Services.

One team of four spent their entire week helping a homeowner in Mineola. They trimmed bushes, cut down trees, eradicated vines and scraped, caulked and painted the exterior.

Another team built a wheelchair ramp for a Mineola resident and another was in Grand Saline where they built a fence.

Projects can vary from a few hours or days to all week.

And coordinator Anne Eaves said the team would not be able to complete everything it wanted at the Mineola home in a week.

Though associated with the United Methodist Church, the UM Army receives no direct funding from the national church.

Each youth and adult member of the team ponies up $275 to attend the camp, which goes for all the expenses of transporting, housing and feeding about 30 youth and 13 adult chaperones.

FUMC Mineola housed the campers in its ministry center on cots and air mattresses.

Their daily routine begins with a 7 a.m. wake up followed by a devotional and breakfast and getting on the road by 8:30.

They have another devotional and lunch and try to wrap up around 4 p.m.

The Mineola Middle School provided shower accommodations, followed by organized evening activities.

The campers arrive on Sunday evening, work Monday to Friday and head home midday Saturday.

It’s an exhausting week, and yet program coordinator Abby Weaver of Nacogdoches said many campers and adults return, sometimes year after year.

Eaves explained that the adults are on equal footing with the youth, who help direct the work.

The campers during the summer are primarily high school age. There are also college-age camps usually during May.

The coordination begins in the fall when participating churches make decisions on what areas they might want to visit and if they would want to partner with other specific churches.

Once host cities are identified and accommodations secured, they work with the local church as well as others like Meals on Wheels and home health nurses to find people who may have needs.

The clients are often elderly and widowed, Eaves noted.

The army also funds or furnishes its own materials and tools.

And they also accept the generosity, sometimes from strangers, in their host towns, who might pick up the tab for a meal or donate materials.

Eaves said the homeowner was not only appreciative but interacted with the students and participated in the lunchtime devotional.

That’s one of the many blessings the campers receive, in addition to the ones they hand out.