Dustin White of Canton, Ohio, stands in front of the fence at the community garden in the Hillside community of LaGrange where he and other volunteers brought the garden a little more color with a mural. White is one of the volunteers living in the community as part of Mission Year, a yearlong urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship.
Monica and Ben Wheeler from Tyler, Texas; Jamie and Dustin White from Canton, Ohio; and Zach and Margareta Maxon from Iowa moved to LaGrange last fall and will live in the Hillside community through July.
They are all volunteers through Mission Year, a year-long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship.
Overseen locally by Anton Flores, founder of the nonprofit group Alterna, each of the six people are assigned to a variety of organizations throughout the area. They are also all involved with Alterna, a LaGrange-based Christian ministry that offers support to Latino immigrants and has developed empowerment programs in Guatemala.
Monica Wheeler works four days a week with at-risk children at Unity Elementary School; Ben Wheeler works with DASH for LaGrange as the community liaison in the Hillside community; Jamie White works as an outreach coordinator at New Community Church; Dustin White works with students at New Community Church and also leads Bible studies at the jail; Zach Maxon works for Troup/Chambers Habitat for Humanity and at Jenny Jack Farm in Pine Mountain; and Margareta Maxon divides her time between Circle of Care - a program for teenage mothers - and Jenny Jack Farm.
All six live in a Hillside house provided by DASH. None receive any income.
Mission Year volunteers usually are placed in urban centers such as Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago, but for the first time in the organization’s 13-year history, a team landed in a less-than-urban area.
Each team member agreed to come to the smaller-than-average site.
“We wanted a city with small concentrated pockets of poverty,” said Dustin White, 26. “Much of the urban work is surface ministry, like a soup kitchen. Here we can dig a little deeper and work with systemic issues.”
Living in an “intentional community” makes a difference, said Monica Wheeler, 29. “It’s a more intense experience sharing your life with others here,” she said.
Flores has worked with the president of Mission Year and encouraged the partnership this year.
“Alterna decided to partner with Mission Year because we resonated with their call to develop committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor.’ The vision I cast to our local partners was to imagine what the presence of exceptional young adults committed to a lifestyle of love, justice and service could look like in LaGrange and Troup County. What if, year after year, these passionate servant leaders with a heart for the marginalized stick around and get fully integrated into our community?”
Mission Year embraced the partnership and also plans to continue it. One couple has already committed to live in LaGrange next fall.
“We are running across issues of immigration in all of our cities,” said Leroy Barber, president of Mission Year. “This is definitely an urban issue. We wanted to be involved around the issue of supporting people who are getting life started in the United States. Our partnership in LaGrange was a natural one and it’s going great. The city of LaGrange welcomed us and we are serving well.”
For the volunteers, the year-long commitment to live among the poor has given them an opportunity to to bring change to their community.
“We’ve helped bring new life to the community,” Jamie White, 23, said. “Sometimes it’s as simple as holding a Hillside party to bring kids together.”
Sometimes, just modeling a different kind of lifestyle can make a difference.
“Coming from having your own grocery list, your own house, your own life to living with six people, you have to communicate,” Jamie White said. “It’s definitely different. It was really hard in the beginning.”
Modeling that kind of communication can be good for the community as well, Ben Wheeler, 29, said.
“Working it out is a good picture for this community,” he said.
Monica Wheeler, working at Unity Elementary, has seen advantages to living in the community where many of her students live.
“So many times your life is removed from your students. Living here makes you see the kids in a different way,” she said. “The whole experience we’ll take to the next step in our lives. We’ll invest ourselves in another neighborhood, in another place.”
Sherri Brown can be contacted at sbrown@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240.
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