I looked at the phrase “Bringing Help, Hope, and Healing” displayed in red letters across our trailer.
It was day 4 of our rebuild deployment in St. Louis, Missouri. I had woken up on the cold, carpeted basement floor at the church — a once-thriving upper-middle-class community now priced out by inflation. Throughout the week, we worked with homeowners in North Central St. Louis, rebuilding their homes after a flood had devastated the community two years prior. The project was led by Dan Freeze from the Jefferson Baptist Association, who had been leading teams since the floods began, and by this point, the project was nearing its end.
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During this process, we encountered homes in various states of disarray. Most were in poorer neighborhoods – multigenerational, passed down through families. While we focused on rebuilding, the church faced another crisis.
Over the years, it had dwindled in size as families moved away, the congregation aged, and funding dried up. By the time we arrived, the church could no longer afford to use its main sanctuary due to utility bills. The large building lay empty, except for the basement. This church needed mold remediation, which our team was trained to provide, but addressing the deeper crisis within the church was something no training had prepared us for. The church needed hope, just as every person we encountered did.
Our mission: “Help, Hope, and Healing.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by JP Johnson, a student at California Baptist University, and originally published by the California Southern Baptist Convention.
