Editor’s note: As Mission Next Door looks to continue its mission by joining with Rockbridge Area Habitat, its leaders have offered the following look back on the program.
Twenty one years ago, as volunteers from several area churches returned from repairing the devastated homes of Hurricane Katrina flood victims, they brought home a renewed sense of the value and meaning of neighbors helping neighbors.
However, on the long ride home from their second trip to Mississippi in 2006, the volunteers concluded that there were actually plenty of opportunities to help their neighbors closer to home with critically needed home repairs. It was the start of Mission Next Door (MND), which is now completing its 19th year of assisting Rockbridge area residents needing help to complete critical repairs of their older homes.
The evolution of MND began in November of 2007 with a first local project that ultimately combined the efforts of 85 volunteers from six area churches. They included Asbury and Fairfield United Methodist churches, and Bethesda, Fairfield, Mt. Carmel and New Providence Presbyterian churches. In five days of teamwork, they transformed the badly weathered home of a New Providence neighbor and left everyone involved, including the homeowner, assured that together they had the will, skill, and tenacity to help neighbors with significant repair needs.
The concept of neighbors helping neighbors has been at the heart of the organization and perpetuation of Mission Next Door. It was ultimately organized in 2008 by Roberta Fauber of New Providence Presbyterian Church with the mission committees of the six participating churches. To date MND has completed over 315 home repair projects for Rockbridge area homeowners. It has spent over $280,000 on materials while utilizing primarily volunteer labor to provide a home repair ministry serving hundreds of residents.
The typically modest repairs by MND included building wheelchair ramps, providing handicapped accessible bathroom facilities, repairing porches, and remediating water leaks, including both plumbing and roof repair. Approximately 48% of these projects have been completed in the Lexington, Brownsburg, Fairfield and Raphine areas, 38% in the Buena Vista and Glasgow areas and 14% in outlying areas, including three projects in West Virginia.
Several changes have occurred over time that have molded the scope and function of MND. First, typical project costs have increased from around $750 per project in 2008 to around $1,500 in 2025. This has been due in part to the occasional need to use professional contractors when the backlog of projects has required it. Influencing this has been the shortage of available qualified individuals to lead volunteers in completing projects. MND started with five project leaders in 2008 and has “limped home” with two available 83-year-old leaders, Sandy McLaughlin and Robbie Robertson, with a combined 28 years of MND service. Both have finally been slowed with “fewer moving parts” as McLaughlin explains, and both will be retiring from leading projects this year.
Fortunately, funding for this work has remained strong with the support of local churches, civic organizations like Brownsburg Ruritans and the Brownsburg Community Association, as well as dependably supportive grant programs (Grace Episcopal Church and the W&L Community Grants Program). Gifts from private donors, including some who have been served by MND, and discounted materials costs from Spencer’s Home Center have also been important.
Changing times have led to MND reaching out to join physical and financial forces and management structure with Habitat For Humanity. With a strong local chapter in Lexington, HFH is a well known and highly respected charitable organization reaching out to help low-income families partner financially and functionally to build or repair their own homes. The operational details of the joint venture are described in the companion article.
Under the new working agreement with HFH, MND will provide shared or total financial support for some projects undertaken under HFH guidelines. Under those guidelines, MND would direct its primary input to provide support for the lowest income homeowners and veterans, particularly those with handicapped needs, including both wheelchair ramp construction and bathroom conversion for handicapped access. As intended, MND will continue to help provide opportunities for small groups of volunteers from churches, schools and civic clubs to contribute meaningfully to this work.
MND is thankful for its many donors of labor and financial support from the community over time as well as critical secretarial and financial bookkeeping through New Providence Church. Hopefully this service to the community will continue and grow in the future with the partnership undertaken with Habitat for Humanity. Neighbors can make an important difference for us all, and, working with HFH, Mission Next Door expects to be able to more completely and effectively meet future critical home repair needs in the area.
