Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

World Changers workers (from left) Jacob Allen, 18, Chris Avant, 15, and Sam Emadi, 23, paint the front porch of Peggy Parker's home in Roanoke on Tuesday. The students are from North Carolina and Kentucky, and are part of a youth mission that draws participants from around the country.

Four years ago, World Changers showed up at Peggy Parker's doorstep eager to replace the floor of her porch.

The workers did a great job, Parker said.

They showed up again this week just as eager. This time Parker, 66, sat on her porch watching the World Changers workers get paint on their hands and pants. She got up to help where she could, but she mostly watched as the students put the finishing touches on an unfinished paint job.

"I can't get up there and paint," Parker said. "I'm lucky to have them here."

They wouldn't want her help even if she asked. It is their way of giving back to the community and God, they said.

Parker's home is one of 23 homes that 350 high school and college students from all over the country are working on in Roanoke from Tuesday through Friday. This is the eighth summer that World Changers, a Baptist youth mission organization sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention, has come to Roanoke. This year is also the organization's 20th anniversary. This summer 2,300 high school and college students are on missions with World Changers. In total, they will perform labor valued at more than $16 million in 29 states as well as Puerto Rico and Canada.

Preston Oaks Baptist Church has been the host church for World Changers since the mission began serving Roanoke. There are 60 members from Preston Oaks running around the Roanoke area delivering materials and making Powerade runs for World Changers.

"We've worked on 300 homes over the years," Danny Theller said. "World Changers has brought much-needed relief to people who worry about how they're going to get major repairs done to their homes."

The World Changers workers in Roanoke are being housed at Stonewall Jackson Middle School, where they sleep on improvised beds and wait in line for showers. When they leave Jackson at 7 a.m., they head off in 24 groups to paint 10 houses, repair 12 roofs and replace vinyl siding on two homes.

"We're using 200 gallons of paint and 300 bundles of shingles," Theller said.

Rebuilding Together's Roanoke chapter is in partnership with World Changers and picked the houses the students are working on this week. According to John Leftwich, a project manager for Rebuilding Together, residents receiving help must be below the poverty line and own their homes. Funding for the materials that World Changers in Roanoke uses comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The consensus among the participants is that being a World Changer means serving God.

Becky Bullock, 60, of Fuquay-Varina, N.C., is one of the youth counselors. She has traveled with the mission for four years.

"We are out here being the hands and feet of God," Bullock said. "We want people to believe that we are walking sermons in their lives."

The students, who have paid on average $250 to come to Roanoke, agree that being a World Changer also means having fun, sometimes even goofy fun.

While working at a home on Cove Road, Brandon Davis, T.C. Guye and Matt Derrick got off task and each ate one cricket. They described the crickets as being juicy and tasting bitter. Some of the girls in the group said they are preparing themselves to eat a cricket before the week is over.

"We just did it for fun," Davis said. "We don't take ourselves too seriously all the time."

Davis has been a World Changer for four years. He's traveled to Huntsville, Ala., Hannibal, Mo., and Chattanooga, Tenn.

"You get to meet great people who share the same passion for helping people as you do," Davis said. "We also go out and do evangelist work and talk to people in the community."

On Michigan Avenue, World Changers had a huge task on its hands with Clyde English's roof. The workers had six layers of shingles to remove and found spots of rotting wood.

After not being able to work because of a knee injury and cancer, English, 51, said he can't afford to get his roof fixed.

"World Changers have fixed up a bunch of houses on the block," he said. "If I couldn't get it fixed, it would have only gotten worse. We've been dealing with leaks with this old roof. I'm very grateful."