"Now, why would I want to move? This is where I raised my children, and where my husband died. This is my home!" If I ever wanted to explain about Baltimore City Workcamp, I would use this quote from one of our (late) clients, Mrs. Mercy Jones. She lived in West Baltimore on Vine Street where her neighbors included drug dealers and men who regularly urinated in the alley behind her row house. She was an active member of her community association, her church, and was well-loved by her family and friends. She was the reason this patch of Baltimore on Vine Street could still call itself a community—because Mercy Jones cared! Where there is hope and love, there is community.

The Baltimore City Workcamp has been connecting with this hope and love by helping build community for the last ten years. Each year, for one week in June, 60 youth and 19 adult volunteers from 12 parishes and schools throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore, link hands and hearts to serve homeowners like Mercy Jones and our partner community organizations. Our partners, who are constant sources of hope and community within Baltimore City are Transfiguration Parish (St. Martin's, St. Peter's and St. Ambrose's), the Bon Secours Community Center, the Hispanic Apostolate, Corpus Christi Parish, and the Kids on the Hill community group.

Our week of work always begins with Mass at St. Martin's located at Fulton and Fayette Streets (also known as, "The Corner"). Sharing Eucharist with this vibrant and diverse community is a great way to get energized for the ministry that lies ahead. Following Mass, we move across the street to "our playground." Each year, we share a picnic with the neighborhood while we re-condition the equipment, paint the surrounding walls and, most importantly, remove trash that children did not leave behind and to which they should not be exposed—broken glass from liquor/beer bottles and hypodermic needles. When the neighborhood kids join us in our work and begin to play on the equipment, we know the playground has been reclaimed!

The rest of the week is a combination of work, play, and prayer—or perhaps a wonderful week of prayer as our work and play focuses on being and finding Jesus in all we do! We find him in the people who are living a life of goodness in some pretty bad surroundings. We find him in the neighborhood persons who are "getting by" day-to-day. We are him when we make extra lunches for sharing with anyone we meet at our work sites in the city. We find him in the miracles that happen when workcampers and adult chaperones who have never done this work before start fixing, painting, and cleaning! We are him when we send love messages to our workcamp prayer partners and other workcampers. We find him when we are blessed by the family stories our clients share with us. We are him at the Friday picnic when we share joy, food, and fun with our clients and members of the surrounding neighborhood. We both find and are him when we gather each night for workcamp fun and games, and community prayer. We especially find God the Father and the Spirit on the last night of workcamp when we prayerfully reflect on the week gone by. Grace abounds that night!

Finally, we clean up and say our "goodbyes" on Saturday morning. It is time to go home to a world that we know and find comfortable. If it has been a truly prayerful workcamp experience, we depart as missionaries. We know with God as our Father, God's Spirit as our strength and source of hope, and Jesus as our partner in all we do, we will continue to create the kingdom of heaven right here on earth!

Can't wait 'til next year!