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A step in the right direction

Teen missionaries help rebuild in East Rockaway, Bay Park, nearby communities

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It’s rare to find a teenager who, instead of spending summer days with friends or hanging out at the beach, is busy installing a water heater or repairing a roof, but that’s just what the young volunteers from Next Step Ministries are doing in East Rockaway, Bay Park and nearby communities this summer.

You may have seen them around the parking lot at the Bethany Congregational Church on Main Street, looking like any other group of teens on a vacation day. But these kids are waiting to be called to their next job, doing concrete work, tear-outs, sheetrocking — anything they can do to help area neighborhoods get back on their feet more than eight months after they were devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

“These kids have a broad range of skills,” said the Rev. Mark Lukens, Bethany’s pastor. “They provide the labor, not the supplies, although in some cases the mission can help with that, too. They’re an incredible group of young people.”

Lukens said that members of the Garden City Community Church contacted him after the storm, asking what they could do to help. They told Lukens about Next Step Ministries, a group of student volunteers who were willing to help residents rebuild. “They said that if we could find a place to put them up for eight weeks, then they’ll come to help,” Lukens said.

So he allows the students, some of who are from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and even New Mexico, to sleep on air mattresses in the church’s large gymnasium — which served as a supply pickup and drop-off point in the weeks after the storm. The teens shower in a pod-like vehicle they brought with them, which is parked in the lot owned by the CVS next to the church.

“CVS has been great,” Lukens said, “and the Mothers’ Center put aside a lot of their activities so these kids could come in.” The Mothers’ Center hosts many of its programs at Bethany.

Next Step Ministries volunteers are helping out up and down the East Coast, Lukens said, and some went to Oklahoma after tornadoes tore through that state. Twelve Next Step members have been in East Rockaway for weeks now, and will remain in the area for most of the summer, while others from around the country will come and go.

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