As eastern Pennsylvania broiled in the mid-July heat wave, sisters Alexandra and Courtney Miller of Tamaqua and brother and sister Jesse and Olivia Matthewson of Coaldale could have been cooling off in a swimming pool or just chillin' in an air-conditioned house.

Instead, the teens, along with Olivia and Jesse's father, the Rev. Fr. Daniel Matthewson, spent a week pulling weeds, trimming trees, painting fences and clearing clutter at a struggling Philadelphia church.Matthewson is pastor of St. Mary's Orthodox Church of Coaldale, and arranged the mission trip to the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Orthodox Church in South Philadelphia.The century-old, red brick Assumption church, once a jewel of the Grays Ferry community, along the Schuylkill River, had faded into the background. Its parishioners have dwindled from more than 100 in the 1970s to about 35. The working-class neighborhood is now home to families struggling with social and economic issues.The pristine white painted trim had peeled and cracked. Overgrown trees loomed over the roof, clogging rain gutters, which led to leaks that damaged the ceiling of the nave. The wrought iron fence surrounding the property had rusted."The parish was really, really run down. They had roof leaking problems, and they tried to get people to fix it, and the people were giving them these exorbitant estimates," Matthewson said. "We ended up working out with some contractors that we knew to come down and do it at a real cut-rate price. Their ceiling was leaking, so, when people would come into church, stuff would be falling on their heads. Every morning, they would have to sweep stuff up because the paint was chipping and falling down."Matthewson's brother Steven, of Canton, Ohio, joined in to volunteer, as did Coaldale building contractor Mike Kulick, who chipped in with equipment, supplies and manpower to fix the roof.Mission possibleThe idea for the Philadelphia mission, from July 14-20, took root last year, after Matthewson led a group to Spruce Pines, N.C., as part of FOCUS (Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve) North America.There, the group helped disabled people, installing or repairing ramps and decks and fixing roofs on their homes.Matthewson said then-diocese Bishop Tikhon, who is now Archbishop of Washington and Metropolitan of all America and Canada, suggested the next mission trip be within the diocese, which includes Schuylkill, Luzerne and Philadelphia counties.Matthewson contacted a priest he knew in Philadelphia, who suggested he call the Rev. Matthew Cantrell, acting rector of Assumption."Fr. Matthew, when I contacted him, he was just excited and overjoyed about the possibility of what we wanted to do, which was basically to bring a group there and do one week of power intensive work cleaning and fixing and doing whatever we could to help this parish out," Matthewson said.The Assumption parish had just enough money to pay for materials, but the labor costs would be more than it could afford. Matthewson made several trips to Assumption to see what needed to be done, and how his group could help."We got down there on the 14th, and started out with a prayer service and then each day, we got up at 7 a.m. and worked until 5 p.m., and worked as hard as we could," he said.The group was divided into crews, one for landscaping, one for roof and ceiling preparation, another for painting. The volunteers then rotated to do whatever needed to be done, despite the relentless heat.Kulick showed a reporter his sneakers, the soles of which had shifted so that they stuck out a good quarter-inch from the bottoms from standing on the hot roof."The heat actually melted the glue on the soles of my sneakers," he said.Matthewson described some of the work."We trimmed trees around the entire property, because the trees had overgrown the roof, and that was part of the problem why there was leaking and gutters clogged. We cut down all the branches that were hanging over, and then we mulched those branches, and used that to landscape around the property," he said.The group cleaned up overgrown brush, trash and poison ivy around the church, which is on almost an acre of land.The volunteers also reached out into the community, letting parishioners know the church was still there, alive and functioning. Matthewson tells of a man who got off a bus at a stop near the church."With a shock, he opened his eyes and said, 'Is this actually a church? I thought it was an old factory,'" Matthewson said. "Just moving trees, painting a little bit and brightening up was enough to tell people, we exist and we're alive."By the end of the week, the group was exhausted, but happy with what they had accomplished."We got it done. We ended up doing a lot of work for them, and they were very, very thankful," Matthewson said.Giving and receivingCantrell is thrilled with, and grateful for, the work."We at the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Orthodox Church in South Philly are grateful for all the effort given by Fr. Daniel and the young adults from St. Mary's," he said. "One of my goals for our parish has been that we would no longer be invisible to our neighborhood. There are a number of reasons why we have been invisible. For one, the neighborhood has changed demographically. Secondly and furthermore, we have been known as the 'Russian Church' in the past, which means that those who are not Russian and who live around our church have a reason to believe that the Assumption of the Holy Virgin is not for them. Since so many of our parishioners now commute from both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania suburbs of Philadelphia and no longer live in South Philly, I believe that it is time to recommit to the neighborhood and to evangelize our neighbors our church is as much theirs as ours, in other words."Fr. Daniel and those with him have helped in this regard not only by completing physical repairs to our church but also by spending time with our neighbors for a week. Unfortunately, we now have so few parishioners that it has been hard to undertake these repairs and, although our parishioners are willing to evangelize our neighbors, simply having more people around working and beautifying our church has demonstrated to the neighborhood that we are making a commitment to it and its residents as a community church. Many of our neighbors stopped by to see the church during the mission trip and a number visited us for the first time during the Divine Liturgy this past Sunday," Cantrell said."Our neighborhood needs a community church. More specifically, our neighbors need spiritual care for themselves and for their children. I liken Fr. Daniel's mission trip as giving us a jump start. Our motor runs well but the battery has been running low. For this and the mission team's assistance I am very grateful," he said.The volunteers from Coaldale and Tamaqua also came away feeling blessed."We came there to serve them. But the people, who were older and couldn't do this kind of work, they were the hospitable ones, feeding us and making sure we had anything we needed," Matthewson said. "As Christians, being able to minister to one another is a beautiful thing. It was really a joy to be able to minister to our brothers and sisters who really had need."Each of the teenagers shared their thoughts on the trip."The biggest thing I learned is that sometimes, you just have to think about the 'now.' Not really worry about what's in your past, or what's to come. Just take everything step by step and eventually, as long as you can make others happy by doing it, that just makes your whole world a big difference," Alexandra said."Going into the mission trip, there were a lot of superfluous ideas in my head that had nothing to do with the trip. But the second I started working, every thought that had been plaguing my mind for the past few months was finally just gone," she said."Meeting all these new people just made me feel better. It really changed my life and gave me a new perspective on things. God has a plan, and we may not like it at times, or not see where he's going with it, but eventually, in the end, it's all going to work out to benefit us in the long run,"Alexandra said.Olivia, referring to the North Carolina trip, said that "it felt great to be able to serve these people, and to know that they actually needed help and they came up to us and said thank you so much for coming to help us, because we would not be able to do this without you. It kind of softened my heart a lot to know there are people out there who are too scared to ask."This year, I think it was a little different because it was something we had in common, which was a religion and a church. So it was helping out the people we knew and loved. There were people there that I had met before. And so I knew that the smiles on all their faces every single day that we'd come in or they would see us working, were true smiles, and that they really did love what we were doing," she said."We just came to serve, and they were so grateful and thankful for that. It's just a great feeling to know and help other people who may not come out and say it, but as soon as you do it, they say thank you. Just the feeling and the excitement of helping these people out was great," Olivia said.Jesse celebrated his 18th birthday while on the Philadelphia mission."I was amazed at how just a small group of people by helping out this parish, gave it a jump start. Fr. Cantrell used a metaphor, that the parish was like an old car that's been sitting around for awhile. The engine runs fine and it's in good condition, it's just that the battery has been drained. It needs something to get it going. I was just amazed that how we, through just little things, were able to perk up the parish. Even the local community noticed it," he said.Philadelphia was Courtney's first mission trip."I had no idea what I was really getting myself into. We got there and realized, yeah, this parish really does need a lot of help. We had to clean the fences before we could paint them. This was a lot of work," she said."But people would walk by, and we would say 'hi' to them and just start talking to them. It made me feel good, because they walk away with a smile on their face. And when we would go inside to get a drink, everyone would ask if we were OK, and did we need anything. They would constantly be reaching out to you; they were always right there if you needed anything," she said. "It was really wonderful."