Good Works, Inc.

My name is Nick Smith. I coordinate three different areas of Good Works’ ministry: Friday Night Life Kids’ Club, Work Retreats with Good Works and LifeTogether. I have been a part of the Good Works community since serving as a Summer Service Intern in the summer of 2014.

I am an Athens, Ohio native. One of the sentiments carried by many young people in Appalachia is the notion of “getting out”. This is the idea that if you have the opportunity to leave a place like Athens…you leave. Growing up I very much wanted to “get out” and so sought to distance myself as much as possible from the culture, the people of this region and even my own family. I was a deeply insecure person and took it out on the people around me.

I carried this bitterness towards Appalachia into adulthood. Even as I met Christ and began to follow him I held a bigoted outlook towards people who lived in rural parts of the country. After moving and living on the west coast of the United States, God began to reveal to me the sinfulness of harboring such resentment towards an entire people group. A serendipitous run-in with Keith Wasserman and the opportunity to intern with Good Works served as an excellent doorway to begin the process of reconciling myself with my own upbringing and culture. This reconciliation has taken the form of acts of love and mutual relationship building with my neighbors in southeast Ohio.

Following my summer internship, I have continued to learn and grow as a member of the Good Works community. I’ve had the privilege of serving in a variety of Good Works contexts, but currently I spend time building relationships with kids and teens in the area that are struggling as the result of poverty. I also organize Work Retreats with Good Works, where we invite groups from outside the area to come learn and love alongside our neighbors in Athens County.