Our 2020 Work Retreat season begins March 1st with two week-long groups coming to serve with us. We still have a few openings for weekend and week-long groups for the spring of 2020.
LIFE TOGETHER is a small worshipping community which gathers every Sunday from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm on the Good Works property. Join us for a time of worship through song and scripture followed by a shared meal.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIFE (FNL) starts year 28 this spring (2020). We started Friday Night Life in the spring of 1993 when we invited residents of The Timothy House back for dinner on Friday’s after they moved out. We have built long-term relationships across generational lines and across the lines of class. This community reveals an amazing ‘coming together’ of people from all walks of life. For six months each year FNL meets on the Good Works property and for six months we meet in the Family Life Center of The Plains UM Church. On a low day, FNL hosts about 75-90 and on a high day about 140-150. Adults are building mentoring relationships with children and teens. The youngest participant is less than 1 year and the oldest participant is around 94 years old. We are so thankful for the life-giving community FNL has become for so many people. FNL moves from The Plains UMC back to the Good Works Property in March.
APPALACHIAN IMMERSION INTERNSHIPbegins a new season in 2020. Interns live in the Good Works Hannah House and experience a wide range of hands-on opportunities to serve others and grow in their faith inside the ministries of Good Works.
SO GRATEFUL for Dindam Wuyep and Heath Curry. They have served alongside us as Appalachian Interns for the past year.
For more information on our 2020 Internships, including our 9 week Summer Service Internship for 2020, click here.
We recently published an update to our Athens Area Resource Guide of organizations which serve people in our community.
Heart-felt gratitude to the Renaissance Engineers from Ohio University who are building Good Works a new bridge over Factory Creek on the Good Works Luhrig Road property!
Click here learn about the different ways you can give to Good Works on-line.
This devotional developed by the Good Works staff is available for bible study. Check it out!
Click here to learn more about the 2020 Good Works Board.
2019 NEWS …
Click here to read some recent reflections on leadership by Keith Wasserman.
Three Saturday’s each year, we invite our scheduled volunteers to participate in what we call Community Development. This is a time of updates, education, affirmation and communication around the different areas where volunteers serve once a week or once a month.
Good Works provided car #184 on January 23 to another participant in the TRANSFORMATION STATION!!
Heart-felt thanks to everyone who has donated a car and to everyone who is thinking about donating a car. This “asset-based” volunteer opportunity invites people to use their skills and abilities to serve others and provides a vehicle in exchange for their time. Since 2004, we have been welcoming people into community, offering them a PLACE as a volunteer to serve others alongside us and providing them with a car after they obtain enough points.
On Saturday September 28th , the Community of Good Works hosted a “ground-breaking” ceremony for our new initiative calledSign of HOPEat 100 Central Avenue.
Sign of HOPE is designed to WELCOME individuals and families who are experiencing a housing crisis who have a disability and who are unable to climb steps.
To read Keith’s speech at the Sign of HOPE groundbreaking, click here.
To read a news article about Sign of HOPE published on October 3, click here.
These men have worked hard to help us lay the foundation of Sign of HOPE!
This new 5+ minute video was produced by Tim Sharp. It is a brief story of our vision and mission.
Here is a news article from Spring 2019 on the Transformation Station published by The Athens News.
The 2019 Good Works 7 week Summer Kids Discovery Club (KDC) and Summer Lunch ended on August 1. Both initiatives were held four days a week (M-TH) at The Plains UMC. Because of the kindness and generosity of so many people, we were able to provide 1,534 hot and nutritional lunches this summer to adults and children.
This 40 minute sermon about the Foundational Vision of Good Works was given by Keith Wasserman at Bethel Worship Center in March 2019.
The 17th GOOD WORKS WALK took place on February 23, 2019 and focused on understanding and loving the stranger. To read the February 25th news story from our local paper (The Athens News), click here.
Good Works has been committed to welcoming people without a home for 39 years. The strength of Good Works is expressed in our relentless effort, as a community, to love and care for people who might be considered strangers. The WALK experience this year was wonderful. We felt loved and supported and encouraged by almost 300 participants. This year, our 17th, was THE LAST WALK
The WALK raised almost $41.000.00 for The Timothy House.
To read the speech Keith Wasserman gave on February 23, 2019 at the 17th Good Works WALK, click here, or listen to the 17 minute speech below.
This is an excellent 8+ minute video on Radical Hospitality that we found very helpful and believe you will too!
This document, produced in early 2019 offers some perspective of the scope of our ministry. It is called Good Works by the numbers.
In January 2019, OUR LIFE LOGS published a short story on Keith’s life. Click here to read the story.
Click here to view a short video on the Good Works Timothy House Weekend Volunteer Opportunity.
INTERNSHIPS 2020 Building a Community of HOPE!
SUMMER SERVICE. We are now accepting applications for Summer Service 2020. This is a 9 week internship opportunity to grow in love for God and our neighbors here in rural Ohio. Interns live on the Good Works property and serve in a wide range of different ways all focused on discipleship and leadership development.
WEEK OF SERVICE is a short term internship we offer to anyone, age 16 or older who would like to come to Good Works for a week and join us. Know someone who might enjoy spending a week with us this year? Encourage them to contact us for an application. Week of Service participants stay in the Hannah House and are included in most of the activities going on including Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Life Together, and Friday Night Life. They volunteer at The Timothy House and participate in the Good Works staff meetings.
History Highlights
2013-2018
2018 NEWS …
Here is the link to our 2018 Thanksgiving Newsletter !!
We were able to provide car #174 in December to another participant in the Transformation Station initiative! We continue to believe that this aspect of our vision and mission is making a significant impact upon individuals and families who live in rural Ohio.
Good Works Transformation Station needs used vehicles in working condition right now. To learn more, click here. This article explains some of the little known facts behind the nationwide car donation program. You may be surprised at what you read here. A LOT goes into planning and sustaining the Transformation Station. Click here to learn more.
In late November 2018, Keith was interviewed for the Kindness Podcast. The 20+ minute interview can be heard here.
For a brief article Keith wrote this year on the history of Good Works click here.
GOING DEEPER, our conference on exploring the four practices that make or break all christian communities was held on Saturday, October 27th. Our staff focused on sharing some of the sustainable practices we have developed in the Good Works community and how they fortify our vision and mission. We shared presentations and small group discussions on Promise-Keeping, Truth-Telling, Hospitality, and Gratitude. If you know of an organization or community that would benefit from these presentations, contact us and we can explore making arrangements to come and speak about these practices.
This is a link to a presentation by Keith Wasserman to Ohio University at the Wealth and Poverty series on September 25, 2018.
Click here to read a copy of the letter we send out to the Westside Neighborhood each year that explains the Good Works Timothy House.
Our fall 2018 Work Retreat season ended November17. We are now scheduling Work Retreat groups (short-term mission teams) for the spring of 2019. All of our summer slots are committed to.
Here is a short reflection by one of our recent interns (spring 2018) on his internship through the office of Faith, Work and Economics at Asbury Theological Seminary. The article is entitled Creating Space for God.
We launched a new addition to our ministry in 2018: Spiritual Formation Retreats. Led and directed by Paul Richard, this new aspect of Good Works focuses on creating space for a time of song, reflection and sharing around the themes of the justice and righteousness of God.
This dramatic presentation was given by Keith Wasserman to the students and faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary during a chapel service on April 19, 2018. It is entitled THE MISSION OF GOD.
In early 2018, we invited several former staff and interns to share brief reflections on what most impacted them during their season with Good Works. Click here to read these reflections.
This short article entitled Poverty in Appalachia was developed by our staff to help our readers and supporters better understand some of the issues people we serve are impacted by.
This article was published in 2018 by Ohio University about Good Works. It tells the story of how Good Works was selected from 80 local non-profits to receive a grant from Warren Buffett’s Learning by Giving Foundation.
2017 NEWS …
On an average year, we host around 40 groups who come to Athens, stay in our dorms and participate in Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Last year, we visited and served 61 families or individuals, and led around 225 different projects at their homes! Maybe you’d like to explore a conversation about bringing a group for a week or weekend this year?
This talk was given in Little Rock Arkansas. It is one of five different presentations Keith gave in April 2017. It begins with a film clip where Jesus speaks as recorded in Matthew 25:31-46.
If you are not already connected with us on Facebook, we want to encourage you to “friend us” and receive updates on Good Works each week.
Every Friday Night, Good Works provides 25-45 individuals and families with “take home” food. People sign up during Friday Night Life and the food is provided at 7:30 pm each week. Want to do a food drive for Good Works?
Since 2004, Good Works has provided cars, appliances, non-emergency food, and bicycles to people in Athens county through a “sweat equity” initiative we call the Transformation Station! As people donate cars and appliances to us, we are able to provide them to people who need them and who are willing to volunteer their time to serve others in the community.
The community of Good Works facilitates experiences for about 1,100 volunteers each year. Each October and February and April, we host a special Community Development Day to build up, encourage and affirm the volunteers who serve with us. Participants in The Timothy House, Friday Night Life, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Kids Club, and Good Works Gardens attend.
2016 NEWS …
We found these five recent audio presentations on poverty in America to be very helpful in terms of increasing our understanding and perspective on the very complex issues involved with being poor in this country.
This hour-long talk by Keith Wasserman was recorded on Sunday, September 18th. This is the story of Good Works and some of the basic foundational principals of the ministry God has trusted us with.
Andrea Horsch and Keith Wasserman have written an essay entitledGood Works Timothy House Beyond the Numbers(released February 2016). This essay offers perspective and analysis on some of the numbers we have been compiling for the past 9 years.
LISTEN to a short audio story about the Good Works Timothy House!
2015 NEWS …
On Sunday, October 25th, Good Works held a public presentation/conversation with the people of Athens County to talk about the way in which we provide shelter, changes we have instituted, and our desire to continue to be a good neighbor as we operate the only home for people without homes in 8 rural Southeast Ohio Counties. The event took place at Central Avenue UM Church (westside) and was followed by an Open House at the Timothy House.
Check out this video about the summer at Good Works produced by Priscilla Thomas.
Ohio Today, a publication of Ohio University for alumni, published a two page article entitled Embodying The Humanitarian Spirit about the work of Good Works and Keith Wasserman. You can find it on page 37.
This talk “Community Is The Means By Which We Carry Out Mission” was given by Keith Wasserman last spring at River of Life Community Church in Hudson, Ohio.
Keith and Darlene Wasserman are opening their home to men, women and children the Timothy House can not assist based on space limitations. They provided 143 nights of shelter at their home last year. This initiative, called Sign of HOPE started in February 2013. Each night the Wasserman’s go to the Timothy House and walk over to their home with the residents they are assisting. Sign of HOPE has two bedrooms and can assist up to five people at one time. The city of Athens does not have any laws regarding how many guests a home owner can have in their home or how long they can stay.
Thanks to our friends from Grove City United Methodist Church, The Good Works property has a N E W greenhouse.
Twelve minutes with Keith Wasserman. This 12 minute video was recorded in August as Keith provided an overview of Good Works to conference in Chicago.
Clickhereto see a new downloadable PDF entitled GOOD WORKS BY THE NUMBERS.
This 45 minute presentation on the biblical vision of Good Works with given by Keith to the Church of the Messiah in Xenia.
2014 marked the 10th year of the Transformation Station.
2014 marked the 20th year of the Good Works Luhrig Road property. This property was purchased in 1994 and ushered in the beginning of the ‘debt free’ era.
2014 marked the 30th anniversary of the Timothy House which was purchased in 1984. Since 1984, Good Works has provided more than 110,000 nights of shelter at The Timothy House.
2013 NEWS …
The community of FRIDAY NIGHT LIFE celebrated our 20th anniversary in May. This monumental event was attended by a LOT of people even though it was raining and we lost power for the whole evening. We began FNL in the spring of 1993 and held the event at Central Avenue United Methodist Church for about eight years before moving to The Plains United Methodist Church. Today, FNL is held on the Good Works property for six months and at the Plains UMC for six months. We are always seeking groups to sponsor one meal each year.
Our new trail dedication took place in October on the Good Works property. In addition to the beautiful hiking experiences enjoyed by adults and children of all ages, the event honored John Knouse who donated more than 500 hours of his time overseeing hundreds of volunteers during the past few years.
The United Methodist Church conducted a series of interviews with our staff which resulted in this on-line article.
INFO
Keith speaks about 50-80 times a year around the US on many topics related to the ministry God has trusted us with. This talk was given at Asbury Theological Seminary’s Kingdom Conference:
You can save this sermon and listen to it later. Just right-click the media player and select “save as” to save the file to your computer.
We have developed a seminar entitled “The Gospel to the Poor — A Practical Biblical Theology.” For the handouts for this seminar, click here.
Matt and Beverly Hale have written a unique bible study on Righteousness and Justice. This study was originally developed as a workshop for University Students associated with the Navigators and has been adapted for Good Works. It is available here: A_study_in_Justice_and_Righteousness. Matt and Beverly were on the Good Works staff for several years working with Friday Night Life and our Life on Life mentoring program. They currently live and labor in ministry in inner-city Detroit, Michigan.
Would it surprise you to learn that Good Works has struggled to find funding for the ministry God has entrusted to us with here in SE Ohio? Take a look at these statistics and you may be surprised to learn what we have discovered. If you know of a foundation which funds the kind of projects we are committed to, please email us or contact 740.594.3339. To read about the Reality of Fundraising in SE Ohio, click here.
