Church camp on mission to help others in Fort Bend County

SUGAR LAND, TX (KTRK) -- Students and adults are chipping in to make a difference in Fort Bend County. They're getting together on a mission to help others. They're part of a camp with the U.M. ARMY at Parkway United Methodist Church in Sugar Land.

The house is a converted garage, but now it's starting to look a lot more like a home. It's the answer to a prayer for Jacqueline Hernandez Cloud, the single mother who lives there.

"We weren't homeless, but it was a roof over our head," Cloud said.

For eight years, Cloud and her son have lived in a converted garage. For most of it, the walls inside were exposed, just insulation and pipes. It leaked during heavy rains. Cloud is a full-time mom and student now and has never had the money to pay for the work to be finished. She was too proud to ask for help.

"This is why we do what we do, really and truly at the end of the day," said Jay Neff with U.M. ARMY.

She one day asked her church for help, and before she knew it, all these teenagers descended upon her home.

"I just fell to my knees and I just started crying. And I'm like, 'Thank you, thank you for answering my prayers,'" Cloud said.

It's the United Methodist Action Reach-Out Mission by Youth, or U.M. ARMY.

"We are the hands and feet of God. We're doing this work because people are praying for it and we're actually showing that that prayer can be answered," said Zachary Ferguson of Jasper, Texas.

The kids are some of over 120 from all over East Texas, who on Tuesday, were fanned out at 30 similar scenes around Fort Bend County -- fixing up homes for those who can't fix things themselves.

For the teens, this is so much more though than fixing up a neglected home. It's also about repairing the heart. Like the sign outside Cloud's house says, this too is, "Grown with love."

You can already see the effect it's having on Cloud.

"They're blessing us, they just don't know how this is gonna effect our life," she said. "It's gonna be like a house!"

By the end of the week, Cloud won't even recognize the home it will be so fixed up. She's struggling now with how she will every be able to put her gratitude into words.

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sugar land, local, kevin quinn

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