No Ordinary Volunteer
If you received our Annual Report last month, you may have seen that our volunteer workforce donated 4,699 hours of service in 2023. That’s an average of 12 hours/day! We are so grateful for the time, energy, and passion of our volunteers who continue to support our mission of providing critical repairs to low-income families in our community.
What you may not know, is that 499 of those 4,699 volunteer hours came from ONE man.
Bob Johnson, Good Neighbors Volunteer
Back in 1992, Bob Johnson and his wife, Janet, were attending Presbyterian Church of Kennett Square (PCKS) and heavily involved as youth group volunteers. “We didn’t have a youth pastor, per se,” Bob recalled, “There was one couple who were the spiritual leaders—the teachers of the group. But Janet and I and some other parents did the logistical stuff. One of the biggest was organizing the mission trips during the summer to the Appalachia area.”
While Bob and Janet were working with the youth group, Bob’s friend and fellow church member, Jay Malthaner, had started a home repair ministry at PCKS that would eventually become Good Neighbors. While accompanying the youth on a mission trip Bob helped organize, Jay started thinking about having a youth camp for Good Neighbors.
“In 1997, I took our group out to work on houses in the Butler, Pennsylvania area. That particular camp was run by a national organization with help from a local group that had been running smaller summer camps in the area. The local group had assembled a manual for the volunteers who ran their camp. They shared it with me, and I brought it back and showed it to Jay.” The first Good Neighbors camp was held in 1998 with 20-25 kids. Jay organized the worksites, Janet covered the food, and Bob, as he puts it, “did everything else.”
Bob and his wife, Janet
After retiring from his job at Dupont at the end of 2009, Bob devoted more time to Good Neighbors and took on additional volunteer roles. “They needed a finance guy. I told them I didn’t have any accounting background, but I was good with numbers.” Bob joined the Good Neighbors Board in 2011 as Treasurer and served for six years. “I had a steep learning curve, but around that time there was a group meeting occasionally for lunch to discuss financial stuff about nonprofits. They were people working in my same position but had more experience. That was a huge help. That was God’s providence showing up again.”
After completing his term on the board, Bob continued volunteering with administrative financial tasks and handling the logistics of youth summer camp. "I have done some construction work on roofs, but not much," Bob added. "Most of my time on roofs has been to take pictures during youth camp. I haven't been a normal volunteer on projects."
Bob Johnson has not been a normal volunteer. Period.
Bob taking pictures at Good Neighbors Youth Camp 2021
If you’ve ever spent time serving in the realm of Christian ministry, there’s a chance you’ve heard the familiar refrain: “Whom God calls, he also equips.”
Bob’s 25 years of service to Good Neighbors is a testimony to what God can do in and through someone who is willing to be of service. With no formal training in youth ministry, accounting, or construction, Bob’s willingness to learn, serve, and give has made an undeniable impact on Good Neighbors.
Bob and Janet Johnson still attend Presbyterian Church of Kennett Square, where they are (unsurprisingly) still heavily involved in church activities—Bob as an elder and Janet as a deacon.