June 11, 2001
Construction volunteer Buck Welty: Plumb faithful
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___DENTON--Buck Welty walked out onto the back porch, wiped the sweat from his brow and squinted as he looked out across a sunbathed Lake Lewisville recently.
___"It's beautiful, and I haven't got to fish a day," he sighed.
___That's because the only line he's been close to for the last six months has been a plumb line.
___Welty arrived at North Texas Baptist Conference Center, or Camp Copass as many still call it, Dec. 20. He was there until the Saturday before Memorial Day--the first day of camp for 700 kids.
Buck Welty works on a pipe fitting at North Texas Baptist Conference Center, where he has been working as a volunteer for most of the last six months. (Photo by Jack Harwell)
___It's the thought of those kids that has kept him away from his home in the West Texas community of Clarendon for the last two years.
___"I feel like working with kids is what we ought to be doing," said Welty, a plumber for 50 years. "We had three kids--and I just like kids. The camps just reach so many kids that churches don't.
___"This camp ran about 23,000 last year and had just under 1,000 decisions. Somewhere around 500 of those were professions of faith in Christ. This is just an opportunity to do something important. Most churches can go forever without having that many people saved. That's why I like working at the camps."
___Working on the camps is something that began with a two-day job in September 1993 at PanFork Encampment near Wellington. Welty said a friend who was overseeing a project there asked if he could help for a couple of days. He did and has been smitten by a desire to help camps minister to young people ever since.
___He and his wife, Jo, have spent at least six months of every year since 1994 working with the Camp Builders, a ministry of Texas Baptist Men. The last two years have been even more intensive; they have spent a total of less than three months at home during that time. The Weltys now have been involved with 21 projects that have brought them to 10 Baptist encampments, some two or three times.
___It's a life they wouldn't change.
___"The people we work with here are such good Christian people, and they're just so much fun to be with," he said.
___The current project has taken him six months, however, and most of the other volunteers on the project have only stayed a few weeks.
___"To do the plumbing, you have to be here for a lot of the underground work, preparing things for the concrete," he pointed out. "I have to stay. If I just stayed two or three weeks I'd never get a job done. I'd rather stay with a group, but I usually have two or three guys with me, so it's all right."
___Larry Searcy, director of special projects, said that without the Texas Baptist Men volunteers the project of building six new dorm rooms would have been financially impossible. The volunteers have constructed the buildings for about $300,000--about a third of the $1 million pricetag otherwise.
___"Seventy percent of the labor on these buildings has been volunteer labor--and not just any volunteers, but Texas Baptist Men volunteers," Searcy said.
___The investment of the volunteers will pay quick dividends. The 14,000 square feet of new building space they erected will house about 240 of the 700 campers expected on an almost weekly basis during the summer months.
___Wives of the construction volunteers have stayed busy as well.
___The women work at what they term their "Holy Sweat Shop" turning out clothes for needy children and "ugly quilts." The quilts resemble a sleeping bag and are given to the homeless to help them keep warm. They also prepare meals for the men each day.
___Many of the children's clothes go to CityChurch in Amarillo, another one of the work sites Welty has frequented. The inner-city church has a membership made up almost exclusively of children, most of them underprivileged.
___The Weltys have traveled across Texas and lived for months in their fifth-wheel trailer. And they've enjoyed every minute of it. "We've got everything in there that we've got at home--microwave, ceiling fan, everything."
___Searcy said Welty's help has been immeasurable.
___"He came two weeks before anybody else, and he will be here after everyone else leaves. Different groups have come through here for two or three weeks at a time, but the one constant has been Buck," Searcy said. "He's been like my assistant on this job, or maybe I've been his."
___The Weltys have returned home now. They have a few doctor appointments during June to keep, and the house needs a little upkeep since it's been left pretty much to itself for the last two years. But Welty said he's sure they'll be hitching up the trailer again before too long.
___And maybe he'll get in some fishing before then.
___
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