In the early 1990s, the Seedbearers started as a small organization in southeast Missouri.

Now, it has grown into a large spiritual/work retreat group of teenagers and adults that is helping out the Montgomery County community.

Since 2018, the Seedbearers have helped build homes of county residents who cannot afford repairs or cannot do it themselves. The St. Charles-based organization has two sites in Montgomery City and two in Wellsville. So far, it worked on 20 homes in the county, four of them this year.

“We do all sorts of maintenance work for building ramps, decks and roof siding,” Seedbearers director Wayne Burbach said.

Members of the Seedbearers stay at Montgomery County Middle School, where they sleep in air mattresses in the classrooms and have activities such as ping pong and cornhole. They come there once a year, which is the last week in July. There are 58 teens and 30 adults in the organization.

Burbach said years ago, the organization got permission from then-superintendent Mike Gray to stay at MCMS for a week while working on homes in the county.

“We came and talked to Mike Gray and said, ‘Hey, this is what we do. Is there any chance we could come down and live here while we work for the community?’ He said, ‘Absolutely,’” Burbach said.

Jonathan Schmidt is the Seedbearers’ director for the stayback teams, where members stay at MCMS to clean the school and do the dishes for the meals. He said he enjoys seeing teens and adults working on homes every summer.

“Every day, we would go out to different work sites and do some things like re-siding,” Schmidt said. “We’re helping someone repair a roof and put on new shingles and stuff. Just whatever kind of work that needs to be done. The teens and adults do all of the work.”

Schmidt said the Seedbearers’ mission is to reach out to people who are in need. It doesn’t charge the homeowners for its work and receives plenty of donations throughout the year to help get the materials it needs to fix the homes.

“It’s becoming the highlight of our year to come somewhere and maybe take ourselves out of our comfort zone and get rid of the cell phones and the Internet for a week,” Schmidt said. “We offer a service up for each other for the community and spread God’s love that way.”