Dawn Fear had her T-shirt sleeves rolled up to her shoulders as she sat in the yard of an Amity Township home, painting a stairway to a deck out front.
The Thursday morning sun was softened through a haze of Canadian wildfire smoke blanketing the East, but the temperatures were still climbing into the high 80s as she worked.
A member of St. Paul’s UCC church in Birdsboro, Fear is one of the original Mission Trip Birdsboro volunteers who began the service to the community now in its 13th year.
“You know, we don’t really think about the weather,” said Fear of Stowe. “Yeah, you get used to it, and you know it’s gonna be hot.”
“The only thing we don’t pray for is rain,” she said with a laugh.
Fear is one of the 142 volunteers who have been fanning out to 63 sites across eastern and southern Berks County this week, working on home repairs and landscaping, according to Stuart Wells, another original volunteer from St. Paul’s who now coordinates the many facets of the mission.
Stuart Wells, coordinator for Mission Trip Birdsboro, looks over assignment locations at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Birdsboro on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
“The community mission was started as a way to live out an example of what it might look like to follow Christ’s teachings, to love your neighbor, service to others,” Wells said as he looked over job site assignments posted in the supply sheds behind St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Birdsboro, where the mission trip is now based.
“But I mean, you don’t have to be Christian, and there are humanitarians who are worried about the quality of community life and worried about isolation and marginalization.”
Fear recalls the beginning of the mission that started at St. Paul’s UCC in 2014 after the church had sponsored mission trips to places as varied as Mississippi and Maine.
Elmer Miller of Boyertown, a member of St. John’s Hill Church, loads his pickup truck with supplies for delivery during the Mission Trip Birdsboro on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Church members then thought that it would be a good idea to do local mission work, she said, and the concept grew each year with more churches participating.
“I was like, this sounds like something I want to be involved in,” Fear said. “Helping others is important if you can. You never know when you’re going to need help.”
Over the years Fear’s daughters and now grandchildren have participated.
“It’s such a joy to see my children giving back, and to see my grandchildren giving back,” she said. “You know, just to have that heart, that mentality, and they look forward to it, too. So it’s not like I’m dragging them here.”
Volunteers are dressed in yellow T-shirts with this year’s theme of “Let Your Light Shine,” from Matthew 5:16.
“Well, in the Bible, it says you’ll know Christians by their love,” Wells explained. “You need to be out in the community. If you’re inside a church, it’s not really doing much. You should be out among the people. That’s what Jesus saw, too.”
Monica Beistline of Bechtelsville and Pastor Scott Campbell of the Birdsboro Church of the Nazarene assemble brooms in the supply shed at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Birdsboro during the Mission Trip Birdsboro on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Mission Trip Birdsboro will wrap up Saturday with a worship service.
“We’re really blessed to be able to do this,” Fear said, “I know the homeowners are grateful for what we do and allow us to be here and help them a little bit because it’s not always easy to ask for help.”
It also helps that young people are becoming more involved with the mission trip, she said.
“They just take more pride in their community, and I think that’s an awesome thing,” she said.
To volunteer for next year’s mission trip or to donate, go to missiontripbirdsboro.org.
Susie Kersge of Douglassville cleans prepares a railing for painting as Dawn Fear of Stowe paints at a home in Amity Township during the Mission Trip Birdsboro on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)