Youth volunteers transform North Philly drug house into a church

Before the drug trade moved in, the abandoned building at Sheridan and Clearfield Streets in the heart of a troubled North Philadelphia neighborhood housed a grocery store and apartments.

Juan Marrero and Ron Muse watched its evolution as they experienced their own: from little boys, to teens involved with drugs, to pastors.

In a move to reclaim the building, Marrero and Muse have teamed up to open a church, and have called on an aptly named volunteer group to help.

Kingdom Builders Construction, a program of the Mennonite Central Committee - one of the denomination's mission divisions - has enlisted a corps of volunteer youth to help transform what was once a drug house into a sanctuary.

Based in Philadelphia, Kingdom Builders Construction is a business with a charitable calling that offers free work for churches and low-income residents who cannot afford renovations and repair.

The entity shares its name with a similar group affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA in Valley Forge. That Kingdom Builders is a program of the American Baptist Men of Pennsylvania and Delaware that focuses on disaster relief and free repairs to churches in need.

Both groups believe they are fulfilling a mission.

"Churches get the runaround or get screwed over by contractors, or they can't afford the work," said Daniel Umstead, 28, the Philadelphia group's director. "We are able to utilize the Mennonite community to do it."

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Youth volunteers transform North Philly drug house into a church