While his wife Judy sang in the church choir, David Thompson was tasked with “crowd control”.

The father’s efforts to corral his four children didn’t go unnoticed by Alan Garrity, then the minister of Christ Church, Warwick.

“Putting faith into action is how he described it,” Mr Thompson said. “He thought I might make a natural person to take on an outreach function in the church.”

Fifteen years later, Bermuda Overseas Missions has built homes in 17 countries and is looking for volunteers to join them in Malawi at the end of July.

“We’re not a one-religion focused group, we bring everybody — Jews, gentiles, atheists, you name it,” the 64-year-old said. “Usually our trips have about 60 to 70 per cent youth and the rest are golden oldies like me.

“It invigorates me. It gives me that energy. I love going on these trips. I love taking other people on these trips and seeing how they react; seeing students get that ahh moment when they realise it’s not about them anymore and there’s a bigger need than their expectations here in Bermuda.”

The link with the global group Habitat for Humanity made it far easier for BOM to achieve its goals, Mr Thompson added.

“We can go somewhere where we can literally get off the plane, put our bags down and start work.

“The logistics are all done before. They’ve got building foremen there to give you instruction and you can build a house in two weeks. Simple as that. These are simple structures — there’s no electricity, no plumbing.

“When you finish, you give the owner the keys to their house.

“You put the doors on. You built the walls and you can claim ownership to that. It’s an amazing feeling for everybody who does it. It’s really a very emotional experience to do one of these and come away and say, ‘I helped build that house for that family.’”

Although every trip has been memorable, Malawi has stuck in his conscience since taking volunteers there in 2015, the accountant said.

“You really saw some serious hardship. You saw a country that’s been devastated — by Aids, by flood, by famine, you name it.

“They had a lot of corruption in government and the result of that is the countries that were giving them aid stopped.

“It’s been one disaster after another for the country. People are desperately in need.”

He said the village of 2,000 people where they were stationed had no electricity. The sole water source was a tap fed by the nearby mountain.

“They live in homes made from the local mud,” Mr Thompson said. “Talk about taking somebody from here and giving them an experience that is totally out of their comfort zone.

“It’s an emotional experience. It’s a spiritual experience as well. Certainly a lot of the children that go on these trips come back with some new ideas and changes in their outlook.

“It becomes a part of their life. They may not be going on my trips anymore, but they’re doing other philanthropic things.

BOM will host a fundraiser with poet Carol Clarke at the Heritage Worship Centre on Dundonald Street on Saturday.

A variety of acts will read poetry and sing.

“To me, it’s a nice evening of entertainment, especially for some of our senior folks,” Mr Thompson said. “Whilst we do [Habitat for Humanity] in the summers [and] focus on the youth, the other times we could focus on some of our aged in Bermuda.”

The organisation typically raises money “doing whatever we can” whether it be a “grassroots” fish fry or through corporate sponsorship.

Christ Church “adopted” the Lorraine Rest Home as one of their projects and raised money to get them a bus.

“From our perspective, it’s nice to do something at home,” Mr Thompson said. “Seniors get a pretty raw deal and anything we can do to make their life better.”

He hopes to bring the initiative here and build homes for seniors in the future.

Charity’s history

Bermuda Overseas Missions was started 15 years ago.

Volunteers have made 19 trips in that period.

Their builds can be found in 17 countries.

Roughly 500 people live in homes around the world constructed by BOM workers.

About 600 people have volunteered to make BOM’s efforts a success.

•A Night of Poetry and Song — Blessed Beyond Measure starts at 7pm Tickets are $20; seniors and children $10. Light refreshments will be served. To volunteer with BOM contact Mr Thompson on david@ams.bm or 295-1078.