Hello everyone! Long time no see, or long time no read or – I’m not sure how that phrase works here, but I needed an opener so – 😉
You may remember how last year I went on a missions trip to Texas with my church, the Orchard – Barrington. That was an amazing experience where I learned new things, made new friends and really had an incredible encounter sharing my faith. You can read my post about the first day by clicking here.
This year the missions trip is for multiple campuses of the Orchard, and we are headed to Logan County, West Virginia to work with some of the people there. We are working with a group called Youth Works.
West Virginia’s main industry was coal mining, and as such, the people who live there tend to be poorer. Some are out of work.
Some Fun Facts:
- West Virginia is the 38th largest state as of 2016
- The state animal is the black bear
- The state bird is the cardinal
- The state flower is a rhododendron.
- The capital of West Virginia is Charleston and it has nine state parks. (“West Virginia.” Infoplease, Infoplease, www.infoplease.com/us/states/west-virginia.)
The first day, Sunday, we are driving. We are planning on getting to our destination in one day. We all had to be at the church by 6:30am so that we could leave at 7:00am. Monday-Thursday are workdays. Friday and Saturday we are coming home and are planning to stop at a state park and Noah’s Ark at the Creation Museum. That should be fun.
Some Things To Pray For:
- For us to be used by God,
- For us to honor Him through this week
- For all of us to have a mind of desiring to serve God
- For us to be willing to serve wherever God puts us
- To be willing to work despite the uncomfortable circumstances.
Day One Summary:
We left the church at 7:00am and drove till about either 11:00am or noon – with the time change I’m not sure which one it was – where we stopped for lunch. After lunch, we drove for a little more, stopped at a gas station, drove a little more, stopped at another gas station, then drove all the way to the building where we are staying. West Virginia has mountains and hills, so we had to drive up some steep hills in our 15 passenger van (aka homeschool bus). The view was gorgeous, though. Having woken up at 5:15am, we were tired and some took naps in the car. We got to our building around 6:00 at night and immediately ate dinner. Then we went to the gym for orientation/ worship/Bible study. Then we had a small group and went to bed at 10:00.
Day Two Summary:
We woke up at 6:45, the time those who are doing breakfast prep need to be downstairs. Wake up for the whole camp is at 7:00am, but some girls in my cabin wanted to get up earlier, so we did. At 7:00am the Youth Works staff woke up everyone who was still sleeping by yelling “wake up” and blasting music. Everyone went down to breakfast, ate, and packed lunch, then got their Bibles and did a devotion using ‘camp journals’ the Youth Works staff passed out. Then we went into the gym and watched a video about Youth Works and how we need to keep a “people over projects” mindset. From 9:00am – 3:00pm everyone went to their worksites. People did various jobs – my group was prepping, painting, weeding and basically getting a school ready for the school year. I’m not sure what all the groups did, but I know some were sorting clothes for a thrift store, some were helping to make a firm foundation for a cement driveway and some were working with kids at a kids camp.
We went directly from the worksites to a swimming pool at a local state park. We played there until five, came home, showered, ate dinner, then we had free time. A bunch of groups walked down the hill and explored downtown. It’s a neat little city, though a lot of the buildings are falling down and in need of repair.
We came back, did the worship service, divided into groups by church, then into smaller groups, then got ready for, and went to, bed!
All in all it was a great day of serving and caring for people…
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