Well, Jared and I had the privilege of taking a group from our church to Eastern KY for the church's first ever "Family Focused" Mission trip. We had 19 people from 6 families who attended.
So, why Eastern KY? Well, several of the nation's poorest counties are located in the mountains of Eastern KY. The coal mining industry used to be booming in a lot of these places, but due to the local mines shutting down and the lack of other gainful employment, many of these areas have no source of consistent income. This creates both a great spiritual and physical need for the people in these ares.
We teamed up with an organization called Club 180 Ministries. This organization has several different things going on including a teen parenting program, a coffee shop caleed "Cafe 180," an after school program called "Excel 180" and a gymnastics program called "Flip 180." You should definitely check out the 180 Ministries Web site by clicking here.
Our group did several different things to help out the 180 Ministries. One group of girls spent their whole day going through bags of donated clothes and organizing them for placement in the 180 teen pregnancy center. Teens who are pregnant have the opportunity to take parenting classes, attend Bible Studies and do various other things to earn points. Once they have enough points, they have the chance to go Shopping.
Another thing some people from our group did was sort through some of the many donations that Club 180 has received. This is an important job, because it is hard to function when things are not in order!
Some of the handy men tackled the construction projects that desperately needed to be done. One of those was the installation of a drop ceiling in the upstairs office. These guys overcame many frustrations and worked so hard to make sure everything was done well. They worked all the way through the fall festival until everything was done.
Our kids and remaining adults spent most of the day cleaning up a local park and getting things ready for 180's community Fall Festival. Our kids did a great job of working hard without complaining! They swept and mopped things inside, picked up garbage outside, raked an old volleyball court to make it suitable for playing and all kinds of things. Even after all that hardwork and exhaustion, they were troopers. They played with lots of kids at the Fall Festival and never once complained about being cold! Me and 2 other ladies spent our night grilling and serving 120 cheeseburgers, brownies, chips and drinks. People just couldn't believe it was actually free!
While we were there we had the opportunity to stay at a place called "United for Jesus." This organization has taken an Old Middle School and turned it into a bunk house. We weren't sure what to expect, but everything turned out wonderful. Besides having no heat, the facility was wonderful!
So, even though we would have loved to spend the weekend with our brand new neice, God had a different plan for our weekend and it was great. We had the chance to spend the weekend teaching future missionaries how to serve the Lord! What greater thing could there be? But, needless to say, after making our trip to and back from Nashville and then spending the weekend working hard, we were pretty tired. I think this picture says it all!
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