Sometimes the hardest part about going on a missions trip is that you are only there for a week, and because of being there a short time you don’t always get to see the whole project finished or see the after-affects.

This past week, though, got to go against the norm, and saw projects finished and lives changed. In our last meeting together on Thursday night multiple people shared how wonderful it was to actually see a work project completed. “In past trips we’ve always had to kind of leave things half done for someone else, but it was so nice this week for us to see everything get done that we set out to do. It was especially good for the kids to see all their hard work come together at the end.” said Youth Leader Tina McGuffey.

The teams had three different large work projects this week, two of them being rebuilding porches. It was a great sight to see them get done by the last day, and to see the happiness and thankfulness of the families who we worked for. At one of the project sites we built it and left them with the stain and paint brushes to finish the porch. We were skeptical as to whether or not they would actually put the stain on or just let it sit as most people do in this area. We ended up being able to see the family that night and to our surprise they had painted it that afternoon! This was especially exciting for the kids who really got to know the family because it says that they are taking care of something on their home, and that’s a trait that’s not very common in this area.

The third worksite was at a house that is being renovated for a family, and our job was to paint about five rooms and two hallways of the house, and to attack the three ft. tall grass in the small but overwhelming yard. By the end of the week they had completed all the painting and got about half of the yard whacked down. It was really exciting for the family and for the team that had got to know them while they worked together all week.

All in all I would say this week could not have gone better, projects were completed, kids lives were changed, and most importantly God showed up in all of it.

Lovin’ the Lord in West Virginia,

Leanna