This week has had a different, but good, atmosphere, as this is our first week with only one group at a time. They traveled all the way from Maryland, and despite wrong turns, tornado-like wind and rain and the treacherous mountain roads of West Virginia, they made it!

They came prepared with knowledge, skill and tools to take on some pretty big projects, and that’s just what we had planned for them. Monday morning got off to a slow start with divvying up just where everyone was going to work, but after all that was sorted the groups took off in a blur of excitement.

The devotional lesson the night prior had been about seeing others around us through God’s eyes, and respecting and loving them just as they are because that’s exactly how God made them. I encouraged the group to get to know the people, and as these past few days have progressed, I have seen that happening even more than I was expecting.

I noticed relationships forming in kids club, which has been smaller than usual but the group from Our Savior Lutheran Church has taken it all in stride and has used this to their advantage. “There have been some really awesome individual connections made between the kids and my group,” said leader Natasha Bowlds when asked how she thought kids club was going. “Ya know, we may not have as long of a story or song time, but we’re playing with the kids, and spending time with them, and that’s what they’ll remember when we leave; that someone took time to care about them, and to really want to spend time with them, and that’s what we’re doing out there.”

I also got a chance to visit the work sites today, and was in awe of what I saw when I arrived at the second one. I walked up the road to the old broken down house where the group has been building a needed new porch for a small and broken family. As I got to the front yard I noticed two of the girls sitting up on the finished portion of the porch talking with and getting to know the daughter and mother in family. They were dirty, and one could tell they had not washed for days. It is also well known that the daughter is a prostitute and crack dealer. None of this held back the two high school girls from Maryland though, they all sat together playing with the dogs, talking, and sharing their lives with one another. I could see the love of God flowing out of them as these may be some of the only people this family meets, especially the younger daughter that are showing them true affection and not asking for anything in return.

Needless to say, these first few days have already been exciting and that makes me more excited for the remainder of the week! God is definitely at work here! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Lovin’ the Lord in West Virginia,

Leanna

We now come to the end of our first mission trip and I cannot believe it is over! It has flown by and I know I can speak for all three interns in saying it was one we certainly learned a lot from and will never forget. Both groups completed more tasks than we had planned and we had to find new projects throughout the week for them to complete. This is a good thing though, and such a blessing to everyone who got help from them.

Both houses that had rooms being finished were completed by the afternoon on Thursday, and the projects around the school made a huge improvement as well. The families whose houses had been either finished or painted were generous and friendly all week long, and hopefully quite unforgettable to the teams who worked there. Those families even made lunch for the men working there everyday. This lunch meal sometimes turned out to be coincidentally the same meal as dinner that night a couple times, but that made for laughs and memories on both sides.

The last day of Kid’s Club was just as enthusiastic and elaborate as the rest of the week. The kids were sent home with bags filled with crafts, snacks and prizes, and with hearts filled with seeds planted about the word of God. There is one older woman in the community who brings many kids each day and is very familiar with the kids that live around Gary. “

I’ve been here a lot of years and seen many groups put things like this on, and if I don’t like it the first day I never being the kids back, but this group has really got something special,” she said when asked about this week’s group. “I like when groups teach the kids not only about the Lord but teach them character traits as well, and this group does that. You can tell they really care about the children and take time with each one of them, no matter if the kids are difficult or not. It’s really great to see.”

After all the morning and afternoon work the groups got to spend their last night here up on Miracle Mountain for some time to relax. We grilled burgers and the kids played football and horseshoes. The wooded mountainous view was beautiful and it seemed the perfect place to close out a great week. We had a time of worship and short devotional about living for the Lord whether you are on a mission trip, just coming home from one, or have never set foot on the mission field at all.

We are truly grateful for the teams coming here and we cannot thank them enough for all the hard work they put into every project everyday, for the friendships they extended us and for blessing us in such large ways! At the same time, we look forward to the rest of the summer and what the Lord has in store for us next! Thank you for all your prayer and support!

Lovin’ the Lord in West Virginia!

Leanna

Our first mission trip has finally begun, and it is one we have been waiting, praying and working towards for weeks. Both churches arrived Sunday evening after long van rides through winding mountainous roads and were happy to unload and stretch their legs. The two eager groups dove right in with setting up home and helping prepare and clean up meals. Our first night of barbeque chicken would have never tasted so good without the help of Louise Riffle and Carolyn Cruitt from Woodruff Road Christian Church in the kitchen, and we were also blessed by Earl Nadeau leading worship for our evening session.

On Monday both groups put their best foot forward with construction projects, cleaning and kids club. Some of the men from both Pennsylvania and Woodruff Road Christian Church, along with intern Todd, were sent out to two different houses to begin sheet rock projects for families that are not able to do it all themselves. The work was somewhat slow as the experienced taught the beginners but they all proved to be very hard workers and by the time they returned for dinner both teams had accomplished more than expected for the day. The other part of Woodruff Road Christian Church’s group stayed at the school and hosted an elaborate Kids Club for children from the community. The group of children was on the smaller side, but they had interactive games, songs, crafts and Bible stories that the children learned form and loved.

By the end of the day we were already ahead of schedule and both teams were getting a taste of the community and atmosphere, and with that seemed to be connecting with the people and opening up to God’s work being done here.

Our Monday night concluded with an evening session of debriefing, worship and a devotional. During the debrief time Sam Farley from Woodruff Road Christian Church shared a little about his first day out at a construction site.

“Beth seemed to be so thankful that people would come to help her and her husband, though he has the ability to do a lot of the work we are doing, he doesn’t have the adequate time or help,” he said. “She was just so thankful that other people would take the time to come and help them, and she was so insistent to fix lunch for us even though I knew they didn’t have the money to spare, and that reflects the mountain culture of hospitality and graciousness to visitors.”

The family they are working for has two small children taken care of by their grandparents, who are trying to legally adopt them.

All of the work being done during this mission trip is not only making a tremendous physical impact, but a spiritual one as well. We are working to build up the kingdom of God in all we do, and we appreciate your prayers and support.

All for Him,

Leanna Malkowski

“There’s enough work to be done around here for the next 25 years,” says our community partner Jack Fultz as we drive around McDowell County in his full size donated mini van. I take another drink of my fifth water bottle of the day as air conditioning are not commonly heard words down here, and the hot sticky air seems to be quite persistent. “There are good people here, and they really appreciate what we do, that’s why it’s just a good area to do this work, ” comments Jack as we go from house to house looking for ways to help. We have come to discover that this County is full of history and life, but many have maybe lost hope because of the living standards. Jack and Brenda Fultz, the full time missionaries living here, have helped build up those standards and with that bring even more hope.

McDowell County used to be the biggest coal-mining spot in the world, but has now been reduced to the poorest community in the country. Coal mining is still present today, but nowhere near the same scale it once was. The severe deterioration of the county is obvious from the dilapidated houses, lack of jobs, and shortage of hope. Our job this summer, partnering with the groups that come down, is to help repair and rebuild as much of that as we can.

Jack and Brenda own an old school in Gary that they have been working on and out of for about three years. It is now called the School for Life, and started our as just a ministry by Jack and Brenda that was teaching people marketable skills on the old and donated computers. A few years later they now have a thrift store, are very active in the area, and have opened their school to outside groups such as Experience Mission to use for housing for weeks of service in the community. They are an amazing couple and never stop working for the Lord and for this society.

We have only been here a few days, but have already seen some huge ways we can serve, and are excited for how God will move this summer. These past few days have been spent cleaning kitchens, rooms and bathrooms from top to bottom in order for the teams to arrive. The work is hard, and the heat is stifling, but the goal is great. We are in great anticipation for the coming summer and teams coming down. We ask for your prayer over safety and health this summer, that God’s hand would fall on this community, and that we would continue to further the work Jack and Brenda have already begun.

Hidden away in the backcountry of Lawton, MI sits a beautiful wooded campground surrounded by an inviting lake that was home to this summers 30 eager and expectant Experience Mission Interns for a whole week of training. Most of us came in with no idea of what we were really getting ourselves into, but after session lectures, module overviews, responsibility rundowns and much prayer and worship, we are now all fully equipped to face the mission field.

Upon first arriving everyone seemed to be buzzing with excitement upon meeting the two or three other people they would share life with this summer, and yet having no idea just how wild a ride training alone would be. We spent hours in a white-walled, window-filled conference room learning how to rescue an unconscious victim, or how to react to troubled youth pastors, or how to communicate best with our fellow interns. We read, reacted, discussed and heard about many different scenarios we may encounter this summer, and they all taught us a little more about ourselves, and about each other. Through these five short days of training we unknowingly became a family; and by the end of the week you could tell that there was something keeping us all knit together, not matter how far apart we would be this summer.

Team West Virginia finally met as well, and it was a joyous occasion. We come from different backgrounds and different walks of life, but God placed us together for such a time as this to serve Him as a team, and for that we could not be more excited. Throughout the week we sat next to one another during sessions, saved lives together during demonstrations, and faced challenges together on scavenger hunts. Experience Mission’s fearless leader Chris Clum led us through many exercises to learn how we react in stressful situations and what responsibilities are most suited to us. Chris, along with the rest of the EM staff equipped us not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually as well. We learned that West Virginia is full of interesting challenges, but feel ready after this past week and with God on our side, we will learn to overcome them.

This group of young adults that came from coast to coast became a family in Christ over these five days. We left with memories that will not soon be forgotten, and hearts full of joy and expectancy for the unpredicted ways God will blow us away this summer.