Pikeville Mission Trip

A little over a week ago our family set out on a mission trip.  We went to Pikeville, Kentucky.  This is a small town in the Appalachian Mountains.  Our church has been doing trips here for about 5 years.

We stayed at a college dorm.  It was an old Days Inn that was transformed to dorms.  We weren't exactly roughin it, but it was no Marriott either!  It had hot water and air conditioning which was awesome!

Carys and I did a Vacation Bible School at a section 8 housing community.  Most of our team have been to this same place before so they knew a lot of the kids which was great! 

Each morning we would go knock on doors and get kids to come.

Then we would gather in this room for...

Songs...

games...

crafts...

lunch...

prayer and a Bible story.

This is the VBS team.  We had 4 little girls on our team and a family from Alabama join us.  The little girls did AMAZING!  They worked so hard.  They loved leading the songs and helping the kids with their crafts and whatever else they needed.

These are the kids that joined us most days.  Some days we would start with 2 kids, (there were 2 girls that were always the first to show up) but by lunch time we had around 10. 

Carys was such a big help.  One day a little girl fell and she was quick to remember I packed a first aid kit and get Gracie some band aids.  She even helped put them on her.  She made some great new friends.  Some that live near us...

and some in Kentucky.  She told me last night she wants to move to Pikeville so she can play with Gracie everyday!

I even made a little buddy, Phillip.  He was the same age as Broderick and I loved talking to him.  And boy...could he talk!  Once he got started he kept going!  It was great!

Steffon is a teenager that has been coming to the VBS since our church started going down.  He has developed a great friendship with one of our team member, Alex.  One day Rob and Alex spent sometime playing basketball with him.  By the end of the day he was hugging Rob and smiling.  He was just so happy to have some male interaction.  His dad passed away about a year ago and when he was alive he was disabled.  Steffon is such a sweet teenager.

Rob and Broderick did a couple different jobs. 

They did some work for a sweet elderly lady, Miss Ruby.  Broderick worked hard racking.

Miss Ruby is also a lady that our church has does some work for over the years.

Day 2 the boys headed to a donation center type place.  It is an old grocery store that a man turned into a place where people can donate food and clothes and then others that need them can come get them.  They cleaned out some outdated food and took it to the dump.  They did some organizing, and

the highlight of Broderick's trip was knocking down a wall. 

Broderick also made a new buddy.  Jesse was with the family that joined us from Alabama.  His mom and Grandma were helping us with VBS so he hung out with Rob and Broderick most days.

The last day we all came together for the shoe drive.  We had about 800 pairs of shoes donated to distribute to people in need.  Rob spent sometime on Wednesday passing out flyers door to door and some were put on cars at Walmart.  The shoe drive started at 2:00 and people were lined up at 11:00.

They would come in with one of our team members, called a runner, and go get their foot sized.  Then they would go to a foot washing station.  They had to get their feet washed to get shoes.  We didn't wash their feet because they were dirty.  We washed them because we wanted to serve them.  At this time we would talk to them about Jesus, salvation, and then pray for them.  Carys was the most excited about this.  Her and I spent some time washing some feet.  I met a sweet lady named Virginia.  She shared with me that she used to go to church but basically doesn't feel "good enough" to go back.  I tried to share with her that Jesus meets us where we are.  That none of us are "good enough" and we never will be.  That is exactly why we need a relationship with Jesus.  I think of Virginia everyday.

While the person was getting their feet washed the runner would go get the person their new shoes.  Broderick was a runner, and he did not mess around.  He took this job very seriously. 
He would go pick a couple different shoes for the person.  Sometimes he would take his time and look all the shoes over and make sure he picked the perfect pair for the person in his chair.  Then he would kneel quietly behind the chair.

I can not tell you in one post how much God has been showing me through this experience.  (I will try over the next couple of weeks.)  I can tell you how proud of my kids I am.  They worked so hard.  They loved helping and serving the people of Pikeville.  I can not wait to go back!!!