|
Class of 2008 Heads to the Hills
The Class of 2008 returned to an area that has quickly become a favorite mission trip destination for FPC - Nashville youth, Cranks Creek, KY. Cranks is nestled in the heart of Appalachian coal country in southeastern Kentucky. Coal mining is still the main source of employment for most of its residents, but that means there are plenty who don't have regular employment and barely get by.
In conjunction with the Cranks Creek Survival Center, our 34 youth and 8 chaperones joined youth from churches in North Carolina and Virgina serving and getting to know some of the most wonderful of all of God's children. We gave up air-conditioned living quarters and even running water, but found that God's provision for the week was more than we even needed.
|
| |
Our days were filled with work projects that included helping on a new home build for a miner whose body now lay in a hospital after being crushed by a large rock in a mining accident. The man had planned to build his own new home, but that dream appeared as crushed as his back without the help of Cranks Creek Survival Center and volunteers such as our youth.
We repaired leaking roofs, built ramps to homes so elderly and frail homeowners could now get in and out more easily to visit family and see their doctors, and most important of all, we listened, talked and even laughed together with our residents recognizing that our love of Christ breaks all of life's barriers and allows us to be loved as our Creator intended.
|
| |
The communities of Cranks and Harlen Kentucky welcomed us with open arms as we adjusted to our new surroundings, especially bathing daily with our bio-degradable soap and shampoo in a nearby lake.
|
| |
The nights were filled with times of sharing about our days' experiences, our faith walks with Jesus, and praise music blanketing the mountain air.
In this place of simplicity, we learned that God reaches out to us over a cup of coffee on the porch of a mountainside home, in the mist rising off the mountain tops, and especially in the abundance of the stars that remind us of the expanse of His love for us.
|
| |
We extend our thanks first to God for making this trip possible, to the staff of Son Servants for helping to coordinate the many and varied elements of our stay, to Bobby and Becky Simpson for the vision to create and maintain the Cranks Creek Survival Center, to the communities of Cranks and Harlen for their warm and welcoming presence all week, to the members of FPC-Nashville for their continued support of youth missions, and, finally, to the parents of all the youth who enabled us to work alongside and be taught by some pretty amazing youth who will indeed transform their worlds for Christ!
Patricia Heim, Adam DeVries, Alice Wash, Lipscomb Davis,
Sarah Piggins, Jim Cawood, Laine Evans, and Chris Simonsen. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him. Col 3:17 For additional photos from the 2005 Cranks mission trip, click here. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
