West Virginia Mission Trip Meeting

UPDATE: Applications Due March 28th!  Click here to download an application. The required deposit is $50 per person (not $300 as the application states).

Last summer, a group of 45 people — adults and kids — from Restoration and The Falls Church spent 5 days in the town of Philippi, West Virginia.  It was an amazing time of getting to know some of the people of this impoverished Appalachian town and serving them by working alongside them to refurbish homes and a community center.  We worked hard, laughed a lot, and in the end found that we were the ones who felt most blessed by the experience!

The great news is that we’re going again this year! The trip will be July 7-11 and is open to everyone ages 7 and up.

There will be an informational meeting this Sunday, March 14th, in the sanctuary after the 10:00 service. Come hear from folks who went on last year’s trip and get all your questions answered!

Interested in the trip but can’t make it to the meeting?  Talk to Ian or Laura Hassell.

And to give you a taste of what you might experience on the trip, here are some excerpts from a letter that Laurel Hanke wrote to our team’s prayer supporters after the trip last year!

I think it is safe to say that the trip met and exceeded our expectations…. We had a great time together.  In addition to collaborating together and serving one another on the worksites, we had so much fun at our community times of meals, daily debriefs, and unstructured evening hang out time.

One overarching theme was repeated to us over and over by our World Servants leaders.  They wanted to be sure we understood that the people of Philippi and the surrounding areas were the most important part of our trip.  Taking time to listen, share stories, and build bridges of relationships was our first priority.  The actual work we did was important, they said, but not above the importance of building relationships.  As you can imagine, this approach changed how we viewed the work, re-oriented our focus from tasks to relationships, and in the end helped us all experience the blessing of getting to know one another and the folks we went to West Virginia to serve.

Some of the projects [we] completed were power-washing and staining the outdoor pavilion [at the Community Center], painting, and general groundskeeping…. Cleanup, painting, flooring, and roofing to stop some leaks and water damage [at a family’s home]…. The renovation of a local pastor’s home, finishing the roof, sealing the foundation of the house, laying insulation, hanging drywall, and putting up ceiling joists.

The World Servants motto on the t-shirts we took home says, “Serving Changes Everything.  Lead the Way.”  Please continue to pray for each of us in our sphere of relating at home.  Pray that we would apply the lessons of service we learned to our daily lives.  Please also pray for God to continue to bless and further the good work that World Servants is doing in Philippi, WV.