Gary, West Virginia
OUR NEXT TRIP IS PLANNED FOR DECEMBER 4-6, 2009
Our first mission trip to Gary, West Virginia was in the summer of 2008. We teamed with a group from Matthews Presbyterian Church. They had been going to Gary for several years. The congregation at CSCPC had called a new pastor and he happened to be from Matthews Presbyterian at the time. Our new pastor, Rev. Luke Maybry, informed our mission team and the congregation of the efforts of MPC in helping out the people of Gary.
We were very interested in talking to the team at MPC and seeing if we could help out. MPC invited us to join them in 2008 on the trip to Gary.
We started a drive to gather needed items for the trip. Not for us, but for the people of Gary. Helping a local nursing was one of goal. Night gowns, slipper shoes, house coats, personal items were all donated by our congregation for the people at the nursing home.
We had different teams that visited the nursing home, worked on homes (painting, roofing cleaning up) and some worked at the School for Life (our host headquarters). To help line up the projects and the accommodations, MPC have formed a relationship with Jack and Brenda Fultz, who run the School for Life (www.schoolforlifeinc.com) in Gary.
Gary is in the mountains of McDowell County. In the 1950’s this county was one of the richest in the country, today it is one of the poorest. Most of the money has moved away. The people that remain are in very deep poverty.
The winter of 2008 we again teamed with MPC and took a large trailer filled with food, toys, and the love of two congregations to Gary for a Christmas celebration with the people of Gary. When we pulled into the School for Life to unload the items the most beautiful snow fell as we celebrated with the people and shared God’s love and the birth of Jesus.
We spend four days in Gary during the summer. Again this summer we are teaming with MPC to go back and help out as much as we can. God has blessed each one of the two churches involved in this mission trip and for four days we try to give back and show God’s love in who we are and what we believe.
By the calling of a new minister to a church a new friendship was started with a fellow church that reaches all the way to Gary, West Virginia.
