Our mission trip to West Virginia was an incredible experience. 23 of us had the privilege of working with Mustard Seeds and Mountains ministry in Northfork, WV.

We worked at various sites doing a wide range of things from scraping and painting to drywall repair and building walls and decks.

Thank you for for your prayers, your support and your kind words of encouragement. It was a life-changing event for many of us. I would highly recommend that each of us prioritize going on another trip in the near future. It was awesome!

Some of our observations from the trip:

1. I am not nearly thankful enough for what I have.

2. I do not NEED much of anything. My prayer is that God would give us a deeper love for people than for possessions.

3. Often, I do not stop and thank God for the simple blessings like shoes, or plumbing, or a fan, or clean water, or a dollar or two in my pocket, or a million other things.

4. The simple pleasures of life can often be overlooked in the midst of busyness or business. Laughing with a child, Listening to a bird’s song, Sitting on a porch talking about the Lord are incredibly powerful moments often neglected by the day’s agenda.

5. People who have little often give all that they have. A lady we had never met (but a neighbor of the lady whose house we were working on) who lives in incredibly modest circumstances, came up and gave us a bag full of cucumbers from her garden and a box of candy just to say thanks. The real thank you goes to the Lord and to this sweet lady who generously gave a lot of what she had.

6. God can use anyone with a willingness to serve. Our students, most of them middle schoolers, had an incredible spirit of helpfulness and diligence that can only come from the Lord. I never heard even one complaint all week-despite some real challenging circumstances. Thank you God, for giving us a spirit of unity.

7. Jesus is still changing lives. It was a blessing to see local residents of Northfork whose lives have been transformed by the power of the gospel now working at Mustard Seeds and impacting their community with the Truth that Jesus saves.

8. As we are going, we are called to make disciples. We do not have to travel to share the gospel. We do not have to have a large team to make an impact on someone’s life. All it takes is a desire to share Christ and a willingness to invest time in other people. Our mission field begins at home.

9. I need to worry more about lost souls than my personal comfort.

May God use this trip to further His Kingdom and to spread His Fame!