Many students spent their Spring Breaks in far-off sunny locales, Disney World, or visiting relatives. A hearty band of our students and teachers, however, entered the missions field during much of their Spring Break on the WCA 2018 Mission Trip to West Virginia. The Mission team worked with the Appalachia Service Project (ASP). ASP provides one of the most rewarding structured service opportunities in the nation — bringing thousands of volunteers from around the country to rural Central Appalachia to repair homes for low-income families. For 48 years, ASP has made homes warmer, safer, and drier for families and provided transformational missions service experiences for volunteers. Last year, 16,231 volunteers served with ASP, providing critical repairs for 493 families and constructing 26 new homes.
Our missions team’s service location was in the Gunyan Valley, which had been devastated in January by catastrophic flooding, but the trip turned out to be trickier than expected. “We lost cell phone coverage and the ability to follow our GPS about an hour from our destination,” explained Team Leader and Student Life Director Donna Walls. “The shock of ‘no cell phones’ quickly diminished, though, as we all stayed together in a provided facility.” The team had a wonderful group of 18 students and 4 adults, who wholeheartedly poured their energy and resources into blessing the people in Wyoming County. They had the opportunity to help build and fix homes of residences in great need of help, including one completely new home. One group of our missionaries installed drywall, painted, and installed flooring. Another group demolished a bathroom and removed borders from an old wall. Our final group dug a drainage ditch and put up siding. All our workers were immensely blessed in return by the thankful smiles and words of encouragement from our team leaders and the people we ministered to, and in the evenings the team enjoyed guest speakers from the area. One lasting fun moment was a contentious game of the card game called Spades won by Coach Scott and Carson Henley. “As a teacher at WCA my heart was touched with the way our students interact with each other, there is a great love between all of the kids here at WCA,” explained Walls,” I am also grateful for the teachers and parents who spent their Spring Break happily with us.”
The mission team thanks all of those who prayed over their journey. They certainly needed them! Our team came back tired, but immensely blessed and already excited about next year.
Many students spent their Spring Breaks in far-off sunny locales, Disney World, or visiting relatives. A hearty band of our students and teachers, however, entered the missions field during much of their Spring Break on the WCA 2018 Mission Trip to West Virginia. The Mission team worked with the Appalachia Service Project (ASP). ASP provides one of the most rewarding structured service opportunities in the nation — bringing thousands of volunteers from around the country to rural Central Appalachia to repair homes for low-income families. For 48 years, ASP has made homes warmer, safer, and drier for families and provided transformational missions service experiences for volunteers. Last year, 16,231 volunteers served with ASP, providing critical repairs for 493 families and constructing 26 new homes.
Our missions team’s service location was in the Gunyan Valley, which had been devastated in January by catastrophic flooding, but the trip turned out to be trickier than expected. “We lost cell phone coverage and the ability to follow our GPS about an hour from our destination,” explained Team Leader and Student Life Director Donna Walls. “The shock of ‘no cell phones’ quickly diminished, though, as we all stayed together in a provided facility.” The team had a wonderful group of 18 students and 4 adults, who wholeheartedly poured their energy and resources into blessing the people in Wyoming County. They had the opportunity to help build and fix homes of residences in great need of help, including one completely new home. One group of our missionaries installed drywall, painted, and installed flooring. Another group demolished a bathroom and removed borders from an old wall. Our final group dug a drainage ditch and put up siding. All our workers were immensely blessed in return by the thankful smiles and words of encouragement from our team leaders and the people we ministered to, and in the evenings the team enjoyed guest speakers from the area. One lasting fun moment was a contentious game of the card game called Spades won by Coach Scott and Carson Henley. “As a teacher at WCA my heart was touched with the way our students interact with each other, there is a great love between all of the kids here at WCA,” explained Walls,” I am also grateful for the teachers and parents who spent their Spring Break happily with us.”
The mission team thanks all of those who prayed over their journey. They certainly needed them! Our team came back tired, but immensely blessed and already excited about next year.