Senior High Mission Trip Steubenville, Ohio

Our Senior High youth went on their annual summer mission trip last week. This year they traveled to Steubenville, Ohio, to work with the Joshua Project Ministry. Ten youth and four adults participated in this year's mission team - Youth: Mandy Cook, Cody Davenport, Robert Davenport, Cody Estepp, Jami Fuller, Sarah Gibson, Brookney Morrell, Chance Morrell, Kyle Ratliff, Sarah Travis; Adults: Janice Arnold, Debbie Gray, Ned Morrell, Cliff White. [Robert Harmon was unable to attend due to a death in his family.] The mission team divided into three groups and worked as teams on three projects. Following are reports of work done by the three teams.

The past week in Steubenville, Ohio, one of the projects the youth participated in was making a bathroom more accessible for Ashley, a 13-year old girt with a form of Muscular Dystrophy. She was bound to a wheelchair and not expected to live past 7 years old. A group of 5 guys [Robert and Cody Davenport, Jared Schmidt, who worked for Urban Missions in Steubenville; myself; and Cliff "Whitey" "Heavy C" White] were involved in the project. We replaced the bathroom floor and put down new linoleum. We also installed a new sink so Ashley could reach it by herself. A threshold was put in so that she could roll her wheelchair into the bathroom more easily. We did these (among other things) in the 4 days we worked at Ashley's house. Of course, there were the usual problems that you can expect to have and some that you don't, but by the time we left everything was in much better shape than when we'd started, largely because of our fearless Cliff White. He kept everything in perspective and the things we couldn't do he fixed with virtually no problem. The whole week was a blessing and I can say that it made me more appreciative of living in quiet East Tennessee, and I'm sure the others in our group feel the same way.

                                                                                        Kyle Ratliff

This past week, Brookney, Sarah Gibson, Debbie, and myself worked in a soup kitchen in Steubenville, Ohio. The soup kitchen director was an amazing women, Toni Hubbard. She prepared lunch for three days every week. Before the meal she takes prayer requests, reads a short Bible passage, then blesses the meal and everyone says The Lord's Prayer.

Everyone who came for lunch was thankful and even surprised that we had come from so far just to fix them a meal. But the most amazing thing, I thought, was that some of the people stayed after they ate to help us clean up.

It was a fun and humbling experience and I recommend anyone to help out at a soup kitchen when they get a chance.

                                                                                        Mandy Cook

In Ohio we worked in a warehouse called the Joshua Warehouse. Here they take and sort food, clothing, laundry material, etc. They also get furniture and when they do, they take it to someone who needs it. While we were there we sorted through a bunch of boxes. We would take the same kinds of food, box them up and write on a piece of paper what is was, how many, and the date. A lot of this food was used in the soup kitchen.

While we were at the Joshua Warehouse we also did another job. We cleaned up a handicap walkway. The walkway needed to be cleaned and then stained. After we scrubbed it clean, we picked out all the staples and ripped up the mat. The next day we stained it.

                                                                                        Sarah Travis

The Youth and Counselors would like to thank everyone for your love, support and prayers for our mission trip. Special thanks to Cliff White and Janice Arnold for taking time to go with us and participate in this year's work.

                                                                                        2002 Youth Mission Team

Glen Alpine United Methodist Church
3200 Glen Alpine Road
Kingsport, TN  37660
423-349-7831

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