This week the team came from Tennessee and had a huge heart and passion for outreach. Therefore, we had the opportunity for a different kind of week where about 90% of our ministry work was outreach in the community. The mission trip team served at 11 different locations, and we had the pleasure to meet so many new people from all over Pike County. It was neat to make some connections, connecting the dots, between people we have met within the community this summer.
For example, the woman running the homeless shelter is second cousins with the woman who runs the food pantry we go to every week. Another woman who was running an event we helped out with last minute also volunteers at the same food pantry as our mission teams. We helped hang clothes at a thrift store with a lady whose house we worked on a few weeks ago, and the lady’s house we worked on this week is the sister-in-law of one of the part-time workers at a nursing home we go to. So many connections!
Since Maggie, Kip, and I have been working in the community of Pikeville for 8 weeks now, we have started to feel like a part of this community full of wonderful people. It is a very special thing to be able to walk around town and know the people you pass by, and now we are beginning to see the connections between many of those people.
The volunteer team this week loved interacting with the community members and learning what it takes to reach out. At Evening Gathering, many of them expressed how they have learned so much about not only their own ability to do outreach but also each other’s abilities to lead and step out of their comfort zone.
We visited two different nursing homes each day, where team members had the opportunity to begin leading activities. Despite their hesitance in the beginning of the week, by the end, the team was comfortable sitting with the residents and leading activities. I would never have guessed their hesitance after seeing how lovingly they interacted with the residents. The leader of the team said how proud he was of the team and their realization that they were capable of doing this in their own hometown. They made the critical connection that their service on a mission trip in Pikeville, Kentucky can transfer into service at home. They left on Friday morning very excited to reach out to their own community and to continue working as a team in their church.
When we faithfully follow what God is telling us to do we realize what we can do through Him and how capable we are because of Him.
I love seeing the teams interacting with residents of Pikeville and making relationships with them. It is so rewarding when mission trip team members take what they have learned here and apply it to their own town and continue doing the work God has called them to do.
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