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Mustard
Seeds & Mountains
Mission
Trip
Emails
from Trip
All Photos
here!
On
June 10th, a team of 50+ people will leave from
Crosspoint for a six day mission trip to assist with projects in
and around
McDowell County
,
WV
, returning June 15th.
McDowell
County
is located in southern
West Virginia
, about thirty minutes west of
Bluefield
.
West Virginia
is the only state in the nation to completely reside in the
Appalachia
region. Central Appalachia has long been recognized as the
geographic location with the single greatest concentration of
poverty in the
U.S.
To give you an idea,
McDowell
County
is the 6th poorest county in the nation. 50% of the
children in
McDowell
County
live in poverty. 25% of the children go to bed hungry at night.
33% of the adult population is functionally illiterate. 80% of the
sewage goes into creeks…raw. There are no 4 lane highways.
Problems in this area go back a long time. Certain parts of
Appalachia, like
McDowell
County
, have been strong in industries such as coal production. These
industries have either left or gone to mechanization, which has
created intense unemployment and poverty.
We
will be working with a mission’s organization called Mustard
Seeds and Mountains. Mustard Seeds and Mountains seeks to blend
together two divergent approaches to ministry: 1) to do
development work, coming in and solving problems that the local
people see in their own communities, and 2) to do evangelism,
sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people we meet. In
short, we at Crosspoint will be partnering with Mustard Seeds and
Mountains (www.mustardseeds.org) to be a part of the larger vision
of building relationships with the local community, helping to
build Christ’s church there in the heart of
Appalachia
.
Our
missions involvement with Mustards Seeds will consist of a variety
of ministries: 1) Home repair, 2) conducting a sports camp with
the local youth, 3) assisting with the Empowerment Center (Mustard
Seeds’ learning center that emphasizes the development of
reading and math skills, as well as exposing children and adults
to the arts), and 4) Nursing home ministry. Our goal is to share
with the people of
McDowell
County
the simple love of Jesus in very active ways.
Jesus loves us and gave His life for us and has given us
the responsibility to share His love with others.
“For
I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat;
I
was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink;
I
was a stranger and you invited Me in”
Matthew
25:35
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