Bethlehem and Hope Lutheran Church

We made it to Huntington, WV, got settled in to our host church, and headed to Gino's Pizza and Gelato for dinner. The team we are working with will arrive later tonight. We are looking forward to meeting them. 

After worship with our host church this morning we headed up river to eat at Hillbilly Hotdogs. What a crazy fun place! We met Shari and Sonny, the owners, and some of us sang to them for free ice cream. Did we mention it was on Driver's, Drive-in's and Dives?

After lunch we went to the Memorial Fountain at Marshall University. We talked about the plane crash that devastated this community in November of 1970. Then we spent some time praying individually and together for Huntington and for our ministry this week. 

Sunday night we got to help our host church, First Church of the Nazarene, celebrate the completion of their very newly remodeled Family Life Center where we are lodging this week. They installed all the sinks and appliances about an hour before we arrived, so we are benefitting from it in huge ways! 

We spent this morning serving at A New Beginning Crisis Pregnancy Center. We cleaned and organized the garage, sorted donations, cleaned, and assembled toys and baby beds. It was a blessing to hear about their ministry to expectant and new mothers and to be able to be a small part of that. 

Monday afternoon we got to serve at the Boys and Girls Club of Huntington. We played with kids, weeded a HUGE playground, and spread 22 tons of gravel. It was hard work, but so much fun to do together. 

Some of us got to help build the walls of a Habitat for Humanity house. It was such a blessing to meet the homeowner as well as the guys who devote their lives to this ministry. 

Today, we played and interacted with the children at the Boys and Girls Club. When we arrived, they were excited to see us and greeted us with smiles. We played Capture the Cone, kick all, and basketball. We also played all sorts of other games with another group: Simon Says; Musical Chairs; Telephone; What are you doing?; Three-headed Oracle; one-word story; and tag. We also talked and just hung out with them. We made  great connections with them. They  held onto us when we left, and kept asking when we would return.

Today we went to Huntington City Missions to basically do whatever they needed us to do. We toured the beautiful center and met some of their employees. As we walked through the halls, we noticed Bible quotes on the walls and doors of the short term residents that live there. That really lifted up our day and made us start with a positive attitude. We went to the donations center and cleaned out the condemned part of the building. It meant so much to us to be able to work together as a team for an organization that is greater than us and offers greater things to children of God. Although this was our last day of service, we truly moved mountains and made a difference that may not have been made otherwise.  

On Wednesday a few of us had the opportunity to love on one of our host church's neighbors. Pastor Marc had asked if we would be willing to clean gutters and paint awnings at the home of one of their shut-in members. We were glad to help. We discovered that one section of her gutter was broken and were able to fix that as well. Afterwards we went inside to pray with Ms. Kay and show her pictures of the finished work. She was so happy!