Crum, WV - Day 1

Dear Friends and Family,

I apologize for not being able to post yesterday. But we had absolutely zero service whatsoever once we arrived. I was afraid of this, but I hope to make it a point of finding some service at least at some point each day to keep you guys updated.

But we have all arrived safely and everyone is all settled in. We are worshipping this morning at Crum Baptist Church. We will spend the aafternoon handing out flyers for our block party and VBS for this upcoming week. We have the opportunity to make a huge impact this week.

Be sure to check back on this blog for future updates

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support while we are here this week! We love all of y'all so much.

Your Servant In Christ,

Todd Handell

New Orleans - Day 5 - July 23, 2015

Hey Everyone!

We had another great day today. We finished up our last day of VBS. We had a great day at VBS as we shared the resurrection story of Jesus with the kids.

We also had a block party this afternoon at our St. Roch VBS location. It was a lot of fun and we really got to minister to a lot of people who were in need. We had a awesome time and the students did great.

Tomorrow, we get to celebrate all our hard work by enjoying our free day. We will be headed to the French Quarter area of New Orleans and enjoying a delicious lunch and enjoy some sightseeing in the city. It is going to be a great day!

New Orleans - Day 4 - July 22, 2015

Hello Everyone,

We had another late night last night, so sorry again for not getting this blog post up last night. We had another wonderful day here in New Orleans. We had two great VBS sites again. It is truly amazing to see how these youth have built these relationships with the kids at our VBS in just a few short days. I am constantly amazed by our youth and all the hard work they are doing this week.

Yesterday afternoon, we headed to Audobon Park to do some evangelism / water bottle ministry. Unfortunately, those plans ended up changing just a little bit as we ran into a little bit of rain. So it turned into quite the adventure and will be a memory we will never forget.

Last night, we took time to honor all of our seniors on our annual senior night. It wa aa beautiful night as youth shared tons of stories about our seniors and the impact they have had on their lives over the past six years they have been in the BUMS. We have such an awesome group of seniors this year, and it is hard to say goodbye to them in the sense of a youth group. They have had such an impact on this group, and have truly left their legacy. This group of 11 seniors is an awesome group f young men and women, and they will be truly missed.

Today we head out to our last day of VBS. It is the day we tell the resurrection story of Jesus, and give kids a chance to accept Jesus. It is truly a powerful moment. We also have a block party this afternoon where we will serve hotdogs, chips, sno-cones, have live music, and other things to reach out to the city. We are looking forward to our last opportunity to witness to these people today. Anyways, we are off to breakfast! 

New Orleans - Day 3 - July 21, 2015

Hey Everyone! Sorry I didn't get this post up last night. But we were busy till pretty late and so I was exhausted and went to bed!

Yesterday was another great day here in New Orleans. We once again spent the morning split up into our two VBS sites: at one site we had 13 kids and at the other side we had 24 kids. So both of our VBS sites saw quite the increase in the number of children attending! Praise God!

Our construction crew also continued their hard work! They are still clearing fields that have grass that is above waste high. They are working so hard this week!

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Chateu Livinf Center and hung out with some of the residents. It was a lot of fun. We played some bingo with them and just got to have a lot of great conversations. We really enjoyed it!

So as you can see, we are staying super busy! We are having a great time! We are excited for another fun-filled mission day today!

New Orleans - Day 2 - July 20th, 2015

We had another fantastic day on our Mission Trip. We split up this morning into our two vacation bible school sites. At one site we had 4 kids and at the other site we had 13 kids.

We spent the afternoon cleaning up and doing some yard work, which is what our construction crew is doing all week. We had a lot of fun doing it despite the heat and the rain.


Here a few pics. We will back tomorrow!

New Orleans - Day 1 - July 19th, 2015

Hello Everyone!

We made it down here to New Orleans. We ran into a little bit of traffic on the way down here, but it really wasn't bad at all. It took us just over 12 hours to get down here, so we made really good time.

We had a great dinner and some awesome worship and devotion time with all the other groups here. For me personally, it feels awesome to be back here. It brings back so many awesome memories for me, as two of my favorite mission trips have been here to this exact Location.

We are all so excited about a fantastic trip. We are all quite exhausted, so we are headed to bed now! Check out the blog tomorrow for another update!

BUMS Summer 2015

Hello Blog Readers! I apologize for the length since my last post! But hence the life of a youth minister, especially during the Summer! My life has been one event after another, and life just hasn't slowed down very much lately! But that is a good thing! I am still really enjoying my job and things are going well! Here is what I have been up to since my last post:

Out side of my job, I recently just bought a house! I closed on it on May 29th, so I have been living in it for a little over a month. I was very tired of my apartment life, mainly because I had quite the noisy upstairs neighbor. But also, I love my job here, and I plan on being here for a while, so I figured to invest in the housing market! I knew I didn't want to be in an apartment for my entire time here, so I figured the sooner I get in a house, the better I am at making those payments. I absolutely love my house! It is so nice to have more room for all the youth to come over and hang out in.

In the life of my job, we have hit the ground running since school let out. We honored our graduates during the worship service on May 17th. They were a fantastic group of 12 seniors who have been very active in the BUMS over the years! I am definitely going to miss having them around next year!

The week of June 7th - June 11th was a busy one for us, as we had a double dose of Vacation Bible School. Our youth group hosts a VBS for the Child Enrichment Day Care Program at our church, and it just happened to fall during the same week as our regular church's VBS. So 5 straight days of being at the church from 8 am till 9 pm made for a long week. But we had a blast. I got to observe our youth rock out hosting our VBS. They did fantastic. Then, during the night VBS, got to be the Lead Singer of our Band (the Lab Coats) as well as be a crew leader for the 5th and 6th graders. It was a successful week for Dr. Todd. 

We also went on our beach retreat to Garden City Chapel in Garden City, SC. We had a great retreat as always. It was a very chill trip. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast!

We have also had a lot of daily activities. We had a back to summer bowling party, had a lunch and movie hang out day, went to a Greenville Drive game, had an ice cream and board games social, and just yesterday went to Gravitopia! So we have been very busy this summer. 

So it has been a great summer so far. On Sunday, July 19th, we leave for our mission trip to New Orleans, LA. It is going to be a fantastic trip and I can't wait to be down there.