Hey everyone! Hope all of you are doing well! Just wanted to update you on our day so far!
We spent the morning working at 4 different construction groups. One group went to a trailer to do some work on the roof. We did some sealing around the top of the roof. Our second construction group was in a house and did some demolition of a floor in a kitchen and a bedroom. Their goal is to replace it by the end of the week. Our third construction group worked on replacing some siding on a house as well as a window. And our fourth construction group also worked on replacing some floors in a house.
After we finished up our construction projects we headed over to Oleander UMC to enjoy sandwicheps for lunch. Now, we are in the middle of our Vacation Bible School! We have 10 kids here today. Although that may seem low to some, considering we had zero kids guaranteed at the beginning of the week, we are excited to have 10 here today. And we hope to see it grow throughout the week.
Tonight we will go eat dinner again over at Hugh MacRae Park again. Wayne and Carolyn Polston, who are former members of Bethel, now live in Wilmington. They offered to provide a meal for our entire mission team. So we look forward to enjoying that tonight.
Thank you again for your continued prayers and support.
In Christ,
Todd Handell
Monday, July 17, 2017
Sunday, July 16, 2017
BUMS Mission Trip - Day 1 - Wilmington, NC
Hey everyone!
Sorry for the lateness of this post, but we just returned back to First Fruit Ministries for the night. Here is a little recap of the day.
We spent the morning worshipping at Oleander UMC. It was so awesome to see how opening and welcoming they were to all of us. They were so excited to have so many young people filling up their sanctuary. And yes, we filled it up. We doubled their congregation attendance today! But they really are excited about us hosting a Vacation Bible School there this week!
After enjoying Papa John's Pizza for lunch, we headed out to canvas the neighborhoods to spread the word about our VBS. We handed out over 500 postcards today!!! We are hoping for a big turnout at our VBS tomorrow afternoon!
After handing out postcards and then setting up and decorating for VBS, we had a brief orientation with WARM, the construction organization we will be working with all week. We have some tough projects ahead of us, but we are excited for the opportunity!
Afterward, we went and enjoyed a Taco Dinner at Hugh MacRae Park catered by The Islands Fresh Mex Grill. It was delicious. We also were able to eat dinner with The Anchor UMC, which is where our own Emma Mathis is the intern for the summer! So it was great to see her and her youth group!
So as you can see, we had such a busy first day! We are so excited about the opportunity to get working on our construction projects and Vacation Bible School tomorrow!
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!
In Christ,
Todd Handell
Sorry for the lateness of this post, but we just returned back to First Fruit Ministries for the night. Here is a little recap of the day.
We spent the morning worshipping at Oleander UMC. It was so awesome to see how opening and welcoming they were to all of us. They were so excited to have so many young people filling up their sanctuary. And yes, we filled it up. We doubled their congregation attendance today! But they really are excited about us hosting a Vacation Bible School there this week!
After enjoying Papa John's Pizza for lunch, we headed out to canvas the neighborhoods to spread the word about our VBS. We handed out over 500 postcards today!!! We are hoping for a big turnout at our VBS tomorrow afternoon!
After handing out postcards and then setting up and decorating for VBS, we had a brief orientation with WARM, the construction organization we will be working with all week. We have some tough projects ahead of us, but we are excited for the opportunity!
Afterward, we went and enjoyed a Taco Dinner at Hugh MacRae Park catered by The Islands Fresh Mex Grill. It was delicious. We also were able to eat dinner with The Anchor UMC, which is where our own Emma Mathis is the intern for the summer! So it was great to see her and her youth group!
So as you can see, we had such a busy first day! We are so excited about the opportunity to get working on our construction projects and Vacation Bible School tomorrow!
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!
In Christ,
Todd Handell
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Crum, West Virginia - Day 5
Hey Everyone,
It's hard to believe it, but we have come to our last day of Mission Work here in West Virginia and Kentucky.
We went this morning to finish up our work projects at Ward Trailer Park. Although we had to work a little over time, we got all of the projects that we started finished. It was truly an incredible feeling. It was an awesome sight to see these families walk into the bedroom's we had just made over. I am going to post some pictures to the BUMS Student Ministry Facebook page.
We had another great day here at VBS. We have had multiple new kids show up each day to VBS. That has been an awesome feeling to see new kids show up, and has brought a lot of joy to our week.
As soon as VBS ends, we will go straight into our block party at our VBS sight. We are looking forward to serving all these families a good meal and all kinds of other things while playing games and such.
It truly has been an awesome week here in Crum and Warfield. We are all tired and are looking forward to coming home tomorrow. We should be home around 4 pm.
Thank all of you so much for your prayers and support while we are here. We are so blessed at Bethel to have a church family that supports our youth ministry. We are forever greatful.
Your Servant in Christ,
Todd Handell
It's hard to believe it, but we have come to our last day of Mission Work here in West Virginia and Kentucky.
We went this morning to finish up our work projects at Ward Trailer Park. Although we had to work a little over time, we got all of the projects that we started finished. It was truly an incredible feeling. It was an awesome sight to see these families walk into the bedroom's we had just made over. I am going to post some pictures to the BUMS Student Ministry Facebook page.
We had another great day here at VBS. We have had multiple new kids show up each day to VBS. That has been an awesome feeling to see new kids show up, and has brought a lot of joy to our week.
As soon as VBS ends, we will go straight into our block party at our VBS sight. We are looking forward to serving all these families a good meal and all kinds of other things while playing games and such.
It truly has been an awesome week here in Crum and Warfield. We are all tired and are looking forward to coming home tomorrow. We should be home around 4 pm.
Thank all of you so much for your prayers and support while we are here. We are so blessed at Bethel to have a church family that supports our youth ministry. We are forever greatful.
Your Servant in Christ,
Todd Handell
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Crum, WV- Day 4
Hey Everyone,
We are back for day 3 of VBS. We just arrived and the kids are currently setting up all of their stations for our VBS rotations.
We had another great morning working over at Ward trailer park. We finished one of the projects of painting the outside of the trailer. The porch rebuild is almost done as well. Our construction crew is headed back this afternoon and hoping to finish up the porch.
The bedroom makeovers are going well. We sent a group to the store today to buy some new beds and other decorations and supplies for the bedroom makeovers. They finished the painting today; and will put all of the new things into the room tomorrow morning when we head back over here.
It has been amazing to hear all of our students talk about how they feel they have made such an impact this week. Typically our VBS crew, when not doing VBS, would work in nursing homes, maybe a food pantry, or stuff. But this year, they have all talked about how they have enjoyed being able to see the difference they have made in this community.
So this week we have definitely enjoyed being able to slightly inprove the lives of these people by working on their homes. We are looking forward to our VBS this afternoon.
Tonight we will have our heart ceremony. It is a time where everyone shares with each other how they have touched lives this week!
Tomorrow we will wrap up our construction projects and VBS and then have a block party tomorrow afternoon! We are very much looking forward to that.
Check back in tomorrow!!!
Your Servant In Christ,
Todd Handell
We are back for day 3 of VBS. We just arrived and the kids are currently setting up all of their stations for our VBS rotations.
We had another great morning working over at Ward trailer park. We finished one of the projects of painting the outside of the trailer. The porch rebuild is almost done as well. Our construction crew is headed back this afternoon and hoping to finish up the porch.
The bedroom makeovers are going well. We sent a group to the store today to buy some new beds and other decorations and supplies for the bedroom makeovers. They finished the painting today; and will put all of the new things into the room tomorrow morning when we head back over here.
It has been amazing to hear all of our students talk about how they feel they have made such an impact this week. Typically our VBS crew, when not doing VBS, would work in nursing homes, maybe a food pantry, or stuff. But this year, they have all talked about how they have enjoyed being able to see the difference they have made in this community.
So this week we have definitely enjoyed being able to slightly inprove the lives of these people by working on their homes. We are looking forward to our VBS this afternoon.
Tonight we will have our heart ceremony. It is a time where everyone shares with each other how they have touched lives this week!
Tomorrow we will wrap up our construction projects and VBS and then have a block party tomorrow afternoon! We are very much looking forward to that.
Check back in tomorrow!!!
Your Servant In Christ,
Todd Handell
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Crum, West Virginia - Day 3
Hello Everyone,
We are having another fantastic day here on our mission trip.
So I got a few questions about this and so I figured I would clear it up now. So, we are based in Crum, WV. The host church we are staying at (Silver Creek) is located in Crum. However, we are actually doing most of our work in Kentucky. We are located in Warfield, Kentucky for our VBS and Construction site. It is just across the state border from Crum, WV. So therefore we are traveling back and forth between Crum and Warfield each day. It is only about a 25 minute drive, that is if we don't get stopped by a train!
Today we went back to Ward Trailer park and continued working on the construction projects from yesterday (Painting a trailer, doing some bedroom makeovers, rebuilding a porch, and putting in some new flooring). We made some great progress on all of these projects. We will go back the next two days and continue to work on these same projects Until they are finished.
This afternoon we are back here at Warfield Community Park. We are having another wonderful day at VBS. We have another great group of kids out here again today.
Our students are continuing doing a wonderful job leading the VBS and working. I would say that I am surprised, but honestly I am not one bit. The BUMS are an amazing group of people and they all work so hard all the time. I am so blessed to be able to lead them. I've honestly found myself many times this week with not much to do because these kids do such an awesome job leading everything.
We are looking forward to the rest of the day. Tonight we will honor our seniors with our "senior night", a time in which we allow people to share stories about these seniors and how they made an impact on this youth group. It is always a special time.
That is all for today. Check back in tomorrow!
Your Servant In Christ,
Todd Handell
We are having another fantastic day here on our mission trip.
So I got a few questions about this and so I figured I would clear it up now. So, we are based in Crum, WV. The host church we are staying at (Silver Creek) is located in Crum. However, we are actually doing most of our work in Kentucky. We are located in Warfield, Kentucky for our VBS and Construction site. It is just across the state border from Crum, WV. So therefore we are traveling back and forth between Crum and Warfield each day. It is only about a 25 minute drive, that is if we don't get stopped by a train!
Today we went back to Ward Trailer park and continued working on the construction projects from yesterday (Painting a trailer, doing some bedroom makeovers, rebuilding a porch, and putting in some new flooring). We made some great progress on all of these projects. We will go back the next two days and continue to work on these same projects Until they are finished.
This afternoon we are back here at Warfield Community Park. We are having another wonderful day at VBS. We have another great group of kids out here again today.
Our students are continuing doing a wonderful job leading the VBS and working. I would say that I am surprised, but honestly I am not one bit. The BUMS are an amazing group of people and they all work so hard all the time. I am so blessed to be able to lead them. I've honestly found myself many times this week with not much to do because these kids do such an awesome job leading everything.
We are looking forward to the rest of the day. Tonight we will honor our seniors with our "senior night", a time in which we allow people to share stories about these seniors and how they made an impact on this youth group. It is always a special time.
That is all for today. Check back in tomorrow!
Your Servant In Christ,
Todd Handell
Monday, July 11, 2016
Crum, West Virginia - Day 2
Hello Everyone,
We have had a wonderful second day here in West Virginia. We spent the morning at Ward Trailer park working on some home improvements in the area. We have a couple of different projects we are working on at the trailer park. We have one group who is pressure washing and repainting a trailer. Another group is working in a trailer and doing some bedroom makeovers. This includes repainting and putting in new furniture and decorations. We have two of the bedroom makeovers going on this week.
Our construction team is also working on two main projects. One group is tearing down and rebuilding a porch. They are also working on putting some new flooring into one of the trailers.
This afternoon we are at VBS. We have about 20 kids here today. We are hoping to see that number grow throughout the week. Our students are doing a wonderful job leading the VBS. It is going great.
It's hard for us to believe we have only really been here two full days. We have already done so much work and enjoyed our time here so much. We are looking forward to these next few days here in West Virginia and Kentucky.
The post will probably be around this time each day. The only place I really have service is here at our VBS site. So make sure to check back at this time tomorrow!
Your Servant in Christ,
Todd Handell
We have had a wonderful second day here in West Virginia. We spent the morning at Ward Trailer park working on some home improvements in the area. We have a couple of different projects we are working on at the trailer park. We have one group who is pressure washing and repainting a trailer. Another group is working in a trailer and doing some bedroom makeovers. This includes repainting and putting in new furniture and decorations. We have two of the bedroom makeovers going on this week.
Our construction team is also working on two main projects. One group is tearing down and rebuilding a porch. They are also working on putting some new flooring into one of the trailers.
This afternoon we are at VBS. We have about 20 kids here today. We are hoping to see that number grow throughout the week. Our students are doing a wonderful job leading the VBS. It is going great.
It's hard for us to believe we have only really been here two full days. We have already done so much work and enjoyed our time here so much. We are looking forward to these next few days here in West Virginia and Kentucky.
The post will probably be around this time each day. The only place I really have service is here at our VBS site. So make sure to check back at this time tomorrow!
Your Servant in Christ,
Todd Handell
Sunday, July 10, 2016
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
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
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