Feed my lambs

Linking Bible stories to life: that’s one of the goals of our Cool Disciples program at FUMC. This past week some of our kids got to put into action a key concept they’ve learned from our current Bible story. It had to do with Jesus’ advice to Peter. (If you’re not sure what Jesus’ charge was, ask your kids.)

Oh yeah, feed some sheep?

Or use power tools and pick axes, rebuild a porch and dig a trench, or fill pots with soil…

Working on being the all around “church” in the community.

(No actual sheep are necessary.)

We were a part of a crew of 54 people from FUMC – from grandparents to six year olds – on a family mission trip to Henderson Settlement.

Henderson Settlement is a mission agency of the United Methodist Church. It is located in Frakes, KY – a small town in southeastern Kentucky – a place of high unemployment and persistent poverty. Henderson Settlement aims to provide basic needs for people in Appalachia, and one of the ways they do this is through work camps.

Volunteer teams from all over the United States come to Henderson to repair homes in the community. Every year 150 to 200 families are helped with projects that otherwise wouldn’t likely happen — projects like installing a railing on a porch, or installation of steps or replacing porch boards. (Porches are important in this area. Three of our four in-the-community projects involved porches!)

There are also projects on the Henderson  “campus” – projects like digging a drainage ditch or stringing up goat fencing or mucking out the barn or sorting onion sets. (Henderson Settlement also has an agricultural ministry.)

Enjoy this slide show of some of the photos from our trip.

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Photo credits:
All photos used by permission: Trench digging by Richard Rupp; thanks also to photos by Amy Unsworth, Wendy Everett, Ruth Ann Church, Mary Danforth, Jeff Wason, and the staff at Henderson Settlement.