During the week between August 8 and 12, 2011, I led a mission
team from my home church to Mill Creek, West Virginia. This mission was a good example of serving
the Lord through mission work in areas of God’s land outside the local community. The mission supported a ministry called Tyrand
Cooperative Ministries. Its facility was
located about a mile out of Mill Creek where lumber mills and coalmines are the
primary source of employment. Tyrand
Ministries has been in operation for fifty years serving the needs of the
elderly, handicapped, and other economically disadvantaged residents. Mission teams come from several surrounding
states, such as Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida. The Tyrand staff was very excited to have a
team from West Virginia.
I found Tyrand Ministries in what once was a farmhouse, barn,
and an outbuilding or two. The barn
where mission teams once slept serves as a storage area for lumber and other
building materials. Today, a larger
building provides sleeping areas for men and women, several bathrooms with
showers, a large kitchen with eating area, and a large sitting area for daily
devotions and relaxation. The people of
Mill Creek and their stories made this mission trip special.
The abundance of daily joys included sweet tidbits of food
prepared by a couple of women on our team.
We began each morning with a devotional period. Afterward, a volunteer project manager directed
us to several homes within a short, and sometimes not so short, drive from
Tyrand. After the day’s work, we would
settle down to a bodacious meal and evening devotions, which tended, more often
than not, to expand into hours of good discussion.
The people of Mill Creek were as colorful as the landscape. We had the pleasure of serving a decorated
89-year old veteran of World War II.
While we fixed a roof of one of his outbuildings, he delighted us with
stories of battles (and his Purple Heart with three clusters) and of his high
school sweetheart. He spoke with joy in
his heart of a young girl who went to college and became a teacher, writing
letters during the years he served in the military, and waiting for his return
to become his wife. He told of his
ten-day honeymoon driving to several sites in Virginia in his new 1931
Sportster. Though she died in 1985, his
wife came alive through his keen and charming memories.
We served another delightful, and rather amusing, man who suffered
from diabetes. This man knew he would
soon lose both his feet; still he talked and joked about life as if nothing
else mattered. We worked on an enclosed
porch where he wanted to install a wood stove before cold weather arrived,
which would not be long in the mountains of West Virginia. The man’s antics and humorous patter
entertained us greatly. After the
seemingly short time we were there, the Tyrand volunteer offered a powerful
prayer while kneeling before the man and placing hands on his legs. Afterward the man shuffled into his trailer
void of his usual exuberant humor. We
barely heard his final words to us as we departed, telling us to take
care. The appreciation from that man was
beyond any words. Similarly, our respect
and admiration for his outlook on life, in spite of his condition, was
admirable.
The next community project took us higher in the mountains,
nearer to coalmines where large trucks bullied their way along narrow roads. We served a woman who had recently lost her
husband. Still, her zest for life was
remarkable. She joyfully served us homemade
bread and green beans to supplement our lunch.
Members of her family would stop by and talk. Some of us found connections to her family,
something that did not seem so unusual in the hills of West Virginia.
Overall, it was wonderful serving the Lord through our
efforts in Mill Creek. Our reward lay in
the stories of the people we served and in the mountains of West Virginia. On one evening we ventured to a small village
tucked away high in those mountains. I
do not recall the name of the village but it was so quaint and
picturesque. I believe it was of Swiss
origin. I recall a few Swiss folk
ventured from New York in search of a secluded area reminiscent of their
homeland. They founded a small village
and went about establishing a good home in which to raise their families by
retaining a bit of Swiss culture. We tasted
some of that culture by touring a local museum and enjoying a meal featuring
foods made from recipes passed down through many years.
The Mill Creek area is a favorite of mine. The beauty is evident in the hills and the
people who live among them. Like many of
the nice places where the Lord has led me, I hope to return to Mill Creek.
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