Reclamation Welch Blog

  This April, I had the privilege of serving as a chaperone for Illiana Christian High School’s annual service trip to McDowell County, West Virginia. For eight years now, our school from small-town Indiana has made the 550‑mile minibus journey to Welch to join a community that continually teaches us what resilience, generosity, and Christ‑centered love look like in action. This year, our group of 23 students and 5 chaperones partnered with Reclamation Church and Young Life to serve across the region. Our projects were varied, like repainting and repairing the Little League dugouts in Welch and Iaeger, painting murals inside Reclamation, landscaping at the Young Life camp in Summersville, and supporting the Lion of Judah Rehabilitation House in whatever ways were needed before they open. But the real work was always about the people. One of the most powerful parts of this trip is watching community form on multiple levels. Within our own group, students who barely knew each other o...

Impact Story: WyldLife Winter Weekend With Shannon and Raven   When sharing stories of what God is doing, it doesn’t usually center around one person; sometimes it focuses on many. God’s story works in many ways, one of them is ministry. Recently, our Wyldlife youth ministry went to a winter weekend, and they are here to share how God moved with kids and with each other. Here’s what Raven and Shannon have to say about it. They had the opportunity to serve middle schoolers. We will talk a little bit about what that looks like. Such as where they went and what they did. As we are talking through this life story, I want you to see what it's like to pull into the lives of other people that are in your life and being  a disciple. We hear about discipleship or being a follower of Jesus, but we often are quick to maybe discount our calls on our lives to make disciples, too. God places people in all of our lives, whether it’s students in your classroom, work, and communities, so that ...

God is at work in our lives, and every single one of us has a story. We have a life story. Tell a story, our lives are a story, but more specifically, each one of us has a God story, how God is drawing us to himself, or He's drawing us to himself continually, and how He is making us more like Him and working in our hearts, minds, and lives. What are the big occurrences for the two of you? Kids. One of my cousins, who’s addicted, has a kid who is 2 1/2 years old, and he is through the CPS system, and he has been placed with us right now. We’re hoping to long-term adopt this young man named Hudson. How is God growing you in this entire experience? For me (Randall), it's just been we’ve got three kids running around, work, life, and everything, so it’s just like every minute, every second counts to make it all worth it. (Marlee), definitely patience. I’m at home with them all day, and our oldest is 3 1/2 years old, and the rest of our 2 kids are even younger. So it’s kind of craz...

Desire that your life count for something great! Long for your life to have eternal significance. Want this! Don't coast through life without a passion.” - John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life   It’s been a sweet few days around RCW thanks to a team of college students who traveled a long way to serve and learn.  We have the privilege of hosting work teams from time to time, including on college Spring breaks. This past week four students from Azusa Pacific University — three seniors and one sophomore — came to McDowell County through Young Life Expeditions to spend their Spring break learning about the work God is doing here and jumping in wherever they could help.   They spent time visiting several local events in the area (lots of laughs, lots of young folks) and getting to share their stories with YL kids at Campaigners, which in my opinion was an absolute highlight. They also rolled up their sleeves to help clean the church and set up for the Zera House spaghett...

  Impact Story: Shannon Butner We want everyone to know that Church isn’t a spectator sport. We want everyone to share each other's stories; in an impact story, we like to do that with three things: talk about what happened in the past, when you met Christ, and what’s your response to that now. This is to build each other up and to provide opportunities to pour into other people‘s lives. Who is Shannon Butner? My name is Shannon Butner, and before I met Christ, my life was a mess. I grew up in an abusive home. My mom was addicted, so she was angry all the time as an adult. Unfortunately, these are the kind of people that I surrounded myself with, declaring them as friends and intimate partners. Hence, it was all violence and addiction and nothing good. There was nothing good in my life as a child or young adult, even in the case of love. I knew a couple of guys who were so mean that they tried to take me out of the world, but they didn’t; they failed. I’m still here. Thank God He w...

  We've done many renovations to our historic early-1900's building so far - originally a Presbyterian Church that sits along what I've jokingly heard called "Holly Roller Avenue" (because of how many churches line the same street).   We will be tagging "Renovations" as we update the work done on preserving and restoring different elements for the next chapter of this building as the home of Reclamation Welch.

 Well, friends.   20 years after reading my Young Life leader's blog (thank you, Jay) on a school computer we're working on a way to update folks on our Reclamation Welch building restoration updates, Impact Stories from the community, and other reflections that we'll be grateful to have logged.  Currently I'm sitting at a Starbucks in Beckley waiting for Ellie (our oldest, now 11) to finish a test at "Math Field Day" so that we can take a daddy-daughter date to IHOP.  This is a tradition now and I'm very grateful for one on one time with her.  I'll spend the rest of the afternoon organizing details of projects for work teams that will serve over the next few months.   These teams are important for many reasons, but most impactful to me has been the demonstration of unity, the new friendships in my life and the long-term partnerships that have formed over years. Grateful to serve, Paul.