Reclamation Welch Blog

This past week, we had the privilege of hosting nine men from Calvary Church in Toledo, Ohio , who made the long drive down to spend a few days serving our church and our family. Our connection with this team really begins with our friend Tim, a contractor who has been quietly coming to McDowell County for about nine years to serve families alongside a few close friends of his. His love for McDowell actually goes back even further—to a trip he took to War, just south of Welch, while he was in high school. That experience made a lasting impact on him, and he has never really lost his love for this county. In recent years, Tim became part of Calvary Church, and the quiet, informal ministry he has been doing here began to overlap with the relationships God was building there. When another service trip was canceled, it became a natural opportunity to bring some of those worlds together. A couple of men from that original team were able to come, and others joined them, eventually bringing n...

  Impact Story: Sheyanna Denninger 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. What was your life like before Christ? I kinda grew up like in church. My mom was in and out of it. My mom went with my dad, but he was never really Christian. He struggled with it a lot. He was like a drug addict throughout the early part of my childhood and then turned alcoholic, so he was kind of like an abusive alcoholic and mom. She just said she wanted me to have a dad, you know so I never really understood that until I was about like 1011 and then I started like ask mom a lot of questions like hey why why are you with him and she was like I wanted to give you a hat and I was like OK so t...

 When I think about Big Kick 2026, I’m grateful for the camp, the projects and the kids who filled the gym and turf each night.  I'm especially grateful for the good food. But as a dad and a 100% guilty "work-a-holic", what sticks with me most are the friendships that were made as we spent a whole week running around town together. Watch the week here: This past July a team from The Falls Church in Northern Virginia spent a week serving alongside us and our community.  And they brought MANY hands to make light work of it!  Made up of mostly young-adults, the team spent the week  working throughout the day, and then helped us welcome local kids for Big Kick Sports Camp each evening.  They were real pros when it came to loving kids. And they worked hard... even in the heat! Each day the team split into about 4 clusters and headed to project sites.  Together they painted a massive mural in Roderfield and a basement in Ieager, rebuilt a brick walkway for a...

  Impact Story:  Katie Williamson Stories deserve to be shared. That’s what makes them great. But the essence of that greatness is God. We all have a story of God working in our lives, moving and working in us, which impacts the world around us. Even though we hear and witness these stories, it’s so easy to forget what God has done in our lives. So we want to give opportunities for people to share their stories so we can reflect on their life story and ours. This month we have Katie Williamson to share her story. An introduction to meeting Jesus Katie: My name is Katie Williamson and I am here with my husband David Williamson this morning our three kiddos Daniel, Ryan, and Isla are back with their grandparents visiting so they are not with us this morning but they’re the three little blonde head of blue eyed babies running around. I kind of gave my testimony a little bit of thought, Paul asked to me a couple days ago to share my story. After of a couple days I was thinking "we...

  Impact Story: Tracy K. As we know, mission is carried through our relationships. In one way we get to do that is by sharing stories from our personal lives along with our testimonies to get to know one another. It gives us a glimpse of God‘s victories in our lives and into others. Here we want to show God‘s victories within our friend Tracy K. What was your life like before Christ? I had a very, very bad childhood; my dad was very abusive. Our kitchen door did not lock between our kitchen and garage because my dad kicked me through it with steel-toe boots on. I can write a book on stories of every account when coming home. My brother and I love animals. I particularly love dogs because my dad used to beat them so badly that I couldn’t save them. That’s why I’m attached to dogs, so that I can save those that I can. This was throughout high school, elementary, middle school, and then my mom left him, even when he was hurling threats. When I was little, my mom would take me in and o...

  In our life's there is seasons we all experience, one of those is graduation. For many this one instance comes with varying thoughts and feelings. Some might feel as if they are drifting through space not knowing what the future has in store for them leaving them with endless questions like "who am I" and "what do I love that I can call work." Or some are excited to hit the world head on. While those two perspectives are on opposite ends of the spectrum, we can always relate in some middle ground. Here we want to congratulate the graduating class of 2026 from River View and Mount View by allowing them to share their life verse that they will carry to this next season of life, their plan, and their prayer requests.  Kelly Bell Romans 12:7-9 "If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take t...

A Huge Thank You to Our Friends from Northline Church! It's been said that churches often pay close attention to their "seating capacity" while losing sight of their "sending capacity." In Acts 13, the church in Antioch, led by the Holy Spirit, sent Barnabas and Saul to witness beyond the walls of their own congregation. Their willingness to send very faithful people into the harvest became part of God's plan to carry the gospel to places they themselves would never go.    Acts 13:1–3   Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon ...Lucius... Manaen... and Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “ Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them."  So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.  We see this same willingness to send in our friends at Northline Church.  Check out below how ...

 Shawnee and Ricky's impact story For full transcript of their interview click here Lion of Judah: Shawnee and Ricky's Path to a New Men's Recovery Home in McDowell. One of the reasons we share Impact Stories at Reclamation is because we believe it's important to hear how God has worked in one another's lives. We all come from different backgrounds, and for some, those stories include a great deal of hurt, addiction, and brokenness. We've all heard the saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, but one of the wonderful things about the Gospel is that God can change the direction of a person's life, regardless of where they've come from. Recently, we had the opportunity to hear from Shawnee and Ricky Potter, founders of Lion of Judah New Life Ministries. They're working to open a long-term recovery home in Anawalt, West Virginia. I had previously met them while touring their facility with a group from Prosper McDowell, and it was encour...

Without doing much editing or polishing, I will take a few minutes to "spill" a reflection on serving at RCW as Planting Pastor for now a little more than two years.   Faith and I are leaving in the morning on a 2 night trip to see Ben Rector with the Nashville Symphony, and so I am cleaning up my "office list" and now feel free to write a few things.   In tribute to a good friend's method (thanks, Jay) I will post a non-exhaustive list of lessons I've learned.  1.  Lostness matters - It's all about relationships.  I am grateful for the opportunity to care for God's people.  I have never been more aware of His love for his children, and I've never been more heartbroken over those who are lost.   Come, Lord Jesus.   2.  Keep it Cross-centered - I often feel under-qualified and under-informed.  The pace of life of our modern world are impossible to keep up with.  Learning to lean into my limitations keeps me humb...