ignition middle school ministry

Crew #3

Sidney, Eli, Jolette, Cadyn, Grace, Andrew, Mikey, Tina, Heather, Natali, & Sneha

Today was the last day of work for the Clendenin crew. We finished our project off by planting beautiful plants, but not without much hard work from all of our crew shoveling through rock and clay and shoveling gravel onto the driveway. All the work was definitely worth to see the end product. What was…

Crew 3

Sidney, Natali, Grace, Mikey, Andrew, Eli, Cadyn Tina, Heather, Sneha, & Jolette

Normally Wednesday is one of the hardest days because it is the middle of the week and we are all tired and sick of each other. Today on our way to the worksite and we all were at each others throats. Once we got to the worksite our next step leader Kealey gave a a powerful devotion. After that, all of…

Crew 9

Dave, David, DJ, Lia, Irene & Briana

Today we were able to start as soon as we arrived. We painted a second coat on the room we already painted and was able to paint the first half of the second room. To paint the room we didn’t want to many people in the room so Jacob, the owner, asked for four students to help insulate the pipes under the house. Briana, Irene, David and DJ went…

Crew 3: Riverview

Cadyn, Grace, Mikey, Andrew, Eli, Jolette, Tina, Heather, Sneha, Natali & Sidney

Today, we got to start our trip by visiting a homeowner who’s story was incredible to hear. Angie, the homeowner has four kids and a husband who’s lives were completely changed from the flood. It was very hard to see pictures from this tragic events but it was amazing to see how much this town…

We’re Here!

It feels so good to be back in Clendenin! Not only was the weather perfect, everything about the trip here was smooth sailing! We even made it in near record time, arriving around 2:30pm!

There’s something fun about being in a place we are beginning to know well and feel so comfortable. This year’s staff team has a couple of familiar faces and a host of brand new smiles that are already…

2019 Is On Deck!

This year’s team is bigger, more diverse and super excited to head out to West Virginia! If you’ve been tracking with us, you know that this is our THIRD YEAR joining the wonderful people of Clendenin, WV as they continue to recover from the devastating flood of 2016. We are looking forward to reconnecting with the people and places we have grown to love in this beautiful part of the country.…

Ignition Mission-The Last Day

We had another very successful day today at the little league site! We completed the sidewalk, and overall cemented sixty feet of concrete and handled over 14,000 pounds of gravel and sand. We are so proud of all the hard work that crew one showed, and we consider this week a huge accomplishment.

Although it was a blazing hot week, we still made it through and it was an amazing experience.

The…

The Last Day of Ignition Mission

Hi Lia here. To day at Ms. Joretta’s house we started to clean and rinse more toys that we found in the garage. Around lunch time we went to see the Roxy (Me and Harrison were on the trip last year and worked at the Roxy). After lunch we cleaned out the freezer which was unplugged and had rotting meat and ice cream since 2016.

The smell was Horrible but i could stand the sight of it Heather on…

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Today our team was blessed with help from another team. When crew #4 showed up they really helped get the job done. Our team made new friends as well and we were so thankful for their help. The day before as well when our team had to dug out sand and rocks from the trucks. Crew #2 came over and stopped what they were doing to help us dig out all sand and rocks.

                         Raking the gravel and rocks                     Ms. Joretta’s garage

We stopped for lunch in Morgantown with perfect timing… by which I mean that an enormous high school group arrived right after us. Turns out, it’s a church high school youth group with 55 students and leaders from Long Island, NY. Guess where they were going…yep – Clendenin, WV! What are odds?!

The set up is pretty awesome and since we were the first crew to make it onsite we had the pick of the spaces (near the outlets – DUH!). We were set up and settled in by 4 and had loads of time to hang out with each other and the leadership team here.

  We have been given a fantastic team of NextStep Ministries staff and we can’t wait to get to know our team leaders a bit better. There are 9 work crews this week and we’ve been assigned two pretty awesome gigs.

Part of our team will head over to the Clendenin Little League field to install a sidewalk. Right now the fields are still in process, but once they are up and running the community will need them to be open to people of differing abilities. The rest of our group will be heading over to the home of a community member. We’ll have a number of jobs there and we’ll update details as they come! One small spoiler – we have one crew leader originally born in Kenya named Irene! Sound familiar to anyone? We’ll definitely be posting pics with her soon!

We wrapped the evening with a great worship and teaching session. The place is packed and the energy is incredible! Even in our extremely tired state, we can tell how God is already working in and through this incredible environment.

The theme this week is Reckless Love and tonight we  focused on the four primary principles at the heart how NextStep Ministries desires to impact the communities in which they serve: Humble Servant,  Fervent Listener, Discontent Ambassador and Zealous Developer.

We are just a few moments away from lights-out and thankfully several students have picked up on the pro-tip of “you don’t have to stay up until lights out”… #goingtobedearlyrocks

Thanks for praying for our team and checking in and be sure to stay tuned for more details as they come!

Just under a week to go

On Monday, July 15th, a team of 27 adults and students will head out on an incredible adventure to Cincinnati, Ohio. Through the Engage: Service we will be serving under-resourced communities by lending some sweat-equity to the parks department, assisted living communities, and resource centers. Our prayer is that we will serve this community with faithfulness and ignite HOPE with the authentic…

Just when you think you have it all figured out, God reveals that He may have different plans.

Just when you think you have it all figured out, God reveals that He may have different plans. If nothing else, getting ready for this year’s Ignition Mission trip has been a very real lesson for me personally in one of the tried-and-true Middle School rules – BE F.A.T. (flexible, available & teachable). So many of the plans I took for granted – the things I took as “given” – were not part of…