2024 Mission Trip to Buckhorn KY

 Friday - July 26, 2024 Today is Friday!  TGIF.  This day started out rather cloudy with a mist hanging over the surrounding mountain tops.  And ...oops, I'm sorry, this is starting to sound like a broken record.  I'm beginning to think a lot of mornings start off like that around here in Buckhorn.  I was hoping to see the sun come up over the mountain tops just once.   During breakfast, Pastor Peter showed us a video on his lap top of his motorcyle ride at the "Tail of the Dragon" in TN while he was on his sabbatical a few years ago.  It is a very windy road, much like what we have been driving on this week in Buckhorn. This morning we woke earlier than the other days to be ready to leave at 8:30 a.m.  A few of us stayed behind and went down to the gym while the others went up to Chevies, KY to the building we had worked at on Monday to pick up the remainder of the boxes, the ones leftover from yesterday.  The delivery team consist...

 Thursday - July 25, 2024 Hello y'all, It's Thursday and it's a special day!  It's somebody's birthday.   But let me start from the beginning. It started out as a misty,  cloudy, dreary day in Buckhorn, KY.  Don't dispair though as the sun came out around 9 a.m. and the day was off to a great start!  While we were enjoying our breakfast, Peter was still trying to fix his phone.  Dave, Lorene, Mary Rae, Geoffrey, and Sally put together today's crafts while I was eating breakfast. The crafts consisted of a Holy Water Spirit Bubble Machine and a cross with the Bible verse from Thess. 5:11, "Encourage one another and build each other up."  That's the Old Union Presbyterian Church motto. Oh, I forgot to mention earlier in the week, Mary Rae met up with us on Tuesday night.  Why did she show up so late?  Well, she was attending the New Wilmington Mission Conference, in New Wilmington, PA which ran from Friday to Wednesday.  Mary Rae ...

Our team members also enjoyed the crafts! Games with the kids  

 Wednesday - July 24, 2024 Hello y'all! Once again we started the day with an awesome group of Buckhorn kids.  Today, our group was half the size, but still the 12 kids that came were willing participants in crafts of cross beads and suncatchers.  Pastor Peter started the day with energizing songs, such as the song "I've Got Joy!"  The kids loved when Pastor Peter sang it in a giant voice, a tiny voice, and a normal voice.  He also taught the kids a song that started loud then slowly got softer and softer, though at the end of every stanza the kids (as well as the adults) shouted loudly "Tarzan of the Apes".  I think the whole Buckhorn valley was ringing with the shouting.  He also taught the kids a song about a "Moose"-with various names, "the moose called Bob was such a slob, the moose called Bruce he liked to drink juice etc.   For these songs, the kids tried, as well as the adults, to clap and learn the hand motions.  This got the ch...

 Tuesday - July 23, 2024 How y'all doing.  Welcome again to our Mission Blog! We woke to another cloudy day in Buckhorn, KY.  While some of us were up at 7 a.m. there were a few of us, hint-hint, that didn't wake until 9 a.m.  I wonder Clark, who that was?  Since we didn't need to drive to our work destination, that had caused some of us to sleep in.  We only had to walk down a short side walk to get to the pavilion, that is why some of us were able to sleep in. Over breakfast, we learned Pastor Peter worked as a DJ in a country musuc station in Somerset County (WVSC -- the Voice of Somerset County) in his younger years.  We have also learned that Carl likes white-water rafting. Getting back to our duties for today, our responsibilities were working with the local children from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  The children ranged in age from 5 years of age to 17 years of age.  For some of us, working with children was new and sometimes challenging for us a...

Crafts with the kids Games with the kids Inside the Log Cathedral, looking forward Inside the Log Cathedral, looking to the back  

Hello All,     This year's Mission Trip starts out as all the Mission trips in the past.  Pastor Peter finds the location in need of help by contacting PDA (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance).  The PDA gives Peter a list of options after scouring the areas in need of help.  Pastor Peter calls out to his parishioners and friends from other churches to see if there is an interest in going on a trip.  This year, the trip has led eleven folks to Buckhorn, KY.  This is where our story begins.  The journey started on Sunday, July 21 with an outdoor service with Pastor Peter.  After packing the van, we left Mars, PA at 11:11 a.m.    The journey started smoothly, however, down Rte 79 by the Meadows exit, traffic slowed to a crawl, down to one lane only for a few miles.  (Even though, as passengers, the slowdown seemed much longer.)  After getting through the traffic, we arrived in Little Washington for lunch at McDonald's.  ...

Happy faces in the van Happy faces, take two Buckhorn School The "Log Cathedral" Lunch break Sorting School Supplies  

 The tiny town of Buckhorn Kentucky is home to three institutions that all trace their history back to the same visionary: a Presbyterian minister from Brooklyn with a heart for children. Buckhorn Lake Area Presbyterian Church , also known as the "Log Cathedral," is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Buckhorn Children & Family Services , originally founded as an orphanage, is a Presbyterian ministry cares for children who are victims of trauma, abuse, and neglect. Buckhorn School is a K-12 school of about 350 students.  While it became a public school in the 1950's, it maintains its traditional connection with the Presbyterians.

 Thanks to the generosity of many people, including a grant from Beaver-Butler Presbytery, the trip is fully funded.  What we need most of all is prayer!  Please make prayers for safety (both for the team and for those we are working with) your top priority.  Please also pray that we can be effective in our efforts, and that our time in Buckhorn bears witness to Christ's love.

 Our work team of twelve people come from four different churches.  The team members range in age from 15 to 75, with three women and nine men.  Our team members bring with them a wide range of skills to address the challenges we will face.  The team will sleep in the bunkhouse of a children and family services ministry that the Presbyterian Church operates in the town of Buckhorn.  We will prepare our own meals and end each day with devotions and time for reflection.

 In July 2022, eastern Kentucky was devastated by massive flooding that dominated the national news for weeks.  Two years later the rest of the world has moved on, while those affected by the flooding continue to suffer.  In particular, the town of Buckhorn dealt with flooding that heavily damaged their K-12 school.  Two years later, students still have to be bussed to another school an hour away and across two mountains.  This school, which was founded by Presbyterians, is largely rebuilt but still needs work to be done in order to open its doors to students in August. Watch this news report on how the floods devastated Buckhorn Watch this news report to learn how, nine months later, not much has changed.