World Missions Possible Board Members Volunteer at Red Bird Work Camp
In the summer of 2008, three WMP board members, Tom McElhinney, Elaine McElhinney and Mary Meredith served at Red Bird Work Camp, a Kentucly-based nonprofit program that strives to provide home repair for low-income community residents and maintenance for mission buildings and grounds. The assigned project for the 21-member team was to do major repairs on the mobile home of a local coal miner. Like many families in the area of Southeastern Kentucky, the miner had worked in the coal mines and now must live with debilitating medical issues related to that work. The husband is now limited in the work he can do and recently lost his job as a handyman. His wife recently lost her job as well. To further complicate this situation, the couple now have custody of their 3 young grandchildren due to some very unfortunate circumstances in their family.
A great effort was put forth by our mission team. We replaced the roof on the 12’ by 60’ mobile home. This was a top priority to stop the water leaks that had caused severe deterioration in the walls and floors. In addition to replacing the roof, virtually all the floors in the home were replaced and new linoleum put down. Six new windows were also installed that required replacing portions of the walls, along with caulking, weather stripping and insulation to help weatherize this home.
Some of the money paid by each member of the mission team was used to buy materials for this project - but did not cover all of the costs, so WMP contribued $1,000 in a cash contribution. So due to the team's personal contributions of tools, time, and talents - the family can enjoy greatly improved living conditions.
