Life in Charleston...West Virginia that is

When I first heard Charleston on the phone when YouthWorks called me in April, I was extremely excited. The two words that followed that bummed me out real quick...West Virginia. I just knew of this as the hick state below Pittsburgh that I was taught to dislike growing up. However my experience since then has completely changed my view on this place. We drove down to Charleston from Pittsburgh on May 31. We have been blessed beyond belief everyday since arriving. We drove into the parking lot to meet Pastor Mark who immediately took us to look around the church. Even though he was not very familiar with the church (because of only being in there on Sunday mornings to preach), he still was very willing to make us feel right at home. We walked upstairs where we would be staying and it was a little warm. Immediately Pastor Mark looked at another one of our hosts, Margie, and said "We need to get the air conditioning on. Who can we call?" It was scary and very refreshing to have someone with the same intensity in those situations as my father. Since then we have been able to experience the many kinds of hospitality that the people in this community show. Over the last two weeks, we have had 3 dinners paid for (two home cooked!) and two lunches paid for. In addition to the meals, the church members thought it would be a good idea to buy us a strawberry and oreo pie...Are you kidding me? These people are crazy.
I have also enjoyed these moments with my fellow staff members. They are Jordan (Program Staff), April (Outrageous Sports Camp Staff), and Andrea (Urban Staff). We have been working hard over the last two weeks to get things ready. People probably think that to get ready you just have to make a few phone calls and hang up some signs. However, we have stayed busy from 7:30 am to 10 or 11 at night five and a half days a week.
We have accomplished such things as:
1. Setting up 8 or 9 different ministries for kids to go to (Thanks to Andrea)
2. Came up with an hour of programming for every night that campers are here (Thanks to Jordan)
3. Contacted and organized an outreach sports camp for kids in a nearby community (Thanks to April)
4. Cleaned and prepared showers for leaders
5. Built community contacts by visiting with church members, visiting the pastor in his office, going to Pastor Ealy's church service, and meeting with ministry partners
6. Cleaned and set up our Club room decorating it with hanging sheets, projector and screen, lighting, and even YE t-shirts
7. Decorated other parts of church with movie poster with MOVE pasted across, cutouts of our heads with little descriptions next to us
8. Came up with packets for our adult leaders to give them information about the ministries and our site (20 plus pages)
9. And many more things that would take me a few more hours to list...

So for now the initial planning is complete. We head down to Bluefield tomorrow to finally interact with some kids and help with their programming. I look forward to writing more about my experiences and the work God is doing here in Charleston. God Bless you all.
-Nolan