Last spring, members of CSF decided that, instead of a long trip somewhere for a mission trip, they would stay around Morgantown and work here. Thus, MT in MT was born. We partnered with a few local organizations, one of which included The Shack Neighborhood House.

Well, this year, we decided to continue that partnership with The Shack. A couple months ago, Gary and I went met with some people from the Shack about possible projects CSF might be able to do. So far, we’ve helped two different families with various repairs.

The first family was Mary and Larry. They had some drywall damage in their bathroom due to a tree falling a few years ago, plus a light fixture needed replacing.

They are a sweet family. Larry was just starting to undergo chemotherapy and radiation but their spirits were still high. They had great faith in God and trusted that He would guide them through this phase of life. Their constant faith and positive attitude despite this obstacle was refreshing. It was great to just be able to get out and help some people. It might seem like simple stuff to us, but even the smallest of deeds can mean the world to someone. Seeing the appreciation in Mary’s eyes once we finished the bathroom was beyond amazing.

The second family was Andrea, a single mother with three kids. She needed some windows replaced as well as some trim done in her trailer, to prevent draft. A small group went up to her place while another did some more drywalling at Mary and Larry’s (since it takes more than one day to properly drywall.) The guys got to work with replacing the windows and doing trim while the gals helped play with the kids. It was close to Halloween time, and they had pumpkins, so of course, Jack O’Lanterns were made! We also surprised the oldest daughter by painting a small section of her bedroom wall with chalkboard paint. Again, it seemed like simple stuff and was done in a few hours, but to someone stretched as thin as she is, every little bit helps.

We still need to go back to Andrea’s to do some small drywall repair in the oldest daughter’s room, but that’ll be a small group project which hopefully will be done soon.

As was said in a previous blog, we want to be sure to DO SOMETHING THAT COUNTS. This is definitely one way to accomplish that. Hopefully we’ll be able to get out some more into the community and do more work, but that costs time and money. We’re working on hopefully doing some fundraising with the home WVU basketball games by working the concession stands. So, if you’re around town for a game, look for us and buy some delicious foods. Or, you can stop by our Support page and help us out there!

Ryan Butler, Intern