DUBOIS – Nineteen members of Christ Lutheran Church, both youth and adults, participated in a summer mission trip to the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) Disaster Response Warehouse and Retreat Center, Caldwell, Ohio, June 16-19.
The NALC Disaster Response coordinator administers the NALC Disaster Response Fund, which provides rapid response to domestic natural disasters to alleviate human suffering and provide transitional assistance to help begin the rebuilding process.
Participating in the mission trip were: Pastor John Milller, Pastor Amy Godshall-Miller, Penny and Grace Prontock, Debbie Finalle, Jim and Charmaine Dungey, Virginia and Calix Myers, Drew London, Ansen Armagost, Addy Armagost, Alexis Gibson, Marley Hemke, Madysn Sedor and Hannah, Avery, Kamryn and Tristin Fontaine.
“This was a great group of adults and youth,” said Pastor Amy Godshall-Miller. “They mixed well and worked hard.”
They were participating in Christ Lutheran’s inaugural visit to the NALC Disaster Response retreat center, a large property containing a warehouse, pavilion, retreat center and fields.
They also did not arrive empty handed. Nearly 100 flood buckets donated by members of Christ Lutheran and First Lutheran Church of Ridgway, and over 100 quilts made by the Christ Lutheran’s quilter’s group were transported to Ohio.
Flood buckets consisted of one five-gallon bucket with a lid filled with a jug of bleach, two large trash bags, a roll of paper towels, one can of scouring cleanser, one bottle of liquid cleaner, a scrub brush and one pair of each of rubber, leather and cotton gloves.
Once unloaded, these items were reloaded and shipped out by truck to tornado devastated areas in Oklahoma.
During the first day of the mission, the Christ Lutheran volunteers worked in the warehouse sorting and organizing items on palates and learning how to shrink wrap a large palate of items.
“NALC is generous with them providing good equipment,” commented Godshall-Miller. They stayed in the new NALC Disaster Response retreat center.
“It was a great place to stay offering full facilities,” said Godshall-Miller. However, the retreat center was still a work in progress. Christ Lutheran’s group stepped up to help complete the center.
Former DuBois Fire Chief Jim Dungey, who was part of the group, installed smoke detectors. Others hung exit signs, built closet shelves and installed pulls on cabinets.
Outdoors they planted flowers, erected two flagpoles, power washed and caulked the driveway and placed the new sign for the NALC Disaster Response Warehouse and Retreat Center.
“We also went out to homes in the area, allowing us to meet with the alone and lonely in the community,” said Godshall-Miller.
“We built a wheel chair ramp at one home, painted a deck, tore out bushes, pulled weeds and trimmed trees. Many of the people we visited are unchurched and each place we went we delivered a quilt and prayed with the homeowners.”
Like every Christ Lutheran Mission trip, this one had a theme, “The Christian Life: Sit, Walk, Stand,” that applied to daily devotion time.
Sit is the individual’s position in Christ; walk is the individual’s life in the world; and stand is the individual’s attitude toward Christ’s adversary.
“It was something both the kids and adults could understand,” said Godshall-Miller. The trip was not all work. The group had the opportunity to visit Lake Seneca for a cooling swim during the hot, humid days of their mission.
The NALC, formed in 2010, strives to be Christ-centered, mission-driven, traditionally-grounded and congregationally-focused.
The NALC, and similar denominations newly-formed in other Protestant traditions, were created due to the recent breakup of large nation-wide denominations established over the last 50 years.