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| Purpose: To teach the spiritual discipline of servant-leadership and increase the awareness of Christ-centered community transformation by doing mission work in West Virginia.
Sponsors: World Vision, World Servants, Appalachian Community CARE, and Young Life
Where: Chestnut Ridge, Philippi, and surrounding communities in West Virginia
Who: Youth Groups and Congregations in Partnership with World Vision.
Cost: $350 per person or $175 for those 8 and under, plus a per-group donation for building supplies:
| Group Size |  | Minimum Donation |
| 1-8 | | $ 500 |
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| 9-17 | | $1,000 |
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| 18-26 | | $1,500 |
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| 27-35 | | $2,000 |
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| 36 & up | | $2,500 |
Cost Covers:
· Housing
· All Meals
· T-Shirt and River Trip ($35 extra for white water rafting)
· Worship and Devotional Materials
· Cross-Cultural Mission Training for group leader April 23-25
· Project Set-Up and Staffing
· Community Set-Up and Leadership Development
Cost does not cover travel to and from West Virginia |
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| Vision Appalachia’s Community Transformation Initiative |
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| Vision Trip 2004
Your mission team will come alongside leaders in the Chestnut Ridge community of West Virginia, assisting with completing the Chestnut Ridge Community Center and working with the congregation of Peoples Chapel Church to finish a Family Life Recreation Center. Completion of these projects will mark the 20th anniversary of World Vision’s commitment to the Appalachian ministry. During the summer of 2004, our goal is to train and deploy 400 volunteers of all ages and experience from a variety of congregations around the country. During your mission week, you also will have opportunities to participate in specialized children and youth outreach ministries, such as sports camps, outdoor concerts, community gatherings, and Bible Clubs for kids.
Vision Appalachia’s Community Transformation Initiative includes integrating short-term mission teams into the process of community building. As a holistic ministry, Vision Appalachia is focused on helping small communities, churches, and their leaders develop significant and relevant Christ-centered outreach ministries that address the spiritual, educational, physical, social, and financial needs of the communities served.
The Appalachian Community Transformation Initiative is a community-based ministry that seeks to address the long-term, root causes of hopelessness in small rural communities suffering from insufficient resources to effect change. Building on 50 years of experience in rural communities around the world, World Vision and Vision Appalachia’s ministry partners have designed a dynamic ministry that develops and empowers community leaders to meet the needs within their neighborhoods. Your team is a significant part of this strategy as you participate in short-term mission projects that build long-term partnerships to advance the kingdom of God in Appalachia. As a result of this partnership, lives will be changed not only in Appalachia but also among your team members. Each mission team is asked to join the Chestnut Ridge Community Transformation process by uniting with the community to provide volunteer labor and to raise funds to purchase building materials. Your contributions will enable these projects to be constructed at less than half the normal cost.
Community transformation focuses on changing many lives—one person, one family, one community at a time. Greg is one of many individuals whose life has been transformed through World Vision’s work in Appalachia. A life-long resident of the Chestnut Ridge community, Greg was caught up in the energy of our summer mission projects a few years ago. Soon Greg was coming to church and committed his life to Christ. Today, he’s a full-time youth outreach worker with a vision of using recreational programs to engage young people throughout the area. Your team will be working with Greg this summer – impacting the lives of local youth in the name of Jesus Christ.
The challenge of reversing decades of decay and hopelessness in small communities is being met as rural community leaders join with energized volunteers from churches across the country. Together, these leaders can accomplish things that otherwise would not be possible. World Vision’s Vision Trip 2004 is calling groups as Nehemiah was called to rebuild the walls of the Jerusalem. In Appalachia, we are calling church teams to help rebuild lives with new hope as we construct ministry facilities and encourage the leaders and future leaders of the Chestnut Ridge community. Please join us as together we extend Christ’s love to people in need. |
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| About Appalachia |
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Appalachia is a 200,000-mile-square region that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to northern Mississippi. The region is large, covering 399 counties in 13 states. These include all of West Virginia and parts of 12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The region’s culture has been greatly influenced by geographic isolation. Years ago, pioneering-spirited Europeans followed in the footsteps of Native Americans to forge homes in remote hollows, building their communities along remote streams and rivers. Although the region’s original settlers represent the Dutch, Irish, English, and some French, the largest groups in number and influence were the Germans and the Scot-Irish.
While the culture’s history represents a fascinating combination of the American experience, today this area often is stereotyped because of its heritage: dialects, specific rural lifestyle, subsistence agriculture, godlessness or godliness, family feuds, excessive parental affection, industrial work, exploitation of labor, and a severe lack of resources. What many people do not realize is that Appalachia includes thriving cities such as Pittsburgh and Birmingham and is contiguous to Atlanta, Cincinnati, and other major cities.
On the other hand, of the 399 counties in the Appalachian region, significantly more than half are rural. More than 25 percent are considered distressed by the Appalachian Regional Commission. Thirty-two percent of the population resides in these rural counties, compared to 15 percent in the total U.S. population living in rural counties. The majority of the population is white; 7.3 percent are African American; and less than 1 percent is Native American.
Most of the people who live in Appalachia are descended from strong, independent, and hard-working individuals. In the last 30 years, these communities have experienced a painful break with the past as industries that once produced numerous jobs are gone. In many cases, no new industry has replaced the lost opportunities for employment. These economic challenges are the reason your help is needed in Appalachia. The focus of World Vision is to bring a hand-up, and the message that our Lord means for all of us to live a full and abundant life. Thank you for joining us as together we share Christ’s love with the people of Appalachia.
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