St. Matthew UMC Alpha Omega Youth Group

We arrived at Melber Baptist Church in Kentucky! We are settling into our lodging after getting dinner in town, and we are excited to join Melber Church for service tomorrow. 

We kicked off our morning by attending the service at Melbor Baptist Church, which is where we’re staying for our trip. It was so wonderful getting to know the church and its members. The warm welcome and uplifting service made us feel right at home.

After the service, we decided to have a grill out and invited the church members to join us. It was a blast! We had delicious food, great conversations, and plenty of laughter. It was a fantastic way to connect and build community with our new friends at Melbor Baptist.

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We’re looking forward to more amazing days like this one!

Today after lunch, we had a blast exploring Paducah! We enjoyed some beautiful views at the lake and then took a fun stroll around downtown, checking out the local shops and historic sites.

What a way to wrap up our day! Tonight, we had the awesome opportunity to attend the evening service at Grace Life Church. They graciously invited us to join them, and we're so glad they did.

Pastor Chad shared an inspiring message that really spoke to our hearts, and the worship was absolutely uplifting. It's amazing to see how God works through different congregations, and we're excited to serve alongside the folks at Grace Life Church this week.

Can't wait to see what else this week has in store for us!

We were blessed with the opportunity to serve at starfish orphan ministry today. We organized donations like children’s toys and bunk beds, did some cleaning, and sanded the steps before painting them. We saw God at work in the service of others and we did it with the joy of the Lord in our hearts!

We broke a sweat while moving scrap metal that needed to be discarded at Starfish orphan ministries and we did it all with a smile on our face knowing the hard work was all for the Lord. And we had some fun while doing it!

Over the past several years Graves county has been struck by severe tornadoes and Community Fellowship Baptist Church has been a faithful servant in providing the community with necessities especially diapers! They began with 5 shipping containers of diapers and today we helped them move out some of the last ones, sort them, and distribute them to members of the community. And we had a blast doing it and meeting people!

Today we were back at Starfish Orphan ministries. We worked hard alongside the other volunteers and moved a ton of scrap metal from the basement to a truck and then unloaded those trucks at a recycling facility. The money received for recycling the scrap metal is going straight back into the ministry for the furthering of God’s kingdom through taking care of orphans and widows.

We also served at Starfish in other ways like cleaning a supply closet, sorting donations, and finishing up the painting of the front steps. It was hard work but was wonderful to love on the community of Paducah in the beautiful state of Kentucky. 

As well as painting the stairs, we had several “put down the paintbrush” ministry moments throughout the day and built some lasting friendships with the staff and other volunteers at Starfish.

In the evening we served at Catalyst Community which is a food truck that gives away free hot meals to people in the community. We had a great time playing with the kiddos, fellowshipping, and sharing the love of Jesus through food! We had some great prayer time at the end with the people who run the ministry and we all felt very encouraged by it!

The Lord truly is good all the time, even when we get tired on our third day of ministry. Today we served with Starfish Orphan ministries again. Most of us were sorting and rolling up clothes to take to El Salvador to children there. It is amazing to see how much this community cares about serving all of God’s children all over the world. 

Also at Starfish today we took on the not so small task of installing curtains to cover the massive windows in the back of the warehouse to keep it from getting so hot for the people working back there.

Today we served with Catalyst again, this time doing a kids camp for children in the community. We had so much fun with our ninja warrior theme getting our wiggles out in the bounce house and learning how God protects people like a ninja does. We did lots of crafts and made so many new friends. 

Sadly enough our trip is coming to an end, but by the grace of God we know that it is not goodbye forever. It has been a wonderful week full of God’s glory and faithfulness. We have made new friends, encouraged our brothers and sisters in Christ here in Kentucky, and were encouraged by them more than we can express with words. We are headed back home now but will never forget the experiences and lessons we’ve learned on this trip. Pray for safe travels!