Greetings!

How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

1 John 3:17-18

Welcome to the St. James Mission Trip 2010 blog! St. James Episcopal Church is located at the corner of Duke and Orange Streets in Lancaster, PA. We have a long history of reaching out in the name of Christ to our local community as well as those neighbors who live across the country and around the globe.

This year's mission trip takes place from June 28th to July 3rd. Fifteen hearty souls, adults and youth, will be travelling to Elkhorn, WV, to join hands with the Mennonite Central Committee's Sharing with Appalachian People (SWAP) program. The mission of SWAP is to improve substandard housing in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, areas deeply distressed by the downturn in the mining industry.

This trip will be different from others we've taken over the past several years. The Gulf Coast devastation of Hurricane Katrina drew St. James volunteers to Mississippi on three occasions since 2005. Partnering with other Lancaster Episcopal churches in 2008, more than thirty adults and youth travelled for two days by bus to Mission on the Bay in Bay St. Louis for a week of hurricane clean-up and rebuilding. While we are troubled that there is still much work to be done there, the trip to West Virgina will put our building and rehab skills to good use without the four days spent travelling and the summer heat in the Deep South!

Over the course of the next week, you'll be hearing from some trip participants about their hopes and expectations for this trip. While in Elkhorn, we'll provide daily updates about our work and the relationships we've forged with those with whom we serve.