Grace on the Hill youth group making the local community their mission field

This time of year typically means an out-of-state mission trip for the youth group at Grace on the Hill of Corbin. COVID-19 has made that impossible in 2020, but youth pastor Luke Osborne and his crew have found an innovative way to adapt to the situation, making their own local community the mission field.

“Our group is called Crew412,” Osborne explained. “That comes from scripture, 1 Timothy 4:12, which basically says don’t let anyone look down on you because you’re young. Instead, set an example for all believers. That is what we believe in, that we are the example of the church. And what we’re doing this week is actually being the church, helping people out.”

Osborne said that he would normally be working with an organization called Reach Mission Trips around this time to make plans for himself and the rest of Crew412 to leave town and meet up with other youth groups somewhere along the east coast. They would stay at a local school for a week, working on people’s houses who either can’t afford repairs, or cannot physically get the job done themselves.

However, since COVID-19 has made it unsafe to travel and work in large groups this year, the youth of Grace on the Hill are instead coming together to spend a week inside their very own church, venturing out each day to volunteer at a different person’s house right here in town.

“Due to the pandemic, we are now doing what we call ‘Reach at Home,’” Osborne said. “Now we are helping people in our own community, which is something that I’ve always wanted to do. The projects are smaller, but we’re not just working on one house. This week we have five houses, so our ministry can be spread out a little farther.”

As for what Crew412 does each day once they reach the worksite, Osborne said, “All of the projects are outdoors. Doing yard work makes it easy to follow CDC guidelines, and stay spread out.”

These projects include tasks such as raking leaves, sawing and hauling away fallen tree limbs and general landscaping, among other jobs. During each day’s work, a break will be taken to eat lunch on-site and share in a group devotional. Each evening, Crew412 will return to Grace on the Hill, clean up and come back together for some special programming before turning in inside one of the church’s classrooms, many of which have been converted to temporary bedrooms for the duration of the weeklong camp.

When asked about how the individual homes were chosen for this week’s “Reach at Home” mission, Osborne said, “We put the word out in our church newsletter. We wanted to reach out to our own congregation first, and some people contacted us back. I also knew some people from the work I do outside of ministry who needed help with their houses as well, so we’ve been able to help some of our church members, and also help some that aren’t church members. It is really cool to be able to do that.”

Crew412 members participating in this week’s special program are: Pierce Bowlin, Allyson Stack, Carlie McArthur, Andrew Stack, Rob McArthur, Katelyn Moses, Karen Moses, Peyton Moses, Rachel Overley and Matt Ragsdale.