In This Update:

• Update from the Director
• Update from Wheelwright Center
• THANK YOU To 2020 group leaders for deposit donations!  
• Update from Leslie County Construction Ministry
• Urgent Construction Need 
• Now Hosting 2020 fall groups 
• Spring & Summer 2021 Update
• How Your Group Can Help 

Hello friends!  

We thank you for your prayers and support during these turbulent times.  As you probably know, our mission has had to cancel all our spring and summer groups.  With that decision, we were faced with much uncertainty - as those groups provide all our labor AND funding for ministry.  

In the midst of the uncertainty, fear, and chaos, the Lord provided us an opportunity to serve. Instead of the typical construction, community, and children's ministries, we placed all our focus on feeding children. Since our local children were out of school, many parents would struggle to provide the consistent meals to their kids.  Some parents didn't really care whether their kids received food.  With a state grant to provide the food, all our staff at both locations began working every day to provide a simple breakfast and lunch to our local kids.  

We all pitched in. We cooked. We packed bags. We loaded lots of boxes. We drove delivery vehicles.  We fed children. At the end of the summer, our final tally was 400,095 meals. But the numbers don't tell the whole story. 

On my delivery bus - "The Lunch Bunch" - we delivered around 600 kids lunches and breakfasts daily for 120 days.  We delivered to apartment complexes, trailer parks, and homes. Some of the children we met are living in homes that are safe and secure.  Some, though, are living in homes that would resemble "third world" living conditions. We saw drug use. We saw neglect. We saw abuse. We saw hurt. We saw hopelessness.  We saw a community desperately in need of the hope that only Jesus can provide. 

This Covid-19 shutdown has offered me a first-hand view of the conditions in our area. As the director, I often find myself stuck "at Big Creek" doing the behind the scenes work.  I don't often have the ability to see the needs first hand.  This has allowed me to meet more pastors,  meet more people, and hear the needs in our community. Now, it's time to respond.  

I hope you'll consider partnering with us as we serve in Eastern Kentucky. You don't have to be a part of a "group" or church to serve. Your family can serve with us. Your co-workers can serve with us. Your church group (seniors, adults, teens, college students) can serve with us. Whether it's for a week, a weekend, or a day, our community can use the help! 

We will be hosting groups on a limited basis this fall, winter, and spring.  We'll observe basic "social distancing" and enhanced sanitization.  Let us know if you can come serve with us! 

Thank you for your prayers and support.  

- Kevin Rogers, Director 

From our Wheelwright Center

Bubba & Tammy Roberson

Wheelwright Center Directors

Wow!  Much has happened at the mission center in Wheelwright since March.  As we were looking forward to a full spring and summer of groups and ministry opportunities we came to the slow, and sad, realization that those plans were most likely not coming to fruition.  We’d worked very hard to recruit new groups and were super excited to continue the work of the mission through our volunteers and it just ended.  It was discouraging, it was worrisome, it was difficult, and it miraculous.

When we arrived in Wheelwright in March 2019 we didn’t know one resident of our community.  Most of them thought we were the crazy Christians that had moved in.  We were looked at with skepticism and sometimes hostility.  Though we tried in the following year to integrate ourselves into the community, it was incredibly difficult to “break-in”.  We were outsiders and it didn’t seem like that was going to change.

Groups that have served with us in the past know that Bubba is a waver.  He waves at everyone.  We are from Alabama and in Alabama you get the wave, the nod, the hat-tip, the “how ya doings”; it’s just common, it’s how we do things.  Bubba is persistent in his waves.  He waved at everyone in Wheelwright, even kept a small tally on how many return waves he would receive on any given day.  Most of the time it was a big ZERO. 

What, you may ask, does this have anything to do with COVID-19 and what we’ve been doing the last few months?  Funny enough when we began the community feeding program back in March we had no idea that those simple breakfasts and lunches weren’t just meeting immediate basic needs for our residents.  With no groups and no volunteers it fell to us to prepare, pack, and deliver those meals.  Despite the coronavirus we still had a mission and a ministry, and it was up to us to see it through. Without even realizing it those meals were building a bridge between the mission, our family, and the community that God called us to serve.  We got to know these people. They weren’t just names on a home repair application or parents of a kid at day camp. They were the people WE were called to serve.  They were real people with real needs and real problems, and they became our neighbors, then they became our friends.  We were also able to open our food pantry. It became another way to help our community  and get to know the people we live along side.  After all these months I still can’t look at COVID-19 as a negative event.  It opened doors for us and broke down barriers that we weren’t able to break down on our own.  God was able to use a heinous virus to open the hearts of a community.  He’ll use anything and anyone to fulfill His purpose.  The Robersons are thankful everyday He chooses to use us in Wheelwright.  And at long last….Bubba gets his waves.  Now, someone is always stopping to say hello, blowing their horns, tipping their hats, and waving because now we are from Wheelwright and in Wheelwright you wave. 

-  Bubba and Tammy (and family) relocated from Alabama to Wheelwright to serve as center directors in March, 2019.

THANK YOU 2020 Summer Group leaders 

This summer, we were unable to host any of our teams.  This, of course, led to a loss of 90% of our anticipated funding for the year.  We want to say a HUGE thank you to the majority of our summer groups that have donated their deposits to the mission.  Although they were not able to attend this summer, these teams gave up their deposits to keep the mission alive!!  Without those donations, we would have been in a huge bind.  

Thank you, 2020 group leaders, for your patience during these trying times.  We are so grateful for your willingness to support this mission even when you and your church may have been struggling.   

- Kevin Rogers, Director 

Leslie County Children's Ministry Update 

Ashton Rouse

Children's Minister 

Although we couldn't have any day camps this summer, we were still able to love on our kids in other ways. Through the limited daily interactions during food deliveries, we were able to feed, encourage, and love our kids.  We were also able to identify needs - one of which was shoes!  One of our summer staff, Lexie Vesser, and her church, New Covenant Baptist Fellowship in Knoxville TN, was able to gather 300 NEW pairs of shoes to give to our local children!   Also, many churches and individuals have given an abundant amount of school supplies to provide to our local schools as needed.   We couldn't do this without our volunteers and community.   Thank you for all the love that you share!  

- Ashton has served on summer staff several years, and has moved from Mississippi to Big Creek to help tutor and minister to local children

Leslie County Construction Update

Garry Ostrander  

Construction Coordinator

Starting back in December 2019 we in the Construction Ministry began to look forward to the upcoming Construction season with high hopes of many projects completed. Our hopes slowly came crashing down as we began to see the coronavirus take hold of the nation and the realization sunk in that we would be extremely limited in the scope of what we could accomplish in 2020. We literally have hundreds of applications in our system and many of them with some pretty serious needs. As we began to meet with homeowners and let them know that it was unlikely that we would be able to work on their homes any time in the near future the reaction was one of overwhelming support for ministry and for what we have done in the past for the community. Most of the people we came in contact with seemed to be more concerned about our Mission than about their own state of affairs. 

    Eventually the Construction ministry was mostly absorbed into the Summer Feeding Program. We were able to help out in many different ways there as well as still completing some emergency repairs on homes in the afternoon hours. One of the exciting things to see was at the end of the year when our college help began to head back to their home states we had some of the local community step in to help fill in the voids. This was a great inspiration to me as I saw people in the community who we had helped along the way as well as local youth and some churches whom we had contact with in one way or another jump in and serve along side us as we fed children in the community on a daily basis. Sometimes it takes some hard times to  bring people together even though you live right next door to them. Even though my Construction year didn’t quite turn out the way we planned back in December, we still were able to provide some minor emergency repairs in the community as well as meet a lot of great local kids.(When we worked on homes in the community, our team members followed social distancing guidelines.) Seeing the community step up was huge. I’m looking forward to the next year no matter what happens because I know there are people who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us even in hard times.

- Garry (and his family) relocated from Michigan to serve as Construction coordinator in 2017

Matt & Rebecca O'Neal 

Construction Ministry 

Big Creek Missions summer was booked full of volunteers who planned to come and serve. Lessons and field trips were planned for day camps. The construction team was planning out the projects they were going to complete. Plans… Sometimes God laughs at our plans.

Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This is a great verse, but far to many times it is taken out of context. This doesn’t mean that as we follow Christ, everything will fall into place how we plan. Life may not go the way we think it should. But we can rest assured that if God is in control of our lives, He will guide us through the difficult or different times. Isaiah 55:8-9 says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

This summer was not what we had planned. But through God’s plans, good still came about.

The construction team helped daily to prepare, package, and send out meals to the children of Leslie and Clay County. After meals were sent out, our six construction staf would work on a very few emergency construction projects in the community. Scotty’s house was one out of many who’s was worked on. He says “I just want to thank Big Creek Missions for the work they did on my home during the summer. They did an awesome job. Even though this was a hard time for them, they still provided for others.”

Unfortunately, our construction staff weren't able to meet nearly as many needs as we would have liked.  We did the best we could to at least fix some of the more serious problems.  

We also enjoyed working with local people who volunteered daily in picking up the meals and handing them out to the children in their community. Their countless hours of work did not go unnoticed. Pat, one of these volunteers said, “I would like to thank Big Creek Missions for providing lunches for 72 kids daily in the Bullskin and Oneida area. We got to deliver the lunches for them. It was a blessing and a pleasure. The kids would be waiting each day. During the shutdown, Big Creek Missions continued to reach out and help others.”

A couple of other families were asked regarding the meals given, and a grandmother said her grandchild would ask everyday if lunch was coming for that day. Another child said “I liked the different things in the bag, we didn’t have that much food at home.”

Even though times are different and hard right now, there is no excuse not to seek God to see what He wants us to do for His Kingdom and His Name. What can you do for Jesus today?

-- Matt and Rebecca (and their family) relocated to Big Creek from Pennsylvania, and are raising their own support.  They have served with Big Creek since March, 2019

 You can serve with us this fall or winter - we're open! 

We hope you, your family, your church, your friends will come serve with us.  We have SO many projects in need of attention.  We are very aware of the social distancing and sanitization requirements of the CDC and state of Kentucky and will work with your team to provide a safe environment as much as possible.  

You can stay for a day, a week, or longer.  You can choose when to arrive and depart.  View more information at www.bigcreekmissions.com/anytime

How will Covid 19 affect future Big Creek Groups? 

We are watching the Covid 19 developments every day.  As we learn more about the virus, we will respond accordingly.  Here are some of the changes for future groups: 

• We are temporarily reducing overall capacity  (This won't affect spring / fall groups, as we rarely approach capacity) 
• We are working to improve ventilation throughout 
• We are emphasizing handwashing and sanitizers as needed 
• We have always emphasized sanitization: and will do so much more now!  
• We will work with group leaders to "distance" between groups as necessary 
• We will limit our work in the community so we can prevent virus spread 

We will view developments and update our policies for summer 2021 as needed.  

What are some specific ways my group can help? 

• Construction Needs!  (See below!)  We are in desperate need of construction teams to help us catch up on home repairs in the community 
• Home Visits!  We can send teams out to do welfare checks in the community.  We've not been able to visit many of our local shut-ins.  We will social distance as necessary 
• Mechanics!  We need help repairing and maintaining our vehicles and buses.  Oil changes, suspension / steering repairs, and more 
• HVAC!  We need help at our Wheelwright center rerouting the duct work 
• Paving!  We need help at our Big Creek center with paving! 
• Painting!  We need to paint our sleeping rooms at Big Creek! 
• Carpet cleaning!  We need a professional carpet cleaner for our Big Creek Center 
• Plumbing!  We need help replumbing / rebuilding our  Wheelwright Center kitchen!