These three amazing people worked tirelessly to recruit 3 other leaders (Chad & Christin Delaney & Carol Magyarics), as well as seek out high school youth that may be interested in serving:

The rest of the story can be found in the posts and photo gallery below. Thank you all for your prayers, support, donations and love! We HOPE you enjoy seeing what these awesome young people accomplished in just 5 days!

Fundraising & Skill Building

Day 2: Job Site Assignments and First Full Day

Wow! How do you put into words what an AMAZING day today was?!?
Team Pam – Fed us all the most amazing and fortifying breakfast to start the day off strong.
Team Dave & Christin – painted 11 doors and 4 bifold doors after dismantling, clearing space, and accordion-joining them.
Team Chad and Carol – the girls texture stomped the ceilings of 5 rooms after taping each of them. Chad and CJ cleared debris from the cellar, swept and shop-vacced the entire area.
The enthusiasm, endurance, and excitement of our youth just leave us speechless.
If you ever have a chance (or need) spend some time with these young adults. They are doing great things! Happy 4th of July!

Day 3 in Dayton:

More of the same…

The Strader house has had to put the siding task off due to rainy days, but has been very busy hanging all of the doors that they painted, putting on all the hardware for the doors, and replacing wallboard in the shower.

The Smith Street project is moving along nicely, and the youth are building some wonderful skills. They knocked down the ceiling texture in 4 rooms, cleaned up debris, wiped the walls and began painting ceilings. The guys are in the cellar and after MUCH prep work, was able to get the first coat of paint on the floor! What an improvement.

Pam has been feeding us the most amazing meals after spendings the days shopping and prepping. Audrey provided us with a great find in Young’s dairy farm and fun for the evening activity. We were able to pet the livestock, hit some softballs and baseballs, and show our skills on the driving range! The ice cream was a treat!

Another outstanding day in the books!

Day 3 – Evening Out at Young’s Jersey Dairy & Family Fun

Day 4 – Grinding it out!

Day 4 had us back at the same locations… finish painting the ceilings and cellar floor, scraped the front steps and porch, cleaned up and prepped for day 5 at the Smith house.

The Strader house crew hung ALL of the many doors that the painted the previous days, tore out the wrong drywall and reinstalled the correct drywall in the bathroom. The rainy day made it a bit difficult to get things done but many improvements were still made!

After a busy day, we enjoyed our special meal out at Hickory River Smokehouse. It was yummy! Games of the Man in the Lighthouse and Draw a Line were mindboggling… just ask Pam!

Back at the church we had an outstanding devotional, connecting with one another while discussing hope. Oh, the memories we made today!

Days 5 & 6 – Down the homestretch!

In typical mission trip style, we were so busy from 6:30am-1:00AM (yes AM yes only 4-5 hours of sleep each night), that we couldn’t get out updates on Thursday and Friday.

The Smith house crew continued to tape and paint. Skills were definitely learned and patience was definitely tried, but it turned out amazing! We met our goal of getting the kitchen ready for the crew that was to come in today, Saturday, to hang the kitchen cabinets… the “gravy was also getting the first coat on in the bedrooms and hallway.

The weather finally improved and allowed the Strader house crew to be reassigned to the job that was originally scheduled for them.

At 30 Greacian Ave, a lot of debris had to be moved so a dumpster could be offloaded in the yard. Everyone learned how important it is to start off siding straight and level, how to use heavy cutters and how to nail, how to cut around windows and exterior outlets. On Friday, part of the crew moved inside to drywall above ductwork – a very tedious and difficult task. Josh took a leadership role in supervising the installation of the siding on the front porch.

Our Thursday evening activity was fun at the church playing softball, kickball and ultimate frisbee games with a surprise visitor – mission trip alum, Danny Magyarics.

Our Thursday evening devotional was full of tradition where our senior high school members lead the final trip discussion/service. CJ Delaney being our lone senior, planned and moderated the event. It was full of candle lighting, scripture, discussion, sharing, Communion, music, crying, hugs, and much love.

We want to thank CJ for his years of leadership and thoughtfulness and wish him well as he heads off to Ohio Wesleyan in the fall. He has been a leader and our CYF rock and will be missed for sure!

After a full morning of work at our sites, we cleaned up, packed up and hopefully left the church better than we found it. We showered (thank goodness) and loaded our vehicles to head home, concluding another amazing mission trip.

Our youth and leaders want to thank all of you who were praying for us, supporting us either monetarily, with food donations or with your prayers.

We also want to thank:

-Pam & Dave Auble who brought this opportunity back to us after their Dayton mission trip this past winter.

• Audrey Jackson for researching, planning, scheduling, and coordinating the details of the trip.
• Roger & Linda Hurd and Pam & Brandon Baynes for the use of their minivans for the week.
• Nora Brant for the abundance of delicious cookies.
• Ryan & Carly Lind for the overflowing bin of fresh greens and vegetables from their garden.
• Our site director, Ben and site coordinator, Jaye for their special talent of coordinating and connecting with all of the volunteers.
• United Christian Church in Clayton for their willingness to open their church and provide a comfortable & clean place for volunteers to lay their heads at night
• The Clayton YMCA for making their showers available (oh what a blessing this is!)
• The Week of Compassion and Raiza Spratt, Disaster Response Organizer… without this team of loving people, the trip would not have been possible. We continue to pray for the work that they are doing in our world!

Games & Closing Devotions

See more fun & games recorded by “Johnny” aka Danny Magyarics at https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AJF1t43%5FpvlS3s0&v=photos&id=C152CB3F0466BF02%211931&cid=C152CB3F0466BF02

To continue following what these youth are doing and have planned in our communities, follow us on Facebook at CYF Missions & More. If you have or know of high school youth who would like to get involved with the CYF group, please email Pastor Chad Delaney (Mantua Center Christian Church) or Rev. Chris McCreight (Hiram Christian Church). ALL ARE WELCOME!