Date: Oct. 24 – 26, 2008. Leaving Friday night, returning Sunday.
Destination: Mountain Marketplace Missions in Webster Springs, West Virginia.
Items needed: These will help 1000 families supported by Mountain Market Place Missions:
- Shampoo & Conditioner (Consider 6-13oz size to reach more people verses larger bulk sizes)
- Body soap
- Baby Diapers (any brand any size – please consider smaller packages such as 3 packages of 24 verses 1 of 96. The 3 of 24 will go to 3 families. The one of 96 cannot be split and will only serve one family.)
- Adult Depends (any brand any size – consider smaller quantity packages. Sealed boxes cannot be split – just like with the diapers)
- Food items to include:
- Individual boxes Mac N’ Cheese
- Individual boxes corn bread mix
- Canned food – soups, sauces, veggies, tuna, etc
- Individually wrapped Ramen Noodle
- Large Brown Grocery paper bags (Giant/Safeway type)
Date: Deliver no later than Oct. 19, 2008 (you may bring items to church on the 12th or the 19th)
Drop off location: Grace Chapel
Financial support: Of course, funds are still needed for ongoing support of Lighthouse Missions – Please prayerfully consider a donation by writing a check payable to Lighthouse Missions and place in offertory box or mail to:
3305 Tiswood Ct, Chesapeake Beach, MD 20732.
Your help is needed in the following areas. Contact Jason if you can help.
Equipment needed: Need to borrow a gas log splitter ASAP for preparing firewood for delivery to mission house.
Laborers Needed: On Saturday, October 16, we need six men to come to Chesapeake Beach, MD, and help me unload and re-load our trailer for travel. Rain or shine.
In His Service,
Jason Luby
Psalm 41:1: “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.”
Just wanted to send out a quick message, as I have a request of the Church, if someone would be willing to help, would be greatly appreciated. Let me back up and lead you to where we are now.
As the subject line indicates, this is about firewood.
Last mission trip we took to Mountain Marketplace Missions (MMM) in Webster Springs West Virginia, there was a fellow there that helped us unload our trailer of supplies and regularly helps Gary and Lilly the Director and his wife of MMM. Gary told us the story of this fellow whom I apologize I don’t remember his name, but that his heart is as big as the state and has taken in a couple families that got displaced from their homes last winter. He is also a search and rescue volunteer. He has no transportation as his truck has been broken down for a few years now and no funds to fix it.
Problem is Webster Springs and the specific area this fellow lives in is highly depressed and the only way he could heat his home was with cardboard. He was given cardboard, he would wet it, cut it in 18″ lengths and roll it wet into tight logs. He would tie off the wet logs to dry and then burn the rolled cardboard logs for heat.
Apparently this practice of burning cardboard is illegal. The police eventually did stop him from burning cardboard. This spring I had the opportunity to meet this fellow. His heart is true to Christ and the ministry in Webster Springs he just doesn¹t have the funding in his limited budget for firewood.
Now many people have asked me since then how can you not get firewood living in the mountains of West Virginia? Good question. Answer is the homes and lives in this area are highly depressed the “most” impoverished in the state of West Virginia. There is wood up in the mountains problem is getting to it and getting it to your home. The wood is inaccessible to conventional means. You can’t just drive a truck up to it. Plus most don’t have a vehicle (or a working vehicle as is the case with the person mentioned previously) and with cost of gas it’s just not possible. Plus many areas are commercially logged there are leases on the properties and you just cant get to where the wood is.
All that said, this upcoming weekend I am going on a camping/kayaking trip with a group of friends. We are planning a bon-fire on the trip so I went to Craigslist to find some firewood. I found a listing for Tacoma Park just 20 minutes from my office. When I arrived at his house Monday night I was amazed the listing just wasn’t “firewood” it is a 36″ seasoned cut Oak tree free for the taking. Talking with the home owner, I told him that we would like to take the wood to a family we know that will use the wood to heat their home this winter. If he (homeowner) would permit the wood to stay in his yard for another week next weekend and during the week we will come back and load up all the wood and haul it out. He was elated and said for the cause we can have all of it. If I had to guess maybe 2 cords worth of wood.
Here is the predicament. Lighthouse Missions needs all of the following:
1. A family or individual that would be willing to temporarily store this wood on their property until we head back to Webster Springs for mission hopefully in the next 2 months.
2. We need use of a gas log splitter many of these logs are 24 inches to 30 inches in diameter. All are cut to length but need to be split. Would someone be willing to lend/rent/ and help with splitting the logs?
3. We will need help to haul out all of the wood not this weekend but the weekend after (September 6). Location is in Tacoma Park where the wood is. My truck will be outfitted with its side rails. My truck can haul 4,050 pounds in the bed. I need help to load and unload.
We are anticipating our next mission trip within 2 months of now. Our trailer is fully loaded with supplies (just needs to be organized and re-packed for travel), we have numerous couches, tables, dressers, beds, hundreds of bags of clothes, food items, etc all in storage both in our trailer and storage shed. The trip would entail the truck with stake sides’ loaded with this firewood and pulling our trailer fully loaded. But of course as always our trip times are as the Lord leads. Funding for the trips is still needed; also fuel and food. We burn diesel fuel under full load, averaging 20,000 pound gross vehicle weight truck and trailer - we average 10mpg throughout the trips. We need families and individuals to commit to donating funds to make these trips happen.
MMM is a wonderful ministry, the Lord is using them so greatly for Kingdom expansion! Last year when we first went to MMM, Gary and Lily were meeting the needs of nearly 600 families per week. This spring they have increased to over 1000 families! Incredible and such a blessing they can keep up, the Lord is powerful and blesses MMM with supplies from many areas! As the economy gets more difficult more families barely holding on are being required to find help from ministries like MMM. Lighthouse Missions (LHM) supplies ministries such as MMM with furniture, bedding and beds, clothes, building supplies for home repairs, electric appliances, tables, desks, etc. nearly any household item (with some exclusions) to help these families. The exception includes we do not take any TV’s unless they are HD and lets face it, no one gives those away right now. All donations must be clean and fully useable. The items are loaded into our trailer and literally loaded into the receiving family’s trucks and cars. Because of the immediate delivery to waiting families, the items must be of quality condition. Cleanliness is imperative of donations.
LHM is planning a trip this fall. All are welcomed to travel with us. We can take 2 additional in our truck and any are welcomed to follow. We typically leave on Friday nights, drive through the night, arriving the next morning. I work full time, as does Marian and most that come with us; weekends are our only time to travel and deliver. The trips are long and tiring but oh so rewarding. As the date for our next trip nears and the Lord reveals the timeframe, we will be sending out more e-mails with updates. This is truly an experience, one that I have been experiencing since December of 2005 and have many testimonies to share.
Please refer to the “Ministry Links” section at the right for the MMM newsletter recently sent to us. (It is a .PDF file that requires the free Adobe Acrobat reader). The Newsletter gives updates on what is happening from their end. Please take a moment to read. The building they are talking about LHM is involved with the Architect and estimators to assist with the donation of building materials, labor, design and engineering of. It’s an exciting time upcoming in the next year to possibly be a physical part of the construction of a mission house for MMM. See the “Photos” section of our blog to view some pictures from our spring mission trip to MMM.
Please pray about your involvement with LHM and donations to LHM for upcoming fuel and food expenses. During the year, we drive nearly 10,000 miles locally just picking up from and delivering to in-state families. None of this mileage is reimbursed. Only during the Mission Trips is fuel reimbursed through donation. Please pray and consider making a financial donation to Lighthouse Missions to help support this ministry.
Likewise we have tags on our trailer that need to be re-registered. The fees involved are roughly $120. The trailer has been inspected and passed after a few repairs were made at Hitchman in Waldorf. We also need a location to store the trailer that will keep it available and safe, so please, if you have an idea of where our trailer can be parked whether you have space in your driveway/yard/property, a business or storage lot please contact us.
Thank you for all your time reading this post and please make a prayerful consideration to LHM. Please refer to the page at the right entitled “Support”. All donations are tax deductible.
Most sincerely serving Him,
Jason Luby
