Continually Amazed

Hello All,

I hope this finds you doing well with your self and your family. Life continues to amaze me. This weekend was action packed and filled with a lot of things. This morning when I woke up there was an unexpected facebook message from a former camper at Camp Bountiful expressing some concerns they had about a surgery someone is having. She reached out to about 50 people that were a part of her camping experience. That took me for a loop (in a good way.) In recent years I have been reading about the concept of community.
To me one of the greatest examples of community is Camp Bountiful. At this place a group of strangers can come together for a week of fun and fellowship and leave as family. That has and will continue to amaze me.
In most cases once the camp experience is over that connectedness does not stop. In this example some have been removed for years and yet feel the need to turn to a family of friends that has shown nothing but love and support.
The spirit works in mysterious ways.   


Have a blessed day....
-W

a community of great potential

 This is a column that will run in one of the newspapers I work for...

In my mind there is no doubt that we live in a community of great potential. We all know this community has seen it's fair share of ups and downs over the years.
What some of you may not be aware of is the people working everyday to make this community even better. 
Last Friday I had the opportunity to witness one of the great things going in this community. The Steven Hunter Hope Fund launched  it's power pack program to Northwest Elementary.
You could here the excitement in Mark Hunter's voice minutes before the program got started.
The purpose of the power pack club is to provide food for school aged children that might not have enough to eat over the weekend.
It's a sad to realize that even one child is forced to go without food for any reason, regardless of the circumstance.
On Friday there were 55 kids that received a weekends worth of food, because of this program. These kids will receive a weekends worth of food every Friday through the school year.
When the time came to give out the food Mark and Virgie Hunter watched with tears in their eyes as the children joyfully receive the food. I am confident to say I even shed a tear or two.
There was no denying what was started that day will change the lives of some needy students.
According to Freestore Foodbank of Cincinnati, "The Freestore Foodbank ended the 2010 fiscal year distributing 84,081 Power Packs to 55 sites. 2,320 children received Power Packs each week. The Freestore Foodbank is working to add new sites, with the goal of providing 130,000 Power packs to 3,500 children in 2011."
The Freestore Foodbank provides the food for the power pack program at a reduced cost. 
Steven's Power Pack is established in the Portsmouth and New Boston School Districts.
"Through this program we are helping 216 kids a week, we have very blessed though this process. It's amazing how God has a plan and if you listen to him and follow it, things happen. We feel very blessed to be here with the mini mohawks, I feel like out family has gotten a little bigger, today," Mark Hunter said.
According to www.stevenshopefund.org, "our review of statistics from the Ohio Department of Education reveal that students of the Portsmouth City School District, New Boston Local Schools, & Northwest Local Schools  are among the most vulnerable in Scioto County to suffer from the problems associated with hunger in the home.  The sad reality is that many of these children are going without proper nutrition or, in some cases, with no food at all over the weekend, their only meals being provided at breakfast or lunch through the school system."
This is one of a countless number of examples of the good things going on in this community. Because of these efforts and the efforts of other organizations that will make this community great again.

Wayne Allen may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 208, or wallen@heartlandpublications.com.
  

It's been a year...

I hope this finds you doing well with yourself and you family and friends. With all the busyness of this week an important date passed me by.
Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of my ordination. It really seems hard to believe that it's been a year. This past year has opened up a lot of ministerial opportunities.
A few highlights include, at the spring young adult retreat last year, I was asked to serve communion for the first time. I was beyond honored to get the opportunity and will continue to treasure the experience.  Last summer I was able to perform my sisters marriage. That two will continue to be an experience that I will treasure for a lifetime.
Also, last summer I was given the opportunity to say the blessing over the communion at SPEC. I also count that as an experience that will last a lifetime.
What a year it has been...I truly look forward to the opportunities that await in the future.

What a week...

Hello Friends,

This past week has been one for the record books. There was so much packed into the week that I am not sure I could explain it to you but, I will give it a shot. This past week I played camp director to 12 students from Boston College. They came and spent the week in Scioto county. While here they helped to build a Habitat house.
Before embarking on the trip none of the students knew each other. They were simply riding a bus 19 hours to Portsmouth.
On the first day they were here, we had a groundbreaking/Raising the walls/ get construction started on the house service. At that point the only thing that was at the site was the foundation and the floor. Because of their efforts the house is well under roof.
Everyday area churches and people treated the students and work crew to lunch. On Tuesday, the president of the local university came out to treat them. on Friday the local branch of Community of Christ stepped up and treated the students to lunch.
On Monday night we traveled to a camp fire and sing along. It was out in the middle of no where so it was nice for them to see what the natural sky looks like at night.

On Tuesday night the director of a local addiction recovery center came and talked with them about the area and the leaps and bounds we have come in overcoming. I was not able to join them for this because of the election but I heard nothing but good things.
On Wednesday evening we stuck around the church and played games.....It was a good time....
I did a survey with them before they left trying to get some feedback on how the week went from their point of view. When asked to see if they would do it again, all of them said yes and one person asked to see if they could do it again next week...

And now for some random pictures...

  I have to admit that when they left on Friday I shed a tear. During their stay here they made such a difference in the life of the home owner, in the life of Scioto County Habitat for Humanity and in the life of the community.