Learning More About the Area

We awoke to a beautiful day.  After breakfast, Mary and Theresa headed back to the Sewing Room.  They have been so faithful and are very talented at making quilts for the beds.  The rest of us piled in the van and made several stops.

One stop was Arlie Boggs Elementary School.  They teach K-8, but only have 123 students, so their budget is not very large.  A few churches and other organizations donate food for a Backpack Program, as well as school supplies, to help with basic needs. We provided some food for the backpacks.

We were given a tour of the school.  There is a sweet spirit in the halls.  The principal, teachers and students have worked hard over the last few years.  Tests scores that used to be very low are now in the top 30th percentile in Kentucky, and they have a high attendance record, as well.  They are waiting for the test results from last year, but anticipate another banner.  

After the tour, we got to work weeding.

 

After weeding, we chatted a little with the principal and even had a short prayer.

Because of Jan's job, she was able to share with the principal how he might be able to get some additional government funding.  How cool is that!  Before we left, they gave all of us a school staff T-Shirt that says "Overcoming Odds  Prov. 17:4"!

On our way back to Solomon's Porch, we stopped at ECCO, Eolia Christian Community Outreach.  This outreach ministry serves the physical needs of people in the area, while sharing the love of Jesus.  Randy had cases of soup mix that were prepared and boxed by his Feed the Hunger volunteers, so we unloaded them.

In the afternoon, we visited the Coal Museum and went on the Portal 31 Coal Mine Tour.  It was a fascinating way to get a better feel for what the people in this town have gone through over the last 100 years.

Coal Museum

Portal 31 Coal Mine Tour - seen from a trolley inside a real coal mine

For dinner, we had a real treat.  Lonnie and Belinda Riley, the founders of Meridzo Ministries, joined us.  Lonnie wrote the book, Miracle in the Mountains, that we all read before arriving here.  It was exciting to hear more stories of what God has continued to do in this area!