Columbus church has mission to Kirwan Homes


STORY & PHOTOS

By Robert K. Yosay

yosay@vindy.com

CAMPBELL

Neighborhood Ministries of Youngstown and Mountview Christian Church of Columbus combined efforts with their youth groups, spending four days recently doing in-kind work at Kirwan Homes housing development in the morning, and then running the summer youth camp each afternoon.

The church group spent mornings scraping and painting the exterior of the office at Kirwan Homes, including cleaning, sorting clothes and separating commodities for a food distribution.

In the afternoons, the church group worked with students in Neighborhood Ministries’ summer camp at Roosevelt Park. They also went on a trip to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.

Neighborhood Ministries, under the direction of Mark Samuel, has had a partnership with Mountview Church for more than 10 years, starting with a camp ministry, which continues this summer.

“They [Mountview Church] provide camp scholarships for a weeklong residential-camp experience for our children,” Samuel said.

The last two years, the church has done an abundance drive, collecting furniture, clothing and other items to be distributed to families in need.

Several teens and young adults from the church have come to the Campbell-Youngstown area to deliver donated items, but the mission trip this year by the youth group has been great, Samuel said.