REACH is a national outreach program for youth organized out of Galeton, CO. Each year REACH selects 6 – 7 different locations based on need, community support, and where Christian Youth would come to lend a hand. Our parish actively sends Youth on Reach Mission trips with other adult leaders from the church, to experience first hand how to be the hands and feet of Christ.

This Sunday, July 20^th, our Reach team, 37 youth and 9 adults, will leave for Oceana, WV where the median household income is $19K, and the median house value is $51k. Our youth will learn to love as Christ has loved us, serving in His name. They will be joined by other Christian youth throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, who will also come to experience Christ’s work.

In order to go on the trip, each participant had to cover their fee of $380, as well as the Reach team had to raise $11K to cover the transportation costs. With a generous serving heart, our Reach Coordinator, Tracy Killmer, pulled together a team of leaders who organized fund raising activities, to cover the church expenses. With the creative minds of Anne Norton and Julie Hellstrom, the team successfully in raised $12K! Never in the history of our parish has the Reach team raised such funds to cover the trip. Much of this cost was covered by our generous parishioners, to whom the Reach team is grateful.

Our prayers go with the Reach team as they depart, to return next Saturday, July 26^th. They ask particularly for our prayers on Monday, July 21^st, which is St. David’s prayer day. They ask that we pray not only for our youth, but all 316 participants in Oceana that week, and all the residents houses on which they will work.