Field Notes
Love in Action: A Week on the Ground in Welch, West Virginia
Five of our guys just got back from a week in McDowell County, West Virginia serving with Love in Action, an annual outreach led by Evangelist Gerald Mayhan through Gerald Mayhan Ministries.
Gerald is a Vietnam veteran, a Teen Challenge graduate, and an Assemblies of God minister who's been running this event in his home county since 2010. McDowell County is one of the hardest-hit areas in Appalachia. Poverty, addiction, and generational despair are the norm, not the exception. Gerald goes back every year because he came from there and he knows what it takes to reach people who've been forgotten. We've written before about what the addiction crisis looks like in rural Appalachia, and this trip put our guys right in the middle of it.
Our guys spent the week doing street evangelism. Going door to door, handing out flyers, talking to people right where they were. Some conversations were quick. Some were long. All of them were real. The week built toward a tent rally on Saturday out in a field. Worship, preaching, and an altar call under an open sky.
These are guys from our program in Mount Jackson, Virginia walking up to strangers and sharing the gospel. That's the whole point of discipleship. You don't wait until you're "ready." You go because Jesus said go, and you trust that He'll use what He's already doing in your life to reach someone else.
Gerald has been doing this for decades. The fact that Teen Challenge students from the Shenandoah Valley got to serve alongside him in Welch is exactly the kind of partnership that makes this work worth doing.
If you want to learn more about Gerald's ministry, visit geraldmayhanministries.org.
If your family is looking for help with addiction in Virginia, visit our Get Help page or learn more about what we do.
Hear more about what discipleship looks like on the ground: Rebuilding Life After Addiction podcast.
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Justin Franich
Justin Franich is a former meth addict, Teen Challenge graduate, and pastor who has been clean since 2005. Today he's a husband, father, and Executive Director of Shenandoah Valley Adult Teen Challenge. He hosts the Rebuilding Life After Addiction podcast and helps families across the U.S. navigate faith-based recovery options, compare programs, and rebuild life after addiction.
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