When the coal industry collapsed in McDowell County, West Virginia, in the 1960s, it started a chain reaction. Communities deteriorated, schools declined, and families weakened. Today, 46 percent of children in the county don’t live with a biological parent. The drug-overdose death rate is more than eight times the national average, and the incarceration rate is one of the highest in the United States.
Six years ago, Alliance Central District pastors began asking God what it would look like to bring the Kingdom of heaven to this decaying kingdom on earth. They knew such an undertaking wouldn’t be easy.
“Because of the exploitation of the coal companies, the people of McDowell County are very skeptical and resistant to help from outsiders,” says Ken Kelley, project leader and lead pastor at Stonewood (W.V.) Alliance Church.
Missionary Mindset
At first, the team assumed planting a church would be the answer. But when Chris Moles, pastor of Grace Community Chapel (Eleanor, W.V.), talked to a member of the county’s board of education, she told him, “If you want to help us, bring us Christian teachers that will show the love of Christ to students.”
So Chris and Ken began contacting Christian colleges to find teachers with a missionary mindset—a willingness to live and work in another culture.
Laura Polston, a middle-school English teacher, was first to respond. Fourth-grade teacher Amanda (Marshall) Roberts came about a month later. Eventually Tate Dudgeon, a school counselor, arrived with his wife, Mandy, a Title 1 reading teacher.
Today, this missional group of about 15 includes teachers, a construction worker, a registered nurse, an EMT, a restaurant owner, and a law student. Their shared goal is ministering to the practical needs of the community while sharing the love of Christ.
Summer Camp
After about two years of teaching, Laura and Amanda felt God lead them to also minister to high-school students. So they started a Young Life Club. Cody, a freshman, participated in the group’s first trip to camp. While there, he realized that although he knew about God, he didn’t have a relationship with Him.
After camp, Cody continued to attend Club, and by his senior year, he became an instrumental part of the ministry, inviting other kids to join as well. When he left for college, Cody began leading a Young Life group. And this past summer, he helped Laura and Amanda take teens from McDowell County to camp.
“I got to see the full circle of how he has grown and how the Lord has anointed his life,” Laura says. “I feel so privileged to see God’s hand at work in all the kids’ lives and in him specifically.”
Open House
Last year, Tate counseled Denise, an eighth-grader who had gotten into trouble at school. As they talked, he learned that she lives with her mom and dad. But when her parents are high on drugs or drunk, she lives with her aunt, whose husband abandoned her and their three daughters.
The aunt has also taken in four more girls whose mom is a prostitute and on drugs. At any given time, eight girls are living with the aunt in her trailer, and she can’t afford to feed them all.
Hearing all this, Tate figured the reason Denise did poorly at school was because she worried about what she was going to eat and where she was going to sleep. So Tate and Mandy began inviting Denise to their home for dinner and to be tutored. Pretty soon, six of the other girls were coming as well. More recently, they’ve also attended church with the Dudgeons.
Next Steps
Central District leaders are praying that “the Lord of the harvest” (Matthew 9:38) will continue to send workers to this part of the country. More than 35 full-time teaching positions go unfilled every year in McDowell County, so the opportunity is great.
“We are praying for ordinary people who are willing to use their skills, gifts, and talents to share the love of Christ with a part of West Virginia that has been overlooked and discarded,” Ken says. “The enemy has a stronghold in McDowell County, but we know that we serve the One who specializes in stronghold demolition.”
Pray the Holy Spirit continues to move in mighty ways in McDowell County. To receive prayer updates about the McDowell County Project, e-mail Ken Kelley.