From June 20-27, youth from McDonald Road Church and other area youth groups joined together for the YiELD Mission Trip to Elkins, West Virginia.

YiELD is a multi-church youth discipleship program currently involving McDonald Road Church, Collegedale Church, and Collegedale Community Church. These churches work together to provide a ministry for discipling youth in the Collegedale area. YiELD stands for Youth instructed Empowered Loved and Discipled.

During the mission trip, participants helped the community of Elkins with improvements such as painting park bathrooms and building a rock climbing wall for a local school.

Randolph County Humane Society of Elkins shared how the youth and a few locals helped as part of the Tygart Valley United Way Day of Action on June 21. “They replaced a section of fencing between two dog play yards, haul a pile of refuse to fill a 20-yard dumpster… planting flowers and flower boxes, painting a sign, swinging sledge hammers, weed eating and pulling, and getting soaked when the storm rolled through.”
Elkins City Hall shared their thanks for the YiELD volunteers on Facebook, saying, “Thank you so much to the group of volunteers from Yield… The Yield group is spending several days here helping out with a variety of cleanup and beautification projects around town and in our parks. Elkins appreciates you!”
In the evenings, the group was able to relax at Valley Vista Camp in nearby Huttonsville, the summer camp of the Mountain View Adventist Conference.

YiELD is already beginning preparations for next year’s mission trip, which will be international. Anyone who would like to get involved should talk to Pastor Geoff Starr.