WATERLOO -- During the week of June 22, 18 local students and three chaperones embarked on a mission trip to Mingo County, West Virginia. The event, organized by St. Paul's Lutheran Church, ELCA, was the largest trip the congregation had sent students on and contained a variety of individuals. Students from St. Paul's, St. John's Lutheran Church, WELS and Holy Family Roman Catholic Parish all of Waterloo and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church,ELCA of Marshall participated.

The trip was the farthest traveled since the program began in 2010 with the participants spending a night in Columbus, Ohio on the way down and Champaign, Ill. on the way home.

While in West Virginia missionary work included: cleaning, painting, putting up siding and sharing meals with the families the group was serving. Students and chaperones also visited a local nursing home and worked with children at a kid's club, along with spending a couple of evenings learning about the mining wars of the 1920s and line dancing.

"It was great to see the youth working together and interacting with local residents. They really built a relationship with them throughout the time we were there. The youth expressed how much their eyes were opened through their experiences with the community in Williamson, W.V.," said chaperone Laura Crave.

"We worked with Zelma on painting her porch and cleaned her yard. She was 93 years old and loved to tell stories about her long life," said Austin Weber. "The members of St. Paul's have been generous in supporting our youth mission trips since 2010.

Support for the youth mission trips has been raised through individual donations, fundraisers within the congregation and fundraisers in the community. This year, the youth from St. Paul's invited several friends from other community congregations to join them, creating an extensive community outreach," said Rev. Robb Kosky.

YouthWorks, a group that organizes Mission Trips, including St. Paul's, generally charges between $250-$300 per person. St. Paul's has always paid for the adult chaperones from fundraising and families pay a deposit for each student. The other primary expense is transportation. This year there were some additional costs related to the distance traveled and the cost for the 2015 Mission Trip was approximately $9,200 or $512 per student. The trip could not have been made without the generous support of the congregation.

Individuals attending were chaperones; Arlene Schemm, St. Paul's; Crave, St. Paul's; Kosky, St. Paul's; Students: Logan Braunschweig, St. Paul's; Dawson Cole, St. Paul's; Lexi Duessler, St. Paul's; Tristin Duessler, St. Paul's; Brianna Farwell, St. Paul's; Laura Farwell, St. Paul's; Tyler Hargarten, St. John's; Cassandra Hollatz, St. Paul's; Christie Hollatz, St. Paul's; Cassidy Mattson, St. Paul's; Peter Miller, Holy Family; Bailey Stone, Holy Trinity; Hannah Stone, Holy Trinity; Morgan Stone, Holy Trinity; Wes Swarztrauber, Holy Family; Karley Tesmer, Holy Family; Austin Weber, St. Paul's; Cole Weber, St. Paul's.