Domestic Ministry!

9.20.25 — 9.26.25

Hey guys! Update time!

As I mentioned on my last blog, we did a week of domestic ministry in Black Mountain, North Carolina. This looked like living in big army tents and RVs for the week, and going out with our teams every day to go do work on houses.

As many of you probably know, just over a year ago, North Carolina was hit by Hurricane Helene. This caused significant and detrimental damage to many homes and the impacts were absolutely devastating. Getting to hear people’s testimonies and stories about this tragedy was heartbreaking.

We started off the week at an elderly couple’s house, putting in counters, fixing cabinets, and doing little fixes. We were fortunate enough to meet Dudley, the homeowner, who expressed how excited he was to get back in his kitchen and dance with his wife! It made us happy to dance around his kitchen as we worked, knowing he would soon be able to do the same! There wasn’t a whole lot that our team was able to actually help with for the first couple days though, which was a blessing in itself because we were able to really strongly connect as a team. Although we had a little bit at training camp, domestic ministry provided the space for us to be with only each other and go deeper on another level, which was great! And it was so fun being able to dance around while we worked, laughing and joking, but also while having deep conversations. I’m very grateful for the time it gave us.

The second half of the week, we worked on this trailer home. Here, we had to crawl under the house and remove all the old insulation as well as putting in new insulation. We were fully suited up with masks and goggles, but somehow still ended up covered in dirt and fiberglass. It was a tight space and we had to lay on our backs or stomachs to remove it and put it in, which was difficult. Dust and insulation pieces would fall onto us as we worked, and we were absolutely filthy! On the first day, it also rained a lot, so we were covered in mud! But we did get to meet the homeowners, who had a little three year old girl, Iris, who got cold feet at night. Knowing what we were doing for these people and how we could share Jesus’ love was so beautiful and made it so worth it. And of course we had our fun as well! Team Charis seems to be especially good at that! So we had many fun moments of dancing in the rain and mud, getting to play with Iris, and even just laying under a house for hours and chatting as we worked. It was also cool to have the opportunity to learn how to work with insulation! I would never have expected I’d end up here!

After our long days of work, we got to hang out with each other and the families who are a part of this work. We had many evenings of chatting, games, competitions, ice cream and cookie dough, and playing with kids in the big community tent! We also got to participate in this thing called prayer walking, which you could sign up for at any hour of the night, and that was cool as well!

Another blessing was the two service leaders we worked with. Dante and Garrett, who were both from Texas. They each had so much wisdom they shared with us, and left us doing a devotional book called, The Upmost for His Highest by Ozwald Chambers, and this devotional has genuinely transformed a lot of the ways I think! If anyone wants to check it out, I highly recommend it!

We left this week exhausted, but also feeling so filled up by God, each other, our teams, and each and every person we interacted with. I can’t wait for our week of service next spring after we’re back!

Thank you all so much for your continual support and prayers. It means so so much to me! Sending lots of love to you all!

Much love,
Kezia ❤️