Peoria Church Mt. Mission Trip

Thirty six years ago two Jerry's from the Sanner Chapel, south of Decatur, IL., helped form a trip to missions in Eastern Kentucky. They loaded pickup trucks, trailers and vans with clothing, furniture, tools and toys to make a 780 mile trip to a places called Henderson Settlement and Red Bird Mission. The two Jerry's, Jerry Aldridge and Jerry Lillpop, continued their mission and in 1982 made a presentation to the Peoria Church of the Brethren. This year marks the 30th year Peoria has joined the Decatur area Methodists on the trip to Kentucky. The Peoria Church now comprises the majority of people, trucks and vans making the trip.

Terry Grabb and Jerry Lillpop in the photo lead the group every year. We expanded our mission to focus on Children's clothing, diapers, wipes, and other baby needs. This part of the Mission comes from the efforts of Marilyn Harshbarger. The last two trips to Kentucky have been dedicated to Marilyn's husband Jim, a big force in previous trips, who passed away the day before last year's trip.

On our arrival at Henderson Settlement this year we were entertained by the Stone Mountain Blue Grass Band, made up of local musicians.

More and more families depend on the Missions with the closing of many of the coal mines in Eastern
Kentucky. There is little other industry in the region to provide jobs to the local citizens of the area making Missions even more crucial to people living in the rural mountains.

We have already begun to collect items for next year's trip in November to the Missions in Eastern Kentucky