Faces of the Valley: The River Church hosts campers in New Kensington on group mission trips
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New faces are a regular occurrence during the summer at The River Church in New Kensington.
The church, in collaboration with Week of Hope, a group mission trip organization based in Colorado, has been a host site for mission trips for the past 10 years.
Week of Hope has been organizing such trips for churches across the country for more than 30 years. In addition to the campers, it provides churches with supplies and assistance in running multiple one-week mission trips over the course of the summer.
Over a six-week period in June and July, The River Church has played host to different families and other church groups from east of the Mississippi River. The trips are aimed at youths between the ages of 11 and 18, who are accompanied by adult leaders from their respective groups.
The church takes in 60 to 90 campers each week of the program from Sunday night until the following Friday morning.
The River Church’s building, which used to be home to the Citizens School of Nursing, still has dormitories that get put to use by campers who pack sleeping bags, air mattresses and fans to sleep there at night.
All of the campers’ food is contained on-site in the church’s basement cafeteria. With the food provided by Week of Hope, campers make their breakfast and dinner. They pack their lunches to take with them when they go out to serve in the community.
Each day between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., campers volunteer at various locations from local churches to the Salvation Army.
Recently, campers volunteered at Reclamation Church along Ridge Avenue in New Kensington and helped to set up the inside of the building and decorate the outside, as the church looks to open this fall.
Campers also helped the food bank at the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison by loading groceries into the trunks of vehicles for recipients.
“These guys are here, they really want to work hard and it is so helpful to our community,” said Beth Kendra, assistant coordinator at the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches. The AVAC has worked with The River Church and its campers every year since the program began.
Nicky Magnelli, secretary at The River Church, is tasked with finding opportunities for the visiting youths to help in the community. Magnelli has been the coordinator for the past eight years and loves showing new campers how the program is continuing to positively affect the community.
“It’s really cool to be able to point those things out to current campers and show that: ‘Hey, this is the city that you are impacting. These are the things that you guys come for one week, but this organization gets to bless this city over and over and over again,’ ” Magnelli said.
Noah Maple, a camper at multiple Week of Hope mission trips, is serving as a project coordinator for the first time. Originally from Indianapolis, he had been on three trips in high school and knows better than anyone the impact the work can have on people’s lives.
“I grew the most spiritually over these camps, where I had to figure out things for myself and align with my own faith,” he said. “Campers are really finding what faith means to them.”
The Pittsburgh area is one of 44 locations used by Week of Hope, and it continues to draw people every year.
“People look out for each other. It’s a huge community where people love each other and care about each other deeply, and that is what makes Pittsburgh such a special place,” Maple said.
This past week was the final week of mission trips for The River Church, which will be moving to a new location this fall when it combines with Lower Burrell Church of God. They hope to find a space that can accommodate campers in order to continue the program next year.