The 2024 Mid-Ohio Valley Missions Festival was held at Wood County Christian School in Williamstown to generate interest in doing mission trips abroad. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — Many churches in the Mid-Ohio Valley support missionary work beyond the immediate area and throughout the world.

Priscilla Leavitt of Christ United Methodist Church in Parkersburg has served as the chairwoman of the annual Global Missions Festival and Expo held locally and has been involved with mission work all her life.

“There are some people who have been involved with this, like me, for so long that it is just part of the excitement of being a Christian,” she said. “(Her church) still gives over $50,000 a year.”

Part of their contributions go to particular missionaries, not just projects, Leavitt said. Some of the missionaries have come back and spoken at the church or the missions expo, held the past couple of years at Wood County Christian School in Williamstown, about the work they do.

One of the goals is getting to know the missionaries they are helping so they feel like they are a part of their church even though they may be in Africa or elsewhere.

A group of students at the Suzanne de Belpre School in Baka Village, Burkina Faso. Donations from many in the Mid-Ohio Valley helped build the school which opened in the African country in 2009 and now has 161 students. (Photo Provided)

Christ United Methodist members have gone on mission trips to Guatemala and Thailand, Leavitt said. She talked about Blessing Homes set up in Thailand where they saw children who had been used as drug mules and sex workers. The homes are places where missionaries help the kids be able to attend school and have after-school programs focused on teaching the children English and about Jesus. There are several of these facilities now.

“There was nothing there 40 years ago,” Leavitt said. “That is exciting to see, and I come home and I tell other people.”

In many cases they have to build relationships before many things can be accomplished.

Leavitt said it is important for people to do these works, because “Jesus told them to.”

“When you care about other people you grow. People who help other people are happier when you realize we are part of a global community,” she said. “We can help refugees or the people down the street.

“It is treating people with human rights and dignity,” she said. “It is about taking care of the Earth and taking care of people.”

Building a Better Burkina Inc., based in Marietta, works in providing physical, intellectual and spiritual nourishment for the children of Burkina Faso in west Africa.

It started with a shoebox of gifts for a young boy in that country that was sent around Christmas in 2004 by Donna Gaston and her husband Ted of Belpre. The gifts were being collected through Operation Christmas Child which is part of the ministries of Franklin Graham.

The 14-year-old boy wrote back to the Gastons with the help of a teacher who had taken an English course 14 years before. The teacher, Barry, also wrote a note that included his email address.

Donna Gaston began emailing with the teacher and in a short time learned he was the headmaster of a school with 210 students serving villages in extreme poverty. It was also hard for him to get the materials necessary to be able to conduct school.

“I began to have a deep desire to help the school,” Donna Gaston said.

She made presentations to the members of the Pioneer Presbyterian Church in Belpre with one member handing her a check for $500 to help get started. They collected three boxes of supplies and candy and sent them over.

Gaston received an email from Barry telling her what a difference the gifts made.

“I couldn’t understand how so little could help so much,” she said, adding it wasn’t the individual items, but it was about giving people hope.

Burkina Faso has a population of over 13 million people and is the third poorest country in the world, Gaston said. It is about the size of Colorado, and most people have never heard of the landlocked country, located north of Ghana and south of the Sahara Desert.

The church put together more boxes and sent them. They have helped with other donations of household items, including classroom furniture and school supplies from a high school near Cincinnati. The donation drive made the news and representatives of the Cincinnati Reds contributed 2,000 baseball hats. They were also able to send 26 bicycles at one point.

The organization became a 501(c)3 organization in 2008 with a 12-member board. Gaston said everything they do is through donations.

Barry has visited the Mid-Ohio Valley on a couple of occasions and interacted with kids at three schools, speaking French with students at Marietta High School and teaching elementary students at Gihon Elementary and Little Hocking things about Africa.

Other trips followed and more fundraisers were done. A retired teacher and member of Pioneer Church inherited some money and knew Barry wanted to build his own school. The person contributed $62,000 to build the school. On Oct. 2, 2009, the Suzanne de Belpre School in Baka Village was opened and included scholarships for students supplied by a family in Vienna. A doctor in Marietta contributed $10,000 to the school in 2009 to help with a water well project.

Gaston quoted 1 Timothy 6:18, “They should be rich in good works and should give generously to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them.”

Over the years, two water wells have been drilled. The school’s campus grew to include a college and more. Three teacher homes were built. The local donors helped with malaria treatment programs and helped fund other scholarship programs. Gaston and others went there in 2009 to see how their assistance has helped.

“Our relationship began in March 2004, so we are about to start our 22nd year of helping the people of Burkina Faso,” Gaston said. “Our main goal is to change the face of this Third World country through education.

“God commanded us to ‘go into the world.’ In order for us to serve Him through education, we must first provide nourishment of the body . ..you can’t learn if your tummy is in pain. Our journey has been long but God has provided all the way.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com