We are excited to announce a new addition to the Appalachia team, a name you might be familiar with already. Josh Smith has decided to return to Maytown! After a few years away, Josh has felt God calling him back to the mountains where he served for the better part of ten years alongside CrossRoads and the Maytown Center.
“They say once you drink the water, there’s no turning back—and for the better part of ten years, I truly believed I would never leave Eastern Kentucky,” shared Josh on a recent social media post. Josh has a long history with CrossRoads, starting as a volunteer in high school, leading to summer internships then nearly ten years of full-time ministry. In 2020 he felt called to move home to Indiana.
While the past few years have been a time of growth and learning, he has always felt the pull of Appalachia on his heart. “Even after God called me to move back to Indiana, my heart kept returning. I found myself serving alongside CrossRoads almost every year, sometimes for 4–5 weeks a year.”
Intentional Ministry
During one of those recent trips, Josh recalls a conversation he had with a group leader about the intentionality of Jesus’s ministry and how CrossRoads emulates that example: “We talked about how through worship being a lifestyle, service being what we do as acts of worship, and then we’re discipling those we walk alongside when we do those things with intentionality.”
“CrossRoads has always had that intentionality. I felt that when I was serving in high school, as an intern I felt that, as staff I felt that. And I’m so excited to come back and be able to build alongside our ministry partners to be intentional just as Jesus was intentional. I’m excited to be able to connect with groups, with students, and with the community in Maytown and Floyd County.”
Community Connections
To lead with this intentionality, Josh will be taking on the role of Community Connections Coordinator as part of our Revive Hope initiative in Floyd County, Kentucky. This role will focus on making connections to and between churches, area ministries, the local community, and the Maytown Center to bolster and expand the ongoing ministry in the county.
An important part of this effort will be the development of after school programming at the Maytown Center. The entire Appalachia team is working on this project, with the goal of local church involvement in Maytown events. Josh shared, “There’s a lot of really cool ideas that we’re coming up with. We’re just trying to follow God’s leading through that and what that looks like throughout the next year and years to come.”
Discipling Youth
These programs will not only be a benefit for the local community and church, but will also be a part of our volunteer groups’ mission trips. “I’m excited to see a lot of returning groups this year that I’ve been able to serve with, and make those reconnections,” explained Josh.
“And just other relationships that I’ve been able to build over the first ten years that I served and have continued to invest in and continue to stay connected with those relationships. And to build new relationships. I get to watch a new generation that is growing up in Maytown get connected to the Center through the programs we are developing.”
Josh is already working with the team on these new projects and ideas before he moves back to Maytown in late January. His recent post continued, “With this transition, I will be raising support again in order to serve full-time. I’ll be working on that starting immediately and continuing throughout the coming year.
If you’d like to partner with me, please check out the website below—and feel free to reach out personally. I’d love to connect.”
Join Josh’s monthly support team now on his FUNDRAISING PAGE
Want to serve alongside us in 2026? Space is filling up fast, so BOOK YOUR TRIP NOW!
To help all of our work in Appalachia, DONATE NOW
You can also support our Revive Hope initiative directly HERE.
