Mike & Sam Kinsel
A Florida couple with Schuylkill County roots, back home to save the church their community worshipped in for nearly ninety years.
Sam & Mike, Mount Carbon, 2026
We didn’t come here looking for a project. We came looking for a way back.
Sam was born and raised in Minersville, a few miles down the road from here. Her parents, Jackie and Bob Price, went to school in Minersville and Pottsville, and the family’s roots in Schuylkill County run generations deep. She left for Susquehanna University, earned her Doctor of Optometry at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, and is an optometrist in Jacksonville, Florida today.
Mike was born in Houston and grew up in Jacksonville.
We live in Jacksonville with our four kids, and we’ve hosted short-term rental guests since 2019. When St. Francis de Sales came up for sale we were a thousand miles away, and the first thing we felt was not opportunity. It was that somebody ought to do something. This was the parish for this town. People were baptised here, married here, buried out of here, from 1921 to 2008. We bought it in December 2025 so the building would go the right way.
We are two people with a lot of stubbornness, a camera, and a phone full of numbers for good local trades. We film almost everything, we get things wrong on camera, and we fix them on camera. If you knew this church, or you know how a building like this ought to be handled, please tell us.
More than 15 years in the Marine Corps
Mike enlisted in September 2003 and served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician, ultimately with the 3d Marine Raider Battalion at Camp Lejeune. Across three continents he answered more than 150 emergency EOD calls, rendered safe roughly 75 improvised explosive devices, and is credited with saving the lives of 16 wounded people. He served on protection details for three U.S. Presidents and trained more than 8,500 military, law-enforcement and allied personnel. He continues to serve today on government contracts.
Gunnery Sergeant Michael Kinsel, USMC
Jacksonville, Florida, with roots in Minersville and across Schuylkill County.
Opening up the front of the church, putting bedrooms in the back, and keeping the building itself intact.
We’re applying to the National Register of Historic Places.
Stay up to date on our progress and booking
A note now and then, when there is something to tell.
Come and watch it happen
We film the work as we go, mistakes included.