Blog from Appalacia Reach Mission Trip: July 3-8th, 2011

APPALACIA REACH MISSION
Black mountain in Kentucky represents a lot of things. It is the gateway to Harlan county and the fastest way to get to the destination for our regional Reach mission this past week. This mountain brings so much to mind as you ascend through the twisty switchbacks being careful not to drop a tire over the edge. Ask one of our 20+ team members Greg Henderson what that's like, as he towed the Foothills Community church trailer completely loaded down with thousands of lbs. of furniture, rugs, home items, cases of frozen foods, diapers, cases of toothpaste and tooth brushes, clothing, construction supplies, and more.

This mountain is legendary. Many of the locals in Harlan county find some other way to get to certain places if possible, so they do not have to make the mountain run. As you drive over the mountain you see incredible natural beauty, contrasted by huge areas where the mountains are still being stripped and mined for coal. I guess that is one reason for calling it “black” mountain, but the other is the fact that there are black bears all over the mountain. We'd heard about it, but found this out first hand on our drive back as a young black bear ran out in the road in front of our convoy.

Our mission on this trip was simply to serve. To be Jesus to all those whom we could whether they were followers of Christ or not. God assembled a team of over 20 people with hearts to do just that. We knew it would be hard work going in, but most on the team did not know how God would use them until after we arrived. As the hours and days unfolded, each person's particular giftings became evident and I found them crucial to our mission. It was simply amazing to watch as opportunities became available which were perfect for specific team members. If you asked some of them,
they would be humble in their response, but the truth is that we needed people to do everything from cleaning, painting, insulating, dry walling, electrical installation and repair, plumbing, floor repair, home visits to shut-ins, nursing home visits, park outreach, music, yard mowing and mower maintenance, carrying heavy loads, food pantry service, cooking, entertaining lonely elderly people, and more.

On a trip like this, there is always opportunity for team members to complain about various things, but this team was filled with non-whiney, hard workers who took advantage of opportunities to serve where they knew they could be used best. Complaints were few. That is good, because mission trips can be very miserable if the team is full of even a couple complainers and whiners. I always try to prepare people for what they will encounter, but when it is 100 degrees in a house and you are sweating profusely for hours trying to get something done...that is where the rubber meets the road so to speak.

We had lots of opportunities to do repairs and building on homes, and for the men on the trip (and my wife Sarah) this was an easy fit, although there were plenty of moments to try and learn things in construction some of us may not have ever done. It simply worked...From our electrician Joe Atkins pulling wiring and getting the electrical in a house and pump house ready, to Will Black, Greg Henderson, and David Ezell getting pretty much involved in everything from drywall to framing, to roofing and plumbing. The younger ones Savannah, Jonah, Zak, Christian, Brett, and Helena helped so much and experienced serving like never before, along with learning some new things in construction and doing park outreach. Savannah was so focused on getting a room finished painting and clean that she did not want to leave one afternoon until she was done. That is dedication to the cause!

One of the homes we worked on was for a woman who is in a tough situation, living with her daughter's family in a single wide trailer. Her name is Ouisa and she had small house up the hill from her daughter's trailer, but as you can see in this pic it needed tons of work. Ouisa had no income or way of making the house live-able. Another team had been in and worked on making a kitchen addition, but there was no plumbing, wiring, insulation, or drywall on the addition, and there were other walls that needed drywall or patching. The first thing Sarah noticed was a large rat or mouse hole that had been chewed through the drywall on one wall.

Our team worked incredibly hard with many of the women and younger ones doing tons of cleaning and painting. It was really very much like finishing a new construction project. Installing roofing, drywall, insulation, electrical...the whole deal. Here are some before and after pics. This team sweated, bled, and laughed together getting the house closer to Ouisa being able to move in. By the time we left, we had the house so much closer that another team can easily finish the home enough to allow her to stay in it.

Before

After

Before - (No Window in Wall)

Before

Mickie and Shari model by the newly
installed window
after cutting and installing their
1st sheet of drywall ever!

The entry hall and back area of the house were a mess. We had to remove the shower surround and we also tore out the entire entry tile ceiling, then re-set and framed some of it so that it could hold dry wall. There was a ton of cleaning, sweeping, bagging, scraping, priming, and double coat painting to do. People kicked in and worked with a lot of zeal to make a HUGE impact on this home and Ouisa's life. Below is a video I took before our last day serving on this house. We were all so tired, but it is easy after seeing these pics to watch the video and notice the difference in each area!

Ouisa

Several team members were able to spend a little time talking with Ouisa, and my wife Sarah and I were able to hug her, and share the reason we were there helping her in her time of need. We told her we were there in the name of Jesus. In her own words...Ouisa told us in tears “Thank you so much. I am so thankful that the Lord sent ya'll to help me!” She told several of us to please thank everyone on the team for coming to Kentucky and helping her. The smile says it all!

Before

After

Other projects were available as team members felt God leading them to help. The before/after pics of this trailer tell a story of how hard the team worked, but the story behind it is that this trailer is for an elderly woman. I spoke with her daughter, and she told me that although this trailer may look bad, the one they pulled her mother out of was 10x worse, and had leaks all over the roof with the flooring wet and caving in. This "new" trailer was much nicer.  Our efforts were to finish a wheel chair ramp along with power washing and building a roof and railing.

God used the team to radically change this trailer. There were also several places where elderly people needed some yard work and mowing done. Two of our teens Jonah Sherley and Zak Swindle handled one of the mowing/trimming jobs and blessed a woman with their service. From what Will Black told me, one of the other mowing jobs was very steep and difficult, with the mowers sliding around, but he and Jonah knocked it out and also ended up doing some maintenance.

Along with these types of things, several on our team had ample opportunity to serve several times with “Loaves and Fishes” which is the food pantry ministry where we were able to donate a lot of food, diapers, toilet paper, towels, medical/hygiene supplies, toothpaste/toothbrushes, and more. We brought so many donuts, cakes, and pastries that we set up a table and began giving them away outside to those who would stop by! People started coming almost immediately, stopping in their cars or walking up from the sidewalk. I sat there and wondered..."We JUST put this stuff out...How did they know?"

All this was made possible because when we went to Golden Corner Food Pantry in Seneca to get a few items before we left on Sunday, the Director Richard Kulper shared with me that they had received a donation of items late that week that was 2x their normal donation; so he was able to share much of it with us to load on the trailer and take to Kentucky! We gave it ALL away! Isn't that amazing? God's timing is so awesome!

We also brought a lot of donated clothing, and were able to share all of it with a ministry called “Freedom Center” which focuses on getting clothing and shoes to people in need in the area. They let me know that we can bring as much as we'd like next time, especially plus size women's clothing, men's jeans, and men's shoes.

Thanks to the incredible packing skills of my Sarah, the FCC trailer was packed completely full. We took advantage of just about every inch of space. 1/2 of our trailer was filled with donated furniture and house items like lamps, rugs, tables, paintings, bedding, etc. that FCC families had given. This worked out so perfectly as Heritage ministries is in constant need of such things as the requests come in almost daily. We traveled to Heritage Ministries storage facility and unloaded it all.

There are just so many wonderful stories from this trip, from Kathy Jordan spending time with several elderly woman and just blessing them by taking the time to be there, to Angela and Christa and the kids (Helena, Ariana, & Arcadia) going to a nursing home and visiting people along with painting ladies fingernails, to the awesome day we had at the park outreach in Lynch.

For me, the park outreach was one of the most amazing things I saw happen on this trip. It was a "God Sighting" no doubt. We were scheduled to have a cookout/block party type of thing in a local park in the town of Lynch. This park was just a few blocks down the road from the mission houses we were staying in. There is a neighborhood right there near it with lots of houses.

We were scheduled to be there from 3-6pm, but around 1pm it started thundering, lightning, and raining very hard. It kept on and around 2pm it was still storming. We had reserved inflatables for the kids, and the inflatable company owner did not really want to set up. The ministry that hosted our team and organized all this is called "Heritage Ministries" founded and lead by Jeff and Linda Simm. They are a precious couple called by God to move to Lynch and serve the people there. Jeff came over to the mission house and pretty much laid it on the line telling me it's still pretty bad outside. "What do you wanna do?" he said, with his wife Linda on the phone waiting for me to make the call as to whether we should just call the whole event off or not. Usually they would cancel. Linda and I were both praying though.

After praying I just did not feel the peace to cancel the event, and I don't think Linda did either, but it was my call to make. I told them to go ahead with it and we would leave and head out there to set up right away. We all set up under the pavilion in the rain, and I could see that the inflatables company owner was not too happy. As a matter of fact when he got there he was so upset that he unpacked part of his stuff, and then packed it all up and was getting ready to leave. Linda asked me to speak with him, and the Lord gave us favor. He went back to his garage and got two play-land inflatables instead of one, and left them there for us to use all afternoon for the same price!

I kid you not...A little after 3pm the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and we had beautiful weather without too much heat & no rain. It was amazing! A miracle in my eyes. Within 30 minutes or so people started coming to the park after Amanda and some of the team members went door to door passing out flyers inviting people to come out.
We were able to have the cookout, feed a bunch of parents and kids in the neighborhood, and give them a great time of food and fellowship in the name of Jesus Christ. The inflatables worked flawlessly and with the two-for-one deal we got, it was a great investment!  Here's a short video:

The children had an absolute blast jumping around and also many of them got very into having their faces painted by Amanda Atkins and some of the other girls such as Brett Sherley.

 Amanda and some of the other team members, ended up going back to this neighborhood and park to hang out with the children and teens on a couple other days during the week.




Team members found their sort of "calling" for service on this trip. Some things just came naturally, and they found that they had favor, and were effective in loving on these kids in the name of Jesus. One afternoon I knew they must have had a great time, because they came back with THEIR faces all painted up, because they let the kids do the painting on them!

There IS one little dude that stands out in my mind...His name is Cedrick. He is three years old and I met him as he walked up to one of the games called "Cornhole" where you toss a bean bag onto a ramp with a hole in it, in an effort to get the bag into the hole. Cedrick was absolutely great at this game. Not just for a 3 year old, but even for an adult! He and I played and laughed and I would give him high fives as he would repeatedly make it in the hole. Cedrick just loved the whole event. He had his face painted up like a tiger by Amanda Atkins, and he was runnin around roaring at people...it was hilarious! Then he saw our Djembe drum, and he wanted to play it. I had no idea if he could, but look at what happened next. Remember he is only 3 years old:

 Serving in Appalacia was such a blessing. A highlight for me personally was playing and singing some worship songs and country music with my two sons at the park outreach. Another great highlight for me personally during this trip was our team gatherings which we had at night and on some mornings. We had some great times as a group discussing God's word, sharing stories of things that had happened during the day, and worshiping the Lord together in song with a guitar. And I cannot forget the absolutely hilarious night time stories from Will, Chandra, Brett, and Jonah. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. When your muscles are sore the next day from laughing so much...you know it was good!

Trips such as this create new friendships between families that may have never even talked to each other at FCC. It is an awesome and life-changing thing to serve one another, and to be love in action together serving others in the name of Jesus.

If you would like more info on serving through a Reach mission team locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally, please contact us through the "get involved/find more info" link at:

http://www.foothillscc.org/projectreach/