So, since we had very little internet access, we did not end up doing daily posts. However, daily additions to this post were written throughout the ASP week! Now that we are home safely, take some time to read about our trip!
Day 1 – Sunday 6/21 (Malcolm Reynolds)
Today we met once again in the SPC parking lot in the early, drizzly hours of the morning to depart for Appalachian Service Project in Nicholas County, West Virginia. At seven hours, this would be the shortest drive to our ASP center in years.
After praying for a safe and productive week we rolled out of the parking lot in our five vehicles which were packed with our tools and personal affects for the days ahead.
Our home for the week is St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Craigsville, West Virginia. Constructed less than two years ago, the church has a gymnasium where we have set up camp.
Unlike past years, our living space is air-conditioned so we are spending less time focusing on avoiding heatstroke and more time thinking about the work ahead of us.
Many of us have some anxieties about what this trip holds. Some worry about how to handle a circular saw, some about seeing what it’s like to live in poverty, and others about making a relationship with the family they’re serving.
However, we all are trying to work the way we handle these anxieties to make the most of this week and reflect this on the way we live our lives at home.
Day 2 – Monday 6/22 (Lizzy Ashbrook)
We woke up this morning to loud cheery music at 7:15. By 7:30 we are all outside in a circle for morning devotions being told a story about turkey sandwiches. The story went something like this:
“A group of people met at a party and were surprised to learn that they all liked Turkey sandwiches. They decided to form a turkey sandwich club. At their first meeting all the members went around and said what a turkey sandwich meant to them.
One said ‘A turkey sandwich is on a american bread with bacon and vegetables’
‘No!’ said another ‘A turkey sandwich has mayonnaise and american cheese and is on whole wheat bread!’
Soon they realized that they all had different ideas of what a turkey sandwich was. But that did not stop them from continuing to meet and unite as one Turkey sandwich club.”
My experience today was much like that story. When my work group arrived at our site we met with Savannah, the mother of the family we were going to be working with. She sat with us for the greater part of the day and we shared stories of our lives. She told us about her family and her childhood, as well as her life today. She told us how she was so proud and grateful to get where she was in life which, for me at least, we a really meaningful and humbling moment. Our experiences were vastly different, but I felt a connection with Savannah through our own ‘Turkey sandwiches’ of family, the church, and a general care and love for the community.
Savannah and her husband, Eric have a son, a daughter, and a dog (who was very playful and very exited to be petted). The previous ASP work crew had created an extension to their house that would be their daughters new room. Our group today finished almost all of the siding on that extension and installed a window. It was really rewarding and as various family members from Savannah’s immediate and visiting extended family came out to see, they all commented on how good it looked. It was wonderful that they thought our work was going well and that they were very kind and hospitable towards us.
Tonight was cultural night at the ASP center. A man named ‘Appalachian John’ came and told us stories and sung and played songs on his guitar and banjo. He talked about the differences between past and present Appalachia and what it meant to be Appalachian, and addressed and talked about the stereotypes of Appalachian culture. He told us about the innocence of Appalachia and it’s people, and how when he left home he could never forget that innocence, which brought him back to the mountains and to his family farm years later. Once again I saw the differences between his life and mine but I still felt a connection with him. The differences between his experience and my own did not stop the message of a person looking to do and experience good in the world shine.
We are not here to impose our own views of what a Turkey sandwich is on other people. We are here to help and to connect with people over the similarities in our sandwiches. Who knows? Some of our recipes may even change before the week is through. Whether that happens or not, I’m very exited to see what else the week has to offer and help build a great extension.
Day 3 – Tuesday 6/23 (Carly Dicker)
The day began with waking up to John Weicher’s excellent song choice of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” That was a great way to wake up. After a delicious bowl of cereal and morning devotion, a crew member and I made sandwiches for the rest of our crew, and headed off to our work site.
Our home is a short drive, no longer than 5 minutes. A very nice couple named Eugene (Gene) and Shirley live there. Gene is very helpful while working. He not only assists us, but supplies us with tools we were missing. Yesterday, we got very far on our porch, and we almost finished the rest of it today. The only part we have left is a railing and the spindles attached. Today, I worked with my crew members in an assembly line to complete the spindles. John measured, I chopped, and Maeve and Malcolm drilled them into place. It worked very well and efficiently. Our other crew members worked on the steps during that time. After finishing everything we could do, we stopped for the day because we did not have the necessary tools to continue.
After that work, we all settled into seats with a refreshing can of cheer wine in our hands as a reward for our hard work. Gene grabbed his guitar and played a variety of songs for us, including country and gospel. He is very talented, and his performance was very enjoyable. It was nice and relaxing to sit back and listen to the music after working. His wife, Shirley, even came out to join us. I finally got a sense of the country and West Virginia life while sitting there listening to Gene sing and play the guitar.
To make the day even more enjoyable, our crew got ice cream on our way home. Since we are almost done with the porch, we will finish it up tomorrow, and then work on some flooring inside. We might even have to do some roofing, which sounds really fun. I am also excited for the picnic on Thursday because there is a lake and we can go swimming! Unfortunately, Gene and Shirley will not be attending the picnic because they have family visiting. That will be great for them though, because they have family coming from California! Overall, it was a very productive and fun-filled day.
Day 4 – Wednesday 6/24 (Ellen Kruse)
Hi all! My name is Ellen Kruse, a recent graduate of SHHS, and this is my second year as a part of ASP. My first trip was the summer after my freshman year and I did not have time to come back for my sophomore and junior years but I wish I had. This year has been an amazing experience. I think the previous blog posts covered the schedule pretty well so I will talk about my personal experience with my family, group, and trip over all.
My group is working on a house that is a little less than a ten minute drive from the ASP Center in downtown Craigsville, WV. The two main people living in our house, Roger and Patty are extremely hospitable. Roger is handicapped and still comes outside everyday and insists on helping us with cutting, drilling, or holding something that I am too short to reach. Patty offers many pieces of advice and funny stories about her neighbors or her past. They babysit a grandson Sullivan (or Sully-Bear) named after the green character in Monster’s Inc., and have a kind dog named Scruffy who seems to always be smiling. Roger and Patty are often outside to offer words of encouragement as we work on the tasks we have been given. My group leaders are Mark Gibble and Liz McGrath and other members in my group are Rachel Lambert, Henry Dawes, David Mester, and Hunter Clements. Hunter and Mark are usually up in a crawlspace under the roof, giving it support and stability to make sure that it will hold weight of snow through the winters to come. The rest of us have primarily been working on one wall that needed to be replaced. We took out everything old in order to put in new insulation, OSB boards, foam boards, house wrap, and vinyl siding (in that order). Although we have not finished putting up the siding yet, we are very close (and it is a lot more difficult than it sounds). In addition, Rachel and I used some scrap wood to build a table that Patty really wanted and we are very proud of it. The past few ASP crews who worked on the house before us were responsible for creating a ramp for Patty’s wheelchair and we hope to be able to make a gate in the porch once we are done with the roof support and the wall reinstallation.
I have learned so much on this trip and think that there lessons to constantly learn and be reminded of. The people here are happy with what they have and they are blessed for the small things that bring them joy. Life is so simple in Appalachia and it’s a nice break from the stress and scheduled agenda of everyday life. No technology or phones (aside from this post) is also very nice as much as I hate to say it. My final note has to do with something that John said two nights ago that really stuck with me. He stressed that service like this lacks so much meaning without reflection, and although I can’t briefly summarize all of the discussions we have had in our evening SPC meetings, I will say that I am truly grateful for all of the sights seen, people met, lessons learned, and experiences had.
Day 5 – Thursday 6/25 (Will McCullough)
Today we once again woke up to the sweet sound of total eclipse of the heart, an extremely emotional ballad picked as our wake up song every day by Luke Clements. After that cheerful start to our day, we packed up and got ready for our 30 minute trip to the worksite, one of the farther ones from the center. During this ride, we all enjoyed a rousing game of Ghost, where you go around a circle spelling a word but trying to avoid being the last letter of a word.
When we arrived at the site, we immediately got to work finishing off the porch we had been building, a five by five deck with a set of stairs in order for the resident of the house, Sissy, to safely get in and out of her house without hurting herself. While three members of our team, Luke, Karen, and Betsy, finished this off, Henry, Lexi (whose birthday was today), Laurel, and myself started work on the next project of painting Sissy’s roof. After several hours of switching between holding the ladder, painting, and replenishing the brush of the painter, we broke for a quick lunch of PB&Js, Oreos, chips ahoy, and barbecue potato chips.
After lunch was a quick break with some fun with Sissy’s dog Boston, or Bubu for short. Bubu is no ordinary dog. In our breaks to play with him, he relishes to opportunities to jump high enough to eat the low hanging branches of a tree, which is incredibly entertaining as he is a dog of small stature. He also enjoys eating anything and everything we touch, including but not limited to dirt, clay, rocks, grass, weeds, and wood. We also enjoy playing with Sissy’s grandnephew Nick. Nick is an incredibly smart and nice kid, and he loves to help us and be in our company. Nick loves to tell us of his aspirations to be a carpenter and live in the Atlantis water park in Dubai.
By the end of the day we had finished the deck and painted more than three quarters of half of the trailer. The day was far from over, though. Thursday night means that it is picnic night, and this year the picnic was held in a park next to a pristine lake. The lake was very rocky but had large cliffs which were great for jumping. After a great dinner of burgers and hot dogs, everyone proceeded down to the lake in search of a good spot to jump into the water. Once we found a high rock, everyone, swimsuit or not, tried the approximately 7 meter jump, including John Weicher.
After some good fun and amazing water, it was time to make the journey back to the center, an hour long bus ride full of catchphrase dominated by the power team of Luke and John. Upon return it was time for chores, which for our group was bathroom cleansing, one of the less desirable jobs which is as glamorous as it sounds. After such long and eventful day, they called for lights out and we slept very soundly.
Day 6 – Friday 6/26 (Jacob Knauer)
Again, as has become expected, we awoke to Bonnie Tyler’s masterfully divine rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart, followed by more than enough 90s music. Daybreak began in the midst of a downpour, with the sounds of rain and thunder echoing throughout the gymnasium. Coupled with a long night filled with low battery warnings from carbon monoxide detectors, flashlight flashmobs and delivery trucks arriving in the early hours of the morning, many found themselves arriving to morning devotions still asleep. The day began slowly, but with the forecast showing an approaching cease to the rain, morale remained high.
Our group began the trek to our site at the normal time, around 8:35, and after a brief stop at the hardware store we arrived. The gravel that had been ordered on Monday had yet to show up the day before, but we had been told by the delivery service that the shipment was on its way that night. With no gravel to fill in the irrigation ditch we had created, there was little work to go around as most of our other main project, a shower, required work to be done in a small and wholly limiting area of operation. Although the rain did end up dispersing by around 11:00, our available work required us to remain inside. By the end of the day, we had successfully torn out the old floor, removed the rusted and inaccessible bathtub, installed a wall of true 2x4s and loosely attached water resistant drywall, leaving enough leeway to allow next week’s crew to remove it for accessibility as needed. Unfortunately, we had to leave our ditch with only a plastic lining—the gravel is to be delivered on Monday.
Back at the center, the evening devotion found everyone in the building sitting in a large chair of circles. Beginning at one end and working our way back, the circle progressed and each volunteer shared a moment that they felt was special, whether it be the holiest, funniest, most interesting or a remarkable happening that fell into some other category. Following this sharing circle was a great slideshow comprising pictures from the week, arranged by Lucas (one of the staffers).
We didn’t end up finishing our first project, the irrigation ditch, but we made extraordinary progress. It’s a bit disappointing to not see the final project, but an 80 foot long, 15 inch wide, 15 inch deep rut is something to be impressed with regardless. The progress on the shower has come along well, and hopefully there will be photos of each of the finished projects on the Facebook page.
The week as a whole went well, and was a learning experience as well as one that provided great amounts of enjoyment and brought even those who were strangers prior to the trip together. It was an amazing experience and while it’s sad to have to head home, it’s our time to go. Other crews will continue the wonderful work that’s being done here, and the families will continue to benefit. It would be great to do even more than we have already, but as we head back home, we know that we have made a difference.
Day 7 – Saturday 6/27 (Shelby Andrews – Summer Youth Ministry Intern)
Our last day on ASP went a little like this: wake up (bright and early), clean, pack the cars, & hit the road. We were split into 2 caravans to make the trip a little easier. As the summer intern, I get the envied privilege of driving the church bus. I took the last shift (after lunch) and got us home without any major issues, aside from bad weather and bad traffic. John Weicher left us with some words of wisdom: to “continue to be our best selves” even after our special trip experience was over and we returned to the “real world.” I hope that we are all able to do just that.
The youth really impressed me this week. I didn’t know most of them before the trip and I may never see some of them again – but they made a really good impression. I do believe that they were their best selves. They showed tremendous work ethic, getting things done I had no idea they could do. They always stepped up to the plate and worked hard. A lot was asked of them this week, and they did a spectacular job of (almost) everything they were asked to do.
Thank you, parents, for lending us your children. Thank you, volunteers, for going above and beyond. Thank you, staffers, for all of your hard work and dedication to service. Thank you, those back home, for praying and supporting the mission of the church. Thank you, youth, for being your best selves.
May God be with you and keep you in your daily work as disciples.
Amen.
Swarthmore Pres Youth 