Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Appalachia Mission Trip 2008 Summary By Dan Gilbert
On Saturday, August 2nd a Saint Francis team gathered in our parking lot at 7:30 AM to begin their mission to Neon, Kentucky. As in the case of our parish’s 2006 and 2007 Neon mission trips, this trip was organized by Linda Nash. Team members were Greg and Graham Beutler, Dan Gilbert, Roger and Jared King and John Murray.
Our team provided its free labor to HOMES (Housing Oriented Ministries Established For Service). HOMES is a non-profit organization that builds and repairs houses for low income families living in the Neon area. The HOMES organization gets monetary credit from the government for our sweat equity time. For each hour we work the home owner receives credit toward the mortgage on a new home or the cost of building materials in the case of a repair.
Neon is a small, poor Appalachian town in the southeastern corner of the state. Its population is approximately 800 with an estimated median household income of $18,300. The Neon area is primarily rural. Abandoned buildings and coal mines dot the landscape.
After a prayer, our six men loaded their gear into Roger King’s Chevy Suburban. Roger drove the entire 13 hour trip. The team arrived in Neon around 9:00 in the evening. They were met by Greg Hawkins the HOMES’ volunteer coordinator. Greg told the team they would work four 10 hour days with Wednesday set aside for rest. After a good night’s sleep and breakfast the team was introduced to its HOMES’ team leader Johnny Mullins. Johnny gave the group a safety briefing. Johnny’s also the pastor of the Pine Mountain Free Pentecostal Church of God. After the briefing the team drove to its first project.
It was going to be a beautiful hot, sunny summer day. Before the day was over temperatures would rise into the low 90s. The team spent its day on the roof of a modest home with a leaky roof. At days end Jack Damron was the proud owner of a new Hawaiian-blue aluminum ribbed roof.
The team had the chance to spend some time with Jack. He talked about the area’s black panthers, bears, coal mines, moon shiners and snake catchers. While the use of poisonous snakes in religious services is illegal in Kentucky, the practice is still alive in Appalachia.
On its second workday the Saint Francis team drove to the home of Jim Caudill. The team would build a 38’ access ramp to the home’s front porch. Jim’s family and health care providers were having a very difficult time helping him in and out of his house. The ramp’s lumber was paid for from the missionary account established from donations by our three Saint Francis Neon mission teams. The most physical part of the project was digging 16 post holes. Each hole was dug in soil rich with rocks and roots to a depth of 18”. The team spent most of the first day digging post holes, cutting lumber and constructing the first section of the ramp.
On Wednesday several team members drove to the Cumberland Gap National Park and walked in Daniel Boone’s foot steps through the Cumberland Gap. The remainder of the team remained at the HOMES site and rested.
Thursday found the team working on Jim Caudill’s access ramp. The support structure was finished and work was begun on the ramp’s railings. Several team members had a unique experience Thursday night. They attended Pastor Johnny Mullins worship service. Johnny is a “shotgun” Pentecostal preacher. He doesn’t prepare his sermons in advance of the service. He simply reviews material on a topic and then speaks from his heart. Thursday night’s sermon was on “Christ as the living God.”
Work on the access ramp was finished around noon on Friday. As the team walked toward Roger’s Suburban to leave the work site, Jim, his wife and a health care worker drove onto the property. Johnny helped Jim into his wheel chair. The health care worker pushed Jim up the access ramp and into the house. It was an extraordinary scene.
Saturday morning came early. With Roger at the wheel the team left the HOMES site at 6:30 AM. Twelve hours later they arrived in Weston.
Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 10 (35-45) tells us, “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all.” For the third year in a row a team from Saint Francis spent a workweek in Neon, Kentucky serving others.
Our team provided its free labor to HOMES (Housing Oriented Ministries Established For Service). HOMES is a non-profit organization that builds and repairs houses for low income families living in the Neon area. The HOMES organization gets monetary credit from the government for our sweat equity time. For each hour we work the home owner receives credit toward the mortgage on a new home or the cost of building materials in the case of a repair.
Neon is a small, poor Appalachian town in the southeastern corner of the state. Its population is approximately 800 with an estimated median household income of $18,300. The Neon area is primarily rural. Abandoned buildings and coal mines dot the landscape.
After a prayer, our six men loaded their gear into Roger King’s Chevy Suburban. Roger drove the entire 13 hour trip. The team arrived in Neon around 9:00 in the evening. They were met by Greg Hawkins the HOMES’ volunteer coordinator. Greg told the team they would work four 10 hour days with Wednesday set aside for rest. After a good night’s sleep and breakfast the team was introduced to its HOMES’ team leader Johnny Mullins. Johnny gave the group a safety briefing. Johnny’s also the pastor of the Pine Mountain Free Pentecostal Church of God. After the briefing the team drove to its first project.
It was going to be a beautiful hot, sunny summer day. Before the day was over temperatures would rise into the low 90s. The team spent its day on the roof of a modest home with a leaky roof. At days end Jack Damron was the proud owner of a new Hawaiian-blue aluminum ribbed roof.
The team had the chance to spend some time with Jack. He talked about the area’s black panthers, bears, coal mines, moon shiners and snake catchers. While the use of poisonous snakes in religious services is illegal in Kentucky, the practice is still alive in Appalachia.
On its second workday the Saint Francis team drove to the home of Jim Caudill. The team would build a 38’ access ramp to the home’s front porch. Jim’s family and health care providers were having a very difficult time helping him in and out of his house. The ramp’s lumber was paid for from the missionary account established from donations by our three Saint Francis Neon mission teams. The most physical part of the project was digging 16 post holes. Each hole was dug in soil rich with rocks and roots to a depth of 18”. The team spent most of the first day digging post holes, cutting lumber and constructing the first section of the ramp.
On Wednesday several team members drove to the Cumberland Gap National Park and walked in Daniel Boone’s foot steps through the Cumberland Gap. The remainder of the team remained at the HOMES site and rested.
Thursday found the team working on Jim Caudill’s access ramp. The support structure was finished and work was begun on the ramp’s railings. Several team members had a unique experience Thursday night. They attended Pastor Johnny Mullins worship service. Johnny is a “shotgun” Pentecostal preacher. He doesn’t prepare his sermons in advance of the service. He simply reviews material on a topic and then speaks from his heart. Thursday night’s sermon was on “Christ as the living God.”
Work on the access ramp was finished around noon on Friday. As the team walked toward Roger’s Suburban to leave the work site, Jim, his wife and a health care worker drove onto the property. Johnny helped Jim into his wheel chair. The health care worker pushed Jim up the access ramp and into the house. It was an extraordinary scene.
Saturday morning came early. With Roger at the wheel the team left the HOMES site at 6:30 AM. Twelve hours later they arrived in Weston.
Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 10 (35-45) tells us, “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all.” For the third year in a row a team from Saint Francis spent a workweek in Neon, Kentucky serving others.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 10
Journalist and Photographers: Brian and James
One by one, the alarms went off and in a seemingly universal response, snooze buttons were pressed to squeeze in an extra fifteen minutes of much needed sleep. Eventually, the inhabitants of the men’s dorm could no longer ignore the beepings and buzzings begging them to wake up, and they slowly rolled out of their bunks in zombie-like comatose states.
The morning was met with the moaning and groaning of twenty-four exhausted, but eager and hard working, volunteers. The sweet aroma of waffles with one’s choice of syrups and toppings instantly woke the worksite warriors and sent them into a feeding frenzy to fuel up for the long day of work ahead of them.
Morning prayer was said outside as usual and the day began. The volunteers piled into cars and departed for the worksite. This time the roofing and fire crew joined the ‘demolitioners’ in order to get more accomplished on the new work site. Several walls were pulled down using the proven chain gang method. The ground which had been overgrown with weeds and vines was raked and cleared. The debris from the downed walls was shoveled. And finally, the intact furniture and wall segments were loaded onto their corresponding trucks and shipped off to the dump or back to the compound to be incinerated.
The group broke for lunch at around 11:30 and this time several vehicles stopped at the famed slushy and coke station. Back at the compound, those who made the stop pitied the poor individuals who had returned without a delicious method of refueling.
The second half of the day was spotted with outbreaks of poison ivy and sickness. David, Susan, and Meredith, among others, were constantly applying creams and lotions to their spreading ivy rashes. Meanwhile Brian, Peter, Drew, and David (again) came down with some kind of bug with symptoms including sore throat, runny nose, congestion, headache, and exhaustion.
Carolyn, Ashley, Meredith, Allegra, Colleen, and Kristin remained at the HOMES compound, which now has a lovely new addition to its walls. A brigade of stick figures pass the words St. Francis of Assisi 2007 letter by letter across the expanse of the wall.
That night, a majority of the parishioners traveled to the famous coal church with an altar base entirely made of the former lifeblood of Neon, coal. Alex, Peter, Charlie, and David took the King’s car to Walmart to get markers to reproduce the story of Wally Amos and his Famous Amos cookies on the kitchen wall. As the adults filtered out of the room, the teens remained to conclude the night with a friendly game of mafia, ping-pong, pizza, and BLOKUS TRIGON!
PHOTO ONE: Dennis Meighan and Jim Smith remove part of the wall as others, including David Aaro holding the shovel, shovels debris.
PHOTO TWO: The men prop a large portion of the structure’s right wall onto the bed of a HOMES dump truck.
PHOTO THREE: Charlie “Free For All” Smith, a St. Francis Knight of the Sledgehammer, in mid-swing.
PHOTO FOUR: HOMES coordinator, Greg Hawkins, thanking the crew on a job well done.
PHOTO FIVE: David Aaro, relaxing at the compound after dinner.
PHOTO SIX: Honorary Moral Officer and Mission Mixmaster, Greg Beutler raises his boom box for one last blasting of the mission trip’s official fight song, the Mission: Impossible theme.
1. Demolition piece by piece
2. Take that!
3. Rake, shovel, dump
4. Loading the truck
5. By Friday, the teens directed the adults
6. No more pictures
7. Music man
8. Dance to the music
9. Relaxed
10. Friends
11. More friends
12. Greg from HOMES
13. We did that
One by one, the alarms went off and in a seemingly universal response, snooze buttons were pressed to squeeze in an extra fifteen minutes of much needed sleep. Eventually, the inhabitants of the men’s dorm could no longer ignore the beepings and buzzings begging them to wake up, and they slowly rolled out of their bunks in zombie-like comatose states.
The morning was met with the moaning and groaning of twenty-four exhausted, but eager and hard working, volunteers. The sweet aroma of waffles with one’s choice of syrups and toppings instantly woke the worksite warriors and sent them into a feeding frenzy to fuel up for the long day of work ahead of them.
Morning prayer was said outside as usual and the day began. The volunteers piled into cars and departed for the worksite. This time the roofing and fire crew joined the ‘demolitioners’ in order to get more accomplished on the new work site. Several walls were pulled down using the proven chain gang method. The ground which had been overgrown with weeds and vines was raked and cleared. The debris from the downed walls was shoveled. And finally, the intact furniture and wall segments were loaded onto their corresponding trucks and shipped off to the dump or back to the compound to be incinerated.
The group broke for lunch at around 11:30 and this time several vehicles stopped at the famed slushy and coke station. Back at the compound, those who made the stop pitied the poor individuals who had returned without a delicious method of refueling.
The second half of the day was spotted with outbreaks of poison ivy and sickness. David, Susan, and Meredith, among others, were constantly applying creams and lotions to their spreading ivy rashes. Meanwhile Brian, Peter, Drew, and David (again) came down with some kind of bug with symptoms including sore throat, runny nose, congestion, headache, and exhaustion.
Carolyn, Ashley, Meredith, Allegra, Colleen, and Kristin remained at the HOMES compound, which now has a lovely new addition to its walls. A brigade of stick figures pass the words St. Francis of Assisi 2007 letter by letter across the expanse of the wall.
That night, a majority of the parishioners traveled to the famous coal church with an altar base entirely made of the former lifeblood of Neon, coal. Alex, Peter, Charlie, and David took the King’s car to Walmart to get markers to reproduce the story of Wally Amos and his Famous Amos cookies on the kitchen wall. As the adults filtered out of the room, the teens remained to conclude the night with a friendly game of mafia, ping-pong, pizza, and BLOKUS TRIGON!
PHOTO ONE: Dennis Meighan and Jim Smith remove part of the wall as others, including David Aaro holding the shovel, shovels debris.
PHOTO TWO: The men prop a large portion of the structure’s right wall onto the bed of a HOMES dump truck.
PHOTO THREE: Charlie “Free For All” Smith, a St. Francis Knight of the Sledgehammer, in mid-swing.
PHOTO FOUR: HOMES coordinator, Greg Hawkins, thanking the crew on a job well done.
PHOTO FIVE: David Aaro, relaxing at the compound after dinner.
PHOTO SIX: Honorary Moral Officer and Mission Mixmaster, Greg Beutler raises his boom box for one last blasting of the mission trip’s official fight song, the Mission: Impossible theme.
1. Demolition piece by piece
2. Take that!
3. Rake, shovel, dump
4. Loading the truck
5. By Friday, the teens directed the adults
6. No more pictures
7. Music man
8. Dance to the music
9. Relaxed
10. Friends
11. More friends
12. Greg from HOMES
13. We did that
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, August 9
Journalist and Photographers: Carolyn and Ashley
Today was a very successful and interesting day. Breakfast was from seven to eight and prepared by Dennis, Carolyn, Charlie, Peter, and Linda. Everyone enjoyed the eggs and sausage and it gave us energy for the rest of the day.
Today we started a new project on a different site. We had to clear out a new lot that was overgrown with weeds. There is also a very old house with its roof caved in. Greg, Graham, and Dan worked really hard getting out the weeds as did everyone else. We also all worked very hard while playing tug-of-war with part of the house. Meredith and Allegra also worked very hard while planting new grass at the old site. The heat and humidity was really hard to work in but within the first few hours, we had all the weeds and plants cleared out. Jim, Peter, David, and Drew stayed back at the house and burned all the weeds the rest of us pulled out of the lot.
Dinner was a total success with chicken stir fry, Asian Salad, and rice made by the same cooking crew from this morning. Everyone enjoyed it and it provided energy for the big square dancing lesson on the basketball court. A woman named Irene came and taught all of us and the new group of people that came how to square dance for an hour. Roger, Drew, Ashley, Jim, and Greg didn’t go to the square dancing lesson but instead went to a service by one of the fellow workers on the work site.
We concluded our day with a usual rousing game of mafia, but this time, a lot of the parents joined in on the fun.
PS: Linda wishes her sister Mary a very happy birthday
1. Morning Prayer
2. Temperature in Neon
3. A lot full of brush before the workers arrive
4. Clean lot after clearing
5. Tug of war - How demolition is done in Neon
6. Back porch coming down
7. House coming down
8. Water relaxation
9. Who gave Joey the hammer?
10. Another end
11. Dead tired
Today was a very successful and interesting day. Breakfast was from seven to eight and prepared by Dennis, Carolyn, Charlie, Peter, and Linda. Everyone enjoyed the eggs and sausage and it gave us energy for the rest of the day.
Today we started a new project on a different site. We had to clear out a new lot that was overgrown with weeds. There is also a very old house with its roof caved in. Greg, Graham, and Dan worked really hard getting out the weeds as did everyone else. We also all worked very hard while playing tug-of-war with part of the house. Meredith and Allegra also worked very hard while planting new grass at the old site. The heat and humidity was really hard to work in but within the first few hours, we had all the weeds and plants cleared out. Jim, Peter, David, and Drew stayed back at the house and burned all the weeds the rest of us pulled out of the lot.
Dinner was a total success with chicken stir fry, Asian Salad, and rice made by the same cooking crew from this morning. Everyone enjoyed it and it provided energy for the big square dancing lesson on the basketball court. A woman named Irene came and taught all of us and the new group of people that came how to square dance for an hour. Roger, Drew, Ashley, Jim, and Greg didn’t go to the square dancing lesson but instead went to a service by one of the fellow workers on the work site.
We concluded our day with a usual rousing game of mafia, but this time, a lot of the parents joined in on the fun.
PS: Linda wishes her sister Mary a very happy birthday
1. Morning Prayer
2. Temperature in Neon
3. A lot full of brush before the workers arrive
4. Clean lot after clearing
5. Tug of war - How demolition is done in Neon
6. Back porch coming down
7. House coming down
8. Water relaxation
9. Who gave Joey the hammer?
10. Another end
11. Dead tired
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