mission accomplished, Red Bird that is.

We had a wonderful time in Kentucky on our mission trip. We took a group of 15 adults and youth, almost equally divided, from our church to Red Bird Mission in Beverly, Kentucky, which is in the Southeastern corner, very close to Tennessee, actually on our free day we drove from Kentucky to Tennessee to Virginia in 5 minutes...okay, just the tip of each, but that counts right?

This is a picture of the Red Bird Campus

Red Bird Mission is a United Methodist Mission started in 1921 by the Brethren Church and since then has continued to provide support services to the people of the Appalachia. This area of Kentucky, Bell County, has a very high unemployment/poverty rate, the third highest in the country, due to the lose of the coal industry and people use the services of Red Bird to help them meet their daily needs. They have various services, but the main ones include, health clinic, dental clinic, community store, craft store(most items are made by local artisans), work camp(which is what we did).

During our week there are approximately 120 volunteers, mainly from Methodist churches in Ohio, that came to work on community housing through the work camp experience. What we pay to participate goes toward purchasing the materials for the improvements made and of course to feed us. Our group was assigned a mobile that needed various repairs. This family had been moving their trailer to another lot, many people rent their land, when the trailer literally split in half. So they purchased another that was not in very good condition, water damage, and the roof was not in great shape.

We spent four days that week making repairs and improvements. First we cool sealed the roof with some wicked smelling silver sealant. We did the underpinning around the outside of the trailer, it made it look so much nicer. Another group worked on replacing the flooring throughout the trailer with linoleum and then put up trim and thresholds where the seams met. I helped to put in a couple new windows and a door and its handles. I also worked a bit on the deck we put up out front, complete with the stairs that one of the youth boys and I finished. We also had some men from another group some help us move another deck to the back of the trailer, and put up the utility pole so they could get their power turned on. Some of the youth girls spent time digging out a trench to put the sewer pipe in.
The Appalachian Mountains

We spent our free day on Wednesday poking around the local town of Middlesboro and then to Cumberland Gap. It was good to rest for a day, but it made getting back to work feel tough. All in all it was a wonderful experience. Our group got along great and we accomplished so much. It was awesome to see the youth we took step up and work when they needed to without complaint. The family we worked for was so thankful and was there many days as we worked helping alongside us, or letting the youth play with their adorable puppies in the down time. The wife made us some scrumptious peanut butter pies as a thank you. We would go back in heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself. If you are interested check it out, any size group can head down to help out. Don't worry if you don't feel skilled enough, most of us weren't skilled either, but you quickly learn what you have to. We even had a lady with us who worked helping sort clothing and other donations in the community store because she was not physically able to work on the site with us.

By the way Maria got along wonderfully without us, although we am sure she was neglected by her grandmas and great grandma who watched her ;)
Sorry for the lack of personal pictures...I decided just to forgo the camera on the trip, one less thing to worry about.

We have plenty to praise God for; a blessing of a trip.