What would you cut out?

What a great day!  A hot day, but a great one!  Monday's are usually a bit slow on mission trips as the groups are "figuring out their projects".  There is usually a bit of sitting around and a good bit of scratching of our heads.  The youth all did a great job today and were very patient in waiting to really get started on their jobs.  Below, some youth from each group (please refer to yesterday's blog to see who is in each group) gave a synopsis of their day and their job! 

Family Group 1 - Brian and Karen's Group

            Today we started our adventure!!  We met our homeowners, a mom, her brother, her two sons, her daughter, and her grandson.  We made evaluations on what we had to do and what our goals would be.  Besides cleaning up, our BIG job was to install insulation and siding.  We started with the back wall. While covered in sweat and dirt we made it through the day with getting done more than we expected. Everyone worked together and helped each other out, this way we were able to get a lot done. We managed to keep our smiles, while stepping around the sewage. It was a great day!

Family Group 2 - Tony and Kim's Group

            Starting off our day was very exciting for all of us. As we knew that helping others is very important and honoring our commitment to God. We did our very best to be humble, kind, and patient. Our mission is to replace windows, and we got a decent amount done. We did a lot more than replace windows though, we made a bond. We made a bond with Mrs. Sarah as she told us about her trials and tribulations and other moments in her life. Mrs. Sarah (the women we helped) was a nice woman who loved the Lord and her words were very heartfelt when she talked about the Lord. She told us about how the Lord blessed her and brought her through the toughest times in her life. She inspired us to continue to seek God in our lives and to trust in him when adversities arise. Lastly, if Mrs. Sarah can make it through tough times then we can too!

Family Group 3 - Randy and Liz's Group

            Today was a very productive day for our group! When we first got to our worksite, we met only one of our homeowners, Eric Partin. His wife and children were not present today. Although he was not very social, he was still very thankful for our work. Our main job today was taking down all the old siding and insulation from the house. It took us mostly all day. We took turns on the ladders and pulling out the nails. When we weren’t pulling nails we were taking the old scraps out back. Even though we were having a great workday, we still had a very major problem. WASPS! Almost every time we pulled away the siding we saw wasps. Randy was our hero today and killed all the nests. We went through 5 cans of wasp killers, but it still didn’t keep one of our fellow leaders safe. Liz Snyder got stung on our site today, but she was strong and made it through! Since there were so many wasps, we came up with a group name called the WASPS WARRIORS!! We had a little slogan to go along with it too: “Who are we? WASPS WARRIORS! What do we do? CALL RANDY!!” We had a lot of fun today! We finished pulling down all the siding and hope to put up the new siding tomorrow. Lastly, I want to say thank you to our nail collectors, Ja’Niya and Liz!!! WE ARE HAVING SOOOO MUCH FUN! 

From my seat, there are a lot of tired youth and leaders today, but they have what I call that "mission trip glow".  Though their muscles ache and they are dragging a bit, you can still see the excitement in each of them from encountering God through service to others.

I was on the job site with Family Group 2 today and Mrs. Sarah is a very inspiring person.  She was in a car accident a few years ago and had to have part of her leg removed.  She was also born with Spina Bifida (as she said, at a time when they couldn't "fix it" with surgery).  She was also told she would never have children.  And yet, she had one of the most positive outlooks on life that I've seen.  She had a deep faith in God and truly keeps her eyes fixed on God.  It was very cool hearing her tell her story to the youth and leaders of Family Group 2.  It was a reminder that our "work" here has more to do than simply helping someone, but part of our job as well is to build relationships and be open to learning from the lovely people of Frakes, KY.

One last interesting thought for you.  Jerry (the work camp director) shared with us that the average income of the families that we are all working with (all summer long for Henderson Settlement) is barely over $13,000 per household.  This average includes their food stamps they collect.  The unemployment rate in Frakes, Ky is said to be a little over 50%.  Poverty reaches a new level.  They showed a very powerful video that helped us see a different side of poverty.  The main point of the video was to get us thinking about "what would we cut out?"  If your family only brought in $13,000 a year.  What would you cut out of your budget?

Housing?

Food?

Health Care?

Child Care?

Utilities?

Transportation?

Luckily, most of us do not have to make these decisions...but that does not get us off the hook.  It is our job as the church to work toward making sure others do not have to make those decisions either. 

As I heard one pastor say a few years ago...if we are living in excess, it should not be considered waste... We are literally "stealing from the poor."  It changes my perspective when I'm here and stand face to face with poverty.  It is easy to put it out of my mind in my comfortable home back in NC.  It is hard to not feel responsible when its staring me in the face.  

This mornings devotion challenged us to "be pushed outside of our comfort zone."  For me, that discomfort came from thinking about all the "excess" that I live with.  I hate feeling like a thief.