Greetings from West Virginia

Thank you all for your warm blessings at our send-off on Sunday morning, July 30, during worship. Our intrepid group of 11 teens and 3 adults arrived in McDowell County on Sunday evening, and since then, have been hard at work.

For the past three days, we’ve been on three worksites through Big Creek People in Action’s housing rehab program. We’ve installed new drywall to repair a water-damaged ceiling, stabilized two sets of stairs leading into a house, enclosed a crawl space with tin underpinning, installed air conditioning units, removed water-damaged drywall, stripped and painted a porch, removed vinyl siding from a house, moved 180 gallons of dirt, conquered multiple hives of wasps, and more. In our final two days, we plan to assist in Big Creek People in Action’s community pantry, install new siding to replace what we removed, and begin roofing a recently-built addition. The work has been strenuous and challenging, yet gratifying and rewarding. It is an honor to be trusted to work on somebody’s home, and we feel grateful for the opportunity to contribute in our small way to making these homeowners’ lives a little safer, warmer, easier.

It’s not only been work, though! We’ve enjoyed singing around a campfire, playing sardines, a silent hike around Lake Berwind, musical performances from local bluegrass artists (and each other), an unexpected pool day, and more. Now that we’ve passed the midpoint of the week, we are able to see the progress we’ve made not only on our worksite projects, but also in working together and living our trip covenant.

We look forward to coming home and sharing our experiences with you all. (We’ll share stories, reflections, and photos from our trip at worship on Sunday, September 3.) Thank you for your support!