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Appalachia Service Project 2009
June 7—14
Wyoming County, West Virginia |
This year four teams from HUM will travel to Wyoming County, West Virginia to participate in the Appalachia Service Project. "ASP" is an organization that works to make homes in Central Appalachia "warmer, safer, drier." As we think of the many problems with the economy in northeast Ohio, we must remember that there are others in the United States who need our help.
In the communities served by the Appalachia Service Project, one person in four lives in poverty; this translates to 50,000 children, 90,000 adults, and 15,000 elderly. In these communities:
- 8500 homes lack adequate kitchens
- 9000 homes lack complete plumbing
- half of the families have household incomes below $20,000
Wyoming County, WV, is classified as a "distressed county", which means that both the poverty rate and the unemployment rate are at least 50% higher than the national average, AND the per capita income is at least one-third lower than the national average.
While not everyone can take the trip with us, everyone can help make this trip happen! Our director, Bill Headland, says that we are at almost 60% of our fundraising goal. If you have not donated to ASP this year, please consider doing so. Just drop a check into the collection plate on Sunday morning or mail your check to the church office. Be sure to write "ASP" in the memo line of your check.
This mission trip is a life-changing experience for our young people and our adult leaders. We have the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the people in Wyoming County, WV this year. We ask that you prayerfully consider how you can help.
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June 7-14, 2009
"Putting Faith Forward"
Our application has been accepted, and HUM's 16th Appalachia Service Project (ASP) mission trip is scheduled for June 7-14, 2009. The location will be determined by the ASP central offices after they review all applications. Space is limited on this trip, so if you are interested, contact Bill Headland immediately.
Youth must be both at least 14 years of age and entering 9th grade at the time of the trip. Adults of any age are welcome. Check out the ASP bulletin board in the narthex; you will see last year's teams pictured there. Anyone who attended last year will be glad to share some of their experiences with you.
Appalachia Service Project is a Christian ministry – open to all people – that fosters human development by addressing the housing needs of Central Appalachia; the goal is to make the homes "warmer, safer, drier" for the families who live there. ASP changes lives in Appalachia, and it changes the life of everyone from HUM who participates.
Check your calendars and contact Bill Headland as soon as possible! |
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Reflections from a First-Time ASP Team Member
by Sue Spore |
When I agreed to go on this year’s Appalachia Service Project mission trip, I figured it would be hard work, but rewarding and probably fun. I felt that I pretty much knew what to expect – after all, my mother’s family is from Pulaski County, Kentucky, a county served by the ASP. I’d visited my Kentucky relatives as a child and knew that things were different in that area of the country. I’d stayed in homes that had outhouses. I knew about people who went to work instead of high school, and I’d seen firsthand that life was not easy there. Yes, I would go on this trip—and I knew what to expect.
I was right—it was hard work, rewarding, and even fun.
I was wrong—I did not know what to expect.
Hard work? Yes. How many times did I walk up those rickety front steps? How many times did I decide to just climb up the rocky slope instead, since I wasn’t sure those steps would hold out for one more trip? Carrying floor boards, joists, and power tools every day of a very hot, humid week—yes, that was hard work. Cutting insulation is easy, but not very pleasant to work with. How dirty and sweaty is it possible to get and still wear the same jeans the next day? Speaking of hard work—I learned this week just how hard Bill Headland works to make this whole trip happen.
Fun? Yes. The van ride down and back was lots of fun. Getting to know some of our youth better was very much fun. Talking, sharing, and laughing with the adults was fun. Using a circular saw was REALLY big fun! Feeling a bit like I was at camp was fun. Even eating all of those peanut butter sandwiches was fun. Getting to know the folks from the North Carolina church was fun. Listening to a local bluegrass band was fun. Trying to make a parachute using a coffee filter and a raw egg was fun.
Did I know what to expect? Definitely NO. I was in tears as I looked around the two-room house my team had been assigned. The walls were made of paneling, pressed board, and tarpaper—no insulation and holes where I could see through to the outdoors. Rotten floorboards. Sagging ceilings with blackened insulation falling down. A roof that looked like it wouldn’t make it through the next storm. Plumbing that didn’t work and windows that could not possibly keep out the cold. It didn’t seem to me that there was even one thing about the house that was as it should be. How could someone live in this house? How could we even begin to make this house "warmer, safer, drier?"
By the end of the week, I was feeling a bit better. Our team worked incredibly hard for five straight days and wished we could have stayed and worked longer. We wanted to make the house better for the man who lived there. We wanted to do things the best way we could and we wanted to take the time to do things right. While we were nowhere near completing everything that needed done to this house, I did feel like by the end of the summer, if the other teams worked as hard as we had, our homeowner could face the mountain winter and that he would be able to stay in his house in relative safety and maybe even be comfortable.
Rewarding? Oh my—YES. Seeing the beauty of God’s awesome creation every day was rewarding. A young person coming to me for help with a minor injury or a bee sting was rewarding. Being asked to supervise a young man while he used the circular saw was extremely rewarding to me, since I had only learned to use it myself the day before! Giving morning devotions surrounded by mist-covered mountains was rewarding. Seeing the youth who took this trip with a parent was rewarding. Sharing a week together like this is something neither the parent nor the teen will ever forget. Getting to know my own church family better was rewarding. Knowing that I had really made a difference in someone’s life was very rewarding.
People ask me, "What is ASP like?" It’s difficult to know what to write about the ASP experience. So much happened, so much got done, relationships formed, and lives changed. Four of us got poison ivy. One of us learned from the kids to say "sweet" when he liked something. Our youth are pretty good basketball players, awesome 4-square players, and they don’t like to eat the heels from the loaves of bread. One of us hit herself in the head with a hammer; another of us had a hammer dropped on his head. Some of us learned to use power tools, and at least one of our youth learned how to clean a toilet! One of us ripped her pants on a nail. We danced for the ASP staffers one morning, and another night we learned how to do the broom dance. One of our youth group was brave enough to play “Ultimate Spoons” with the North Carolina church youth. We learned that we could survive without our cell phones and without air conditioning. Some of us got too hot and even lightheaded during the workday. Our young people worked together, helped each other, comforted each other, and talked with each other—boy, did they talk with each other!
Friday night, all of us from HUM and from the North Carolina church sat in a big circle in the school gymnasium, and the staff asked each of us to share a "God moment" we had experienced during the week. Almost all of the 75+ people had a moment to share, and none of them were the same. It was amazing to listen to each one of us tell how God had touched our individual lives.
It was heartwarming to see many of you waiting for us in the church parking lot when we returned Sunday morning. We couldn’t have taken this mission trip without support from the whole church. Seeing the family reunions taking place in the HUM parking lot was something to behold. It was hard for the teams to say goodbye to each other, and yet we were so glad to be home! I know that many of us will take this trip again next year.
I keep hearing something that Bill would say to us: "The mission goes both ways." It’s so true—we know that we are traveling into Appalachia to help the people there. What we learn during the week is that we are so very blessed to be allowed to travel to Appalachia and have our lives changed forever.
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Click on the following links to find out how the Appalachian Service Project teams from HUM fulfilled their mission. |
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| ASP 2007 |
| ASP 2008 |
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Howland United Methodist Church
730 Howland Wilson Rd NE
Warren, OH 44484
Phone: 330-856-3463
Fax: 330-856-7037
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