I left Wednesday for Appalachia, which is in Northern Tennessee, close to the TN/VA border. With my car packed with supplies and the windows rolled down, I turned on the country music, pictured my friends rolling their eyes at my music selection, and turned it up a bit louder. The mountains rolled up the meet me and unfurled beyond the horizon… the sky was a perfect blue. It was a beautiful day for a road trip!
Somewhere along the way, a big MEAN rock hit my windshield. Besides interrupting my impromtu concert, it had the audacity to crack my windshield. The NERVE!
A few hours later, I pulled into the parking lot of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Mt. Carmel, TN, got the key to the parsonage where the team would stay for trip, unpacked, and drove out for groceries/dinner.
I spent Thursday meeting ministry partners, touring possible sites for ministry for the team, making phone calls, and doing other random prep work for the group. In the morning, I drove out to Rogersville to talk with Josh and Tim of One Accord Ministries at the Shepherd Center in Rogersville. The Shepherd’s Center has a thrift store, food pantry, meals on wheels for the elderly… and Josh and Tim do construction work in the area for people who need home repair. I figured they were good people to ask for help with my windshield, so I asked for directions to someone who could plug it before the big ugly crack could grow any longer.
I wasn’t able to get it plugged, but the man at the store carved a half circle into my windshield in order to block the original crack. Other than being disconcerted to watch someone purposefully desecrating my car, I was so thankful he was willing to do it for free! Thank you, Jesus… and those nice people in Rogersville!
On the way back, I randomly stumbled across a beautiful park in between the two towns. Time for a hike! Unfortunately, the trail was too muddy for me to make it to the waterfall, but what I saw was absolutely beautiful!
Christy, my roommate, friend, co-worker, and the Project Leader on the trip (I shadowed her in order to learn the specific ins-and-outs of an STM trip on field) arrived the next morning. We made a schedule, worked through logistics, and got the place ready for the team, who arrived at 2pm. There were 3 adult leaders and 7 students from New Life Christian Fellowship in West Virginia. In all, there were 12 of us in a group. They’d requested to jump into ministry immediately, so an hour after pulling into the parsonage, they split into groups and went their separate ways.
One group went to the home of a woman named Mrs. Sylvia, where they did manual labor around her home. My group went to the home of the McAvoys, who needed a trench in their back yard filled in. Mrs. McAvoy’s story is heart breaking. Her husband has Stage Four lung/brain cancer. She’s had a grandchild die, her father-in-law has cancer, her mother-in-law is in terrible back pain, her sisters-in law have cancer, and she has diabetes and gout. She needed the trench in her backyard filled in so her family could have an Easter Egg hunt for the little ones next weekend-perhaps the last one with their grandfather, Mr. McAvoy.
This was my first time interacting with the team, seeing them in
ministry. I settled in taking pictures, helping where I could, and
talking with each person. The students were so great… I really enjoyed
hearing their stories, learning about their lives, and talking about
Jesus with them! We settled into a rhythm, and not too long after, I
noticed one of the students, Tabitha, talking with Mrs. McAvoy. She
later told me that normally she is REALLY shy, but that her father had
Stage 4 cancer and God healed him. She felt like she needed to share
that with Mrs. McAvoy. It really encouraged her. We were able to pray
for Mrs. McAvoy before we left (her husband was asleep) and she thanked
us over and over, telling us how great it was going to be for them to
have the Easter Egg Hunt as a family. She kept saying she would never
forget us.
ministry. I settled in taking pictures, helping where I could, and
talking with each person. The students were so great… I really enjoyed
hearing their stories, learning about their lives, and talking about
Jesus with them! We settled into a rhythm, and not too long after, I
noticed one of the students, Tabitha, talking with Mrs. McAvoy. She
later told me that normally she is REALLY shy, but that her father had
Stage 4 cancer and God healed him. She felt like she needed to share
that with Mrs. McAvoy. It really encouraged her. We were able to pray
for Mrs. McAvoy before we left (her husband was asleep) and she thanked
us over and over, telling us how great it was going to be for them to
have the Easter Egg Hunt as a family. She kept saying she would never
forget us.
It was incredible debriefing the team that night, hearing them talk about how it felt to be used by God to bless someone. It was great to lead again!
Stay tuned for a recap of Saturday- it’s a great story!
