It's a wrap!

I received a note from Patty and Chester yesterday, thanking me for some photos I had sent them and for all the work we did. It was sweet and thoughtful, but I felt my heart swell with gratitude for them, for the privilege of having them open their home to a bunch of complete strangers, offering us whatever was theirs to give, sharing openly of their lives and faith. It was a humbling experience.

Like many of my co-missioners, I have jumped back into daily life with both feet. It's hard to leave a more peaceful, slower-paced environment for a life that is constantly plugged-in and engaged with work, family, church and the other demands on our time that we face. While for some of the adults it was an inconvenience to have no cell phone coverage, our younger people seemed to enjoy life without constant texting and contact.

I have pondered a lot about the isolation we felt in West Virginia. A couple of mission-trippers remarked that they had travelled as far as Sinai recently and were still able to be in touch, by phone, with their office or colleagues. Yet here we were, in a neighboring state, unable to use our modern gadgets to phone home. I can't help wondering if that kind of isolation inhibits economic development in the Appalachian region. It's tempting to see the upside of a more calm, slower-paced life, but I'm pretty sure the downside is a drag on regional progress that might help lift residents out of such pervasive poverty. (Of course, I'm no economist, so don't take my word for that.)

I've also been somewhat haunted by the memory of the older women we met outside of Walmart one day, selling hot dogs and peanut butter fudge in order to pay off the funeral for one's husband. Every day after hearing this story, we would pull into the parking lot on our way back to S.W.A.P. headquarters to see if they were there again so that we could pay an inflated price rather than the $1 they charged, but they never returned. To be burdened with grief is tortuous enough. The inability to pay for the funeral must be devastating. Yet there they were, selling their goodies, raising money, $1 at a time. God love them.

West Virginia is a state of beautful mountains and abundant opportunities for enjoyment of the great outdoors. The roadways wind around what appear to be pristine creeks, streams and rivers. It was distressing to discover that 70% of household sewage goes into these waterways. This was a rather stunning realization and further emphasized the isolation and lack of development in what is, by all accounts, the wealthiest country on the planet. Things that we take for granted like public sewers and cell phone service are non-existent in areas of Appalachia. There's no need to travel around the world to do development work. We can find plenty of opportunities in our own backyard.

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Thank you all for sharing this mission trip journey with us. It has been a blessing to know that your prayers and support were watching over us. Please keep the people of Elkhorn, WV and S.W.A.P. in your prayers moving forward. There is much work yet to be done.

"The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few." (Luke 10:2)

The trip was eye-opening and rewarding. I have to admit that by my very nature I like to live in the rose garden and seeing this area of the country was very disturbing to me. I want to "fix" things and nurture them and this setting was way beyond my fixing. I therefore had to be content with "bandaiding" things and that stirred my soul. All of this made me grow outside of my comfort zone which ultimately is good! I would definitely go back next year, better prepared for what I was going into.

Katie and Will had a wonderful experience and seemed to handle everything very well. Although they saw and recognized the poverty, they weren't affected by it like I was. Katie enjoyed being with friends and helping out the Tabors. Will enjoyed David (a young S.W.A.P. staffer) and all the things David taught him. They both like the Tabor family and felt comfortable with them. The Tabors were very kind to us, but obviously loved David because he was the one who was always there with them.

I have no recommendations for the trip next year. I thought Deborah, Emily and you led well and all the bases were covered with no surprises. Everyone's concerns and requests were handled well and I felt the group was cohesive and flexible with one another. That was key in making this trip work! I like the intergenerational approach with adults and kids. It felt nice and gave the kids some structure and stability. Emily was key to their happiness because she already had relationship with them.

Thanks for creating this blog. Many in the congregation have enjoyed reading it.

Wendy Dunn

At our last "Circle UP," I briefly mentioned the trains passing the house in W. Va. There is comfort and calling in it for me. Hearing the whistle makes me think of people traveling: to the West for a new life, off to join a regiment for their tour of duty, taking the family on an excursion, "hitching" a ride to the next town. It gives me an opportunity to pray for those folks: a cross section of all the people in our lives.

?''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''(the final word, just 'typed' by my cat!)

Bonita Reed

Home again

We had an uneventful return trip to Lancaster today, although it was clear that none of us wanted to leave this morning. This was truly a transformative experience, and we bonded with Charlene and Keith, the S.W.A.P. leaders and their young group leaders. Many projects were completed or finished enough for another group to come in next week and pick up where we left off.

As a parting experience, we were presented with a prepared slide show of our week. Be sure to keep your eye out for a forum announcement at which we'll be showing it to all of you. You'll be amazed!

I'm hoping to have a few concluding reflections before we put this blog to bed. Thank you all for following our week and for keeping us in your prayers. Our work was strengthened and sustained in knowing that you were all with us in spirit!

Elaine

Mountain Music

In late winter of 1970, my sister Robin surprised me with an interest in bluegrass gospel music. She added mandolin to her skill set and convinced me to go to some great fiddlers' conventions over the next few years. That music has been far from my life in the decades since. Wednesday evening, Randy Green, a neighbor and frequent SWAP volunteer in Elkhorn came to share his testimony with us, first in word, and then in song. Many of the other SWAP staff joined in with Randy in a wonderful bluegrass jam session.

We from Saint James who have been fortunate to share in this adventure in Elkhorn have been blessed in countless ways. Randy's musical gifts are among them.

Paul Hoffer

Some statistics

On our first night here, our hosts, Charlene and Keith Barr, shared with us some interesting facts:

• In Lancaster County, 9.2% of people live below the poverty level. In McDowell County, WV, that figure is 32.8% (based on 2000 census).
• The median home value in Lancaster County (in 2000) was $119,300; $22,600 in McDowell County.
• The percentage of 25-year-olds with a high school diploma in Lancaster County is 77%; in McDowell County, 50%.
• Median household income in Lancaster County in 2008 was $55,824; $16,931 in McDowell County.
• There are 496 persons per square mile in Lancaster County; only 52 in McDowell County.

This is a beautiful part of the country, notwithstanding the pervasive poverty. The people have a strong faith and persistent hope in tomorrow. The hospitality we have been shown is unparalleled. I think if you asked any of us on this trip who benefited more from our presence here, to a person we would answer that we did. Chester, the owner of the home in which I worked, is blind, in constant pain, and poor. But he doesn't hesitate to say, "God is good to me." This is a man who understands that all things belong to God and that he is a beloved child of his creator. What a gift that is.

The Signs of West Virginia

I would like to put up a sign at SWAP work site #3 that says, "Girls Rule"! Our amazing all-female work crew accomplished great things this week, in the process growing closer to each other, and also to the homeowner where we were working. Our group--Emily Killough, Liddy Renner, Mary Wesolowski and me, along with our fearless SWAP supervisor, Jennifer Arnold--worked at the home of Peaches, just outiside of the town of Keystone. Framing in and installing lattice around porches, cutting and installing drywall, taping and mudding, and nailing in porch supports and railings all gave us great opportunities to learn new carpentry skills--which I'm sure we will carry with us for a lifetime! Chatting with Peaches was not only fun and rewarding, but also gave us valuable insight into the history of this area and the people who live here.

A sign I've noticed each day on the way to our work site is on a billboard for a local church: this one reads, "Sin has no minimum wages," an example of colorful and expressive religious language here that we've learned about in a variety of ways. Another sign warns of "The high cost of low living." Life is hard for many people, and clearly faith is a source of support and inspiration.

We have also had several chances to learn about the history of West Virginia, and McDowell County in particular. The poorest county in the state, West Virginia now suffers from the loss of coal mining jobs, as well as recurrng natural (or not so natural) disasters. But in the past, coal mining boomed, drawing many to the promise of income and a better life. Our tour of the Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine and Museum gave us an overview of coal's impact here. Our guide spent his life in the mines, and was able to give us a first-hand account of what a coal miner's life was like. Remember the Hatfields and the McCoys? A sign along the road between the SWAP house and work site #3, for the "Hatfield & McCoy Trailhead," refers to another piece of history in McDowell County--feuding families in isolated mountain "hollers." The modern day sign of isolation, for us, was the lack of cell phone coverage the whole week we were here!

The best "signs" we've seen? The smiles on the faces of "our" homeowners, welcoming us and skills (or lack of them :-)), happy that we've come to give a hand. We'll take those smiles with us as we leave tomorrow, signs of new friendships we hope to renew again, if we make it back to West Virginia ......

Deborah Fast

A day to learn

Greek food in tiny Kimball, WV? Really good Greek food? In fact, there is, and we thoroughly enjoyed dinner at Ya'Sou last night. One of the things we've learned since coming here is that when mining took off in the mid-to-late 19th century, the majority of workers were either African Americans or immigrants. Italians are responsible for much of the stone work in the region - walls and facades created by true craftsmen who immigrated in the hopes of a better life. Greeks, as well, settled here, and Ya'Sou is a happy by-product of that!

We toured the Pocahontas (VA) Mine in the afternoon. I think we were all amazed at the back-breaking labor that goes into mining, especially in the early days when the digging and auguring and pick-axing was done by hand. We had a charming tour guide named Raymond Comer who worked in the mines for 40 years before retiring in 1995. His father before him started working in the mines at the tender age of 8! Interestingly, his grandson also works in the mines, although he wants to go to college to study...mining engineering! It must run in the blood. It's easy to see how all of these small unincorporated towns in southwestern West Virginia developed and then declined based on the proximity of an active mine. Once a mine was no longer productive, it was closed down and the town lost its primary economic support.

When we returned from dinner last night, we settled in to watch the movie "October Sky," about some high schoolers from nearby Coalwood who, inspired by Sputnik in 1957, decided to build a rocket themselves. It's an amazing story, made even more poignant by our having toured the mine and seen a bit of what that life was like. Familiar names of towns and roadways littered the film. Workgroup #4 - Bonita, Brad and me - passes through Coalwood every morning on our way to our work site. The welcome sign says "Home of the Rocket Boys."

Today is our final workday, and some of us are a bit anxious to complete our projects. We promised Patty and Chester that we'd have the dining room finished for them so they can get their kitchen back to normal. We laid 1/4 of the floor yesterday after having painted the walls, and laid the glue for the rest of the floor to cure overnight. We'll be able to get right to work to finish that this morning. Then we hope to get the toe-board trim installed so we can return the dining room table and hutch to their rightful place.

We are all so thankful for this opportunity to serve, and we adults are so proud of our young people at what they've been able to accomplish and the compassion they have demonstrated this week. We can't wait to tell the people of St. James all about it!

Icky Mold

When we first came here we didn't know what to expect. Waking up at 6:15 was not something that we were used to. Every morning we would wake up to pack our lunches before breakfast. Before we left we had devotions and then off to the worksite. We were all divided into work teams to help out home owners. Our group is as followed: David (staff leader), Wendy (group leader), Will, Katie, Skyler, and Matt (an individual, non-St. James volunteer - EET).

When we arrived at our destination, we got out all our supplies and spent a period of time just to chat with the home owners and get to know who we were spending our week with. They were very welcoming and made us all fill at home. We got to work it was nothing we had ever done before. We had to tear out the walls in the two rooms we were working and clean out all the mold and fiberglass. It all took time but we manage to finish before the day ended. It took blood and sweat to finish all that there was needed to be done. Lunch was at 12 each day but everytime we would ask it would be at least an hour or two before it was time to eat.

As the days decreased and the hours increased we became closer with the home owners and enjoyed each minute with them getting to know all that there was to know about them. Thou this week is quickly coming to an end, we are all going to miss the exhilarating moments in our time here in WV and are surely not going to forget them. We all hope to come back next year to experience all these wonderful moments and see all of our staff members faces again.

Katie Dunn & Skyler Gibbon