An Amazing Mission Trip

I have to say that I think this year's family mission trip blessed me more than any so far. We decided to do something a little different this year. Normally we schedule our time with several different ministries in the Harlan County area and move from location to location working on different projects. Then last year something happened that inspired us to rethink things. As our guys were working on what was supposed to be a simple roof repair for a man in Lynch, an entire wall of his house collapsed from water damage and rot. From that point they spent the rest of their time that week with that man working on his house. He worked alongside them and they were able to build a relationship with him that has become so strong that he has actually visited us all in Spencer County a few times since. So with that in mind, we asked God to lead us to one family that we could focus all of our efforts on and really impact. What God led us to was an amazing woman who blessed us so much.

We worked with Heritage Ministries and found a lady in Evarts who was desperately in need of help.  She is the widow of a coal miner who was killed in a mine accident several years ago. She has a grown daughter who suffers from a drug addiction.  Her daughter has a three year old son and had a baby on the way when we met her. The courts had given the grandmother custody of both the three year old and the unborn child but social services was extremely concerned about the condition of her home. Her water heater had stopped working some time ago and she was heating water on the stove for bathing. The room at the back of her house where the water heater was had major water damage in the floor from the leaking. Her ceilings are made of plywood and where collapsing in places and insulation was falling into the house. This is a very hard working woman. She works at a factory nearby and does the best that she can with her house, but it was beyond what she was able to do alone. That's where rh came in. You responded to our requests for help and we were able to be the hands and feet that traveled to bring her help.

Our men jumped right in on the repairs. They replaced the water heater with a brand new one. Sometime on the first day the floor in that room completely collapsed under Daniel and Dwayne, so she ended up with an entirely new floor. They also repaired the ceilings, caulked around the windows (which was badly needed), replaced an exterior door, and rebuilt her porch steps. There were probably other things, too, they were constantly busy! In the kids' room they pulled up old flooring, replaced areas that were dangerous, put down new carpet, then turned it over to the ladies and kids.

As the men worked the first day to get the room ready for us to come in, the kids helped us sort through all of the donations you sent with us. Then we all loaded into the van and went to Walmart to buy the things she still needed. On the second day we spent some time handling out gifts at the local nursing home and visiting with the residents there. Then, finally, the room was ready for us to get to work. The middle school girls helped some of the adults paint the room and clean the layers of coal dust from the walls. When we all finally showed up at her place at the same time it was quite a sight! Her little house couldn't even hold us all! The kids helped us unload the donations and bring them into the house like a bunch of little ants in a line. They were so sweet. We arranged and organized everything in the room, put the crib together, cleaned the dresser she had planned to use, and got everything ready. We also brought along some other surprises. We had made her a big bucket of our homemade laundry detergent. It will likely last her a year! At our last Lynch planning meeting we had a soup party. We bagged and froze all the leftovers and took her over 25 frozen meals that she can quickly prepare for herself when she needs to. We also took all of the canned goods you had donated and stocked her pantry. She was absolutely overwhelmed that people who didn't even know her would be willing to share so much with her. That presented the perfect opportunity for a wonderful conversation with her about God's love.

The new baby was born two days before we arrived in Lynch. He had to stay in the hospital for several days, reminding us how incredibly perfect God's timing is. The child was much larger and healthier than the doctors expected. He arrived home from the hospital just as the last new step was being nailed onto the porch. We finished just in time to welcome him home.

I use the word "finished" loosely. We never feel like we finish when we are there. There is still so much this lady needs, and so much we would like to do for her. We have to constantly remind ourselves that God is taking care of her and loves her much more than we do. He used us to meet her immediate needs and we trust that He will continue to provide for her and the boys.

We were all so touched by the relationship we built with this wonderful woman who insisted on cooking for us while we were there even though she can barely support herself. It absolutely confirmed for us that choosing one or two families and focusing on them makes a much bigger impact that filling our time with random projects.

We are so very grateful for all you did to support this trip and help us to bless this family.  Come with us next year! We always go during Spencer County's fall break. Put it on your calendar now. Start putting money aside this week if you need to! I promise you will be so blessed.

Lynch debriefing.

Before & After

Just to give you a little perspective...here is a before and after picture of the little boys room from this week. 


This is really a good before picture.  After the room was cleaned up.  And those black looking shadows on the wall are not shadows.  It's coal dust.

 

Here is the after shot.  Doesn't even look like the same room!

TOP TEN: Day 4

So, here’s my sappy side.  I know, most of what comes out of my mouth is nonsense and sarcastic, but give me 3 minutes of sentiment.   

Today, while standing in the little boys finished room that our whole team has spent time working on, I had to fight back tears as Ms. Joanne expressed her gratitude over and over again for all we’ve done.  As we were standing there, her younger daughter and her husband were at the hospital picking up the baby who we all thought would spend weeks in the hospital.   

He spent a grand total of 6 days there.

 

I know that it was totally God’s timing to have our team and this little family cross paths at the time that it did.  A family who was desperate to provide for the needs of a new baby.  And we had a ready and willing team of folks that couldn’t wait to show the love of Christ. 

My love for the hearts of the people of our church grows each time we come to Lynch.  I have never been able to work with a more servant hearted group of people than the ones here with us.  Willing to give up days off work, donate supplies and even dipping into their own pockets to purchase items.  Selflessly giving.

I love these people.  I love Lynch and the people here.  And count myself blessed to be able to be a small part of Ms. Joanne’s life this week.

Ok.  I’m done.

On to the TOP TEN!

10.  We’ve got this never ending box of random plates that we’ve been using forever.  This is the 2^nd year we have brought the box to Lynch and we are STILL being “Aged to Perfection” and doing the baby girl shower thing!  At least that’s what our paper plates say.  At this rate, I think the box may last us another several years. 

9.  We also have had never ending bacon.  Remember that 10 lb box of bacon?  Do you know how long it takes to COOK 10 lbs of bacon??  Just trust us.  A really, really long time. 

8.  The folks around here have a serious Diet Mt. Dew addiction.  Like, bad enough therapy may be needed.  Today at lunch, Ronda looked at Jason with a very desperate look and said, “Please tell me you have a Mt. Dew!!??”  I was glad he did.  I didn’t know what our plan of action was going to be if he didn’t! 

7.  Ever wondered how many people it takes to put a crib together?  I counted at least 7 at one point.  And it was still rigged with screws and pieces of copper pipe.

 

6.  Hmmmm, apple butter vs. Dwayne?  Interestingly enough, Nicole choose apple butter this morning when he tried to sit next to her at breakfast.  Ronda was on her way back to the table with Nicole an apple butter biscuit and she was going to let nothing come between her and that biscuit…including her husband!  I know she loves Dwayne…just poor timing on Dwayne’s part!

5.  Emma has this knack for taking 10 minutes to tell a pre-story for a statement that would have taken 17 seconds to share.  It’s really quite an impressive skill she has.  You don’t realize she’s doing it until she’s already roped you into listening.  Well, since Pastor Nick and Seth showed up last night, she had fresh meat to listen to her stories.  Noticing Seth enjoying one of her tales this morning, we kept reminding her of things that she needed to tell him, sending her back to his table several times.  Yes, on purpose.  I’m still not sure if Seth realized he was being used, but he patiently listened to all she had to say.

 

4.  Living with folks for 5 days always gives you an insight into what people like, don’t like, how to push their buttons, their schedules, etc.  Wanna know how to stress Donna Waldo out?  Use all the crock-pots in the building to heat up dinner…without using crock-pot liners.  In our defense, Donna, we simply forgot.  And then we just had to laugh about it!

3.  Conversation between Michael and Jimmy this morning.  As Jimmy stood there eating a piece of bacon.

“Micheal, are you gonna go on the mission trip with us??”

“Ummm, we are on the mission trip, Jimmy…”

“No, we aren’t.  We are not sharing Jesus!”

In his little mind, he was eating bacon.  Not sharing Jesus.  He just needed to know when we were gonna get started! 

2.  You’ll notice throughout the picture slideshow a really fancy hammer.  That’s Jason Cox’s hammer.  Yep, it got bedazzled!  By several that will remain nameless.  Bad thing is, he kinda enjoyed all those pretties and used it like that all day!

 

1.  I don’t think #1 could be anything other than having this sweet baby come home from the hospital today!

Saturday's Pictures

TOP TEN: Day 3

10.  Today while visiting at the nursing home, we met a lady who was 99 years old.  Her daughter and granddaughter were visiting with her when we showed up.  I actually wondered why she was there.  Other than being in a wheel chair, she looked very healthy and seemed to be of sound mind.  She was so sweet as she talked to our kids.  And the kids were all shocked that she would actually be 100 in April!!  Guess they don’t know anyone that old! 

9.  The kids finished up our crafts to deliver to the nursing home this morning.  Which made a tremendous mess.  When they finished and we moved to the clean up phase, there was much protest since they said they only made the mess because we asked them to work on the crafts.  Ha.  Good try.  Then they pulled the “We need a maid” card.  Also a good try.  We have maids.  You guys!!

8.  Some of our ladies encountered a pig just hanging out in the middle of the road on their way home tonight.  I thought that only happened in Spencer County?? 

7.  The family we are helping this week actually lives in Evarts, about an hour away from where we are.  Well, an hour if you go around the mountain.  Which is the safe way.  Or 20 minutes if you go OVER the mountain.  The unsafe way.  Everyone has been taking the route around the mountain because we were encouraged to go that way by the locals.  The road is that bad.  But Kenny and Phil showed up tonight just in time for dinner all grins.  We soon found out they had left a half hour after everyone else, but had beat them all home!  Let’s just say they didn’t follow the local’s advice!

6.  I’m not sure what prompted this statement, but Michael Cox (who is all of 8 years old) informed us today he is “strong, fast and handsome”.  Well, yes you are!  Later he also informed us he is “sensitive”.  I don’t know what his daddy is teaching him, but he sure is trying to work us!

5.  Want some mac ‘n cheese?  Ronda will be more than happy to make you some.  In fact, she can make enough to feed all of Lynch.  Which she did tonight.  Her and Grace Cox were up to their elbows in elbows!  Ha, get it??

 

4.  We made our annual stop at the park in Benham and spent a little time on the beloved merry-go-round.  I’ve never seen one thing hold the attention of so many kids for such a long time.  Although this year, an hour spinning circles followed by piling into the back of a van to drive up and down hills proved to make a lot of our bellies do a little bit of flip-flopping.  I’m just always worried someone’s gonna break something.  As long as Charlie’s there, I don’t guess we have to worry about it though.  He’s the resident safety advisor.  Emma concocted a plan to jump on the merry-go-round while it was spinning.  Knowing Emma, it probably involved cartwheels.  Charlie’s response:  “That is not a good idea.”  You are probably right.

 

3.  So, just as a reminder we are staying at Solomon’s Porch.  Which used to be a hospital.  Many, many years ago.  But curiosity got the best of several people today, so it took 5 people to take out 2 bags of trash this evening (that was their cover) as they went on a hunt for the morgue.  They are pretty sure they found it in the basement.  I’m just glad we are on the 3^rd floor.  I don’t want to know.

2.  Yall know that show “Turtle Man”??

 

Yeah, that’s him.  Well, now we have an RHBC version, except it’s “Cat Woman”.  And it’s Charlotte.  Apparently she spent a good part of today chasing a cat.  Determined to catch it, I don’t think she knew what would happen if she did catch it.  Which she didn’t.  But it has given us many hours of laughter as the guys recounted all her cat catching tactics!

1.  As our team was getting ready to leave today, our new 3-year-old friend wandered into his room where new paint and carpet had been installed.  He took a look around and said, “It’s so petty!”  (read as: pretty)  I’m sure that made the guys day!

Thursday's Pictures

We love this place.

It seems like a really odd thing to say about a place like this. Poverty, dirt, coal dust, unreliable electricity. Not exactly a list of pros. But there is something about being here with these people that touches all of us in a way that you really can't explain unless you have seen it. We leave in tears every year for all of the needs we couldn't address.

It has been such an incredible blessing to be a part of the life of this family we are helping this year.  This lady is so sweet, and so resilient at the same time. She wants to do the absolute best she can for her grandbabies, so she recognizes that she needs some help. She is so incredibly grateful for it. At the same time, she is determined to do something for us so she keeps fixing us food. She is very sweet.

We got some discouraging news about this area when we arrived. Black Mountain is home to three little towns: Cumberland, Benham, and Lynch. Lynch is farthest up the mountain. The mines in Lynch and Benham have been closed for years now, which is why this area is so deserted.  There is still a mine in operation in Cumberland, but not for long. They are in bankruptcy. They have already laid off a huge number of workers in two rounds. The next round will be the last of the workers and the mine will close down. That is coming very soon. After that happens there will be very little employment opportunities left on the mountain.  The local restaurants, the few there are, are already cutting their hours because business is slow since the layoffs. That's what happens when a mine closes, it affects every other business in the area.

Please be praying for the people on this mountain.  There are so many needs here!

TOP TEN: Day 2

Today we took the team approach and split ourselves up in order to accomplish more.

I know you guys know we are helping a grandmother and her two grandsons, one of which was just born on Monday. So, all the men headed to Ms. Joanne’s house to work on repairing floors and installing a hot water heater. Nicole and the middle school girls also headed that way to work on painting the little boy’s room. And me and the rest of the mommies and kiddos hung back to take care of sorting the donations you guys gave us and doing a little shopping for the family. Divide and conquer. That was the plan.

And it worked quite well. I think we had a very productive day. And we had fun doing it!

10. We found a kitty at lunch time. Named him Harlan. Rhonda wanted to take him home. We feed him some chicken noodle soup and crackers. Who knew cats ate chicken noodle soup??

9. Have you ever seen jean-eating ants? Dwayne had a couple today that tried to eat his right off. When he flicked them off, their little pinchers stayed attached to his pants. That’s a heck of an ant!

8. Like I said above, we took the preschool and elementary kids to do some shopping today for the family. Let’s just say Wal-Mart with 11-pint-sized helpers is not an easy task. Especially when Sam needs to stop every 10 feet to discuss what we are having for dinner in 3 days. And Cambree needs a nap. And Emma needs to eat lunch. We caused quite the ruckus in the Harlan Wal-mart today, but as usual, our kids did fantastic and were great help today!

7. We stopped with the kids today at a park in Harlan to let them burn off some steam and eat lunch. Only problem was the picnic area was it was totally on the other side of the parking lot. No worries, I’ll just back the van down this tiny, bumpy road here so we can unload close to the table. Oh, that’s a walking trail, not a road. Ooops. Too late. Off-roading in the church van. Don’t worry, I redeemed myself later by parallel parking the thing. Yeah, try parallel parking a 15-passenger van. In the dark. On the side of a mountain. Bam. I did it!

6. At this park there was a fairly decent tennis court. The kids immediately ran into it, shut the chain link door and ran around like mad men. I’m not suggesting we do anything inhumane, but since we need more room for the kids at church, why don’t we look into one of these giant kid cages??

5. Know what else is on a tennis court? A net. Let’s just say all our little boys thought they should be able to hurdle it. But the majority of them are just too short to make that happen. At least without some pain involved… What I don’t understand is why they continued to try and continued to hurt themselves time after time??

4. At the family’s house today, Dwayne and Daniel fell through the floor in the utility room. It’s becoming our MO to take out a wall or a floor or a roof of some kind. It just wouldn’t be Lynch if we didn’t destroy something major.

3. Our other project was to paint the little boy’s room. Which is fantastic when you can see. But what happens when the electricity randomly goes out? Which apparently happens on a fairly regular basis. Have you every tried to paint with a bunch of middle school girls in the dark? Doesn’t work.

2. We did part of our shopping at the Freedom Center today. The Freedom Center is a ministry that is run similarly to a Goodwill store, but they typically just charge about $3 a bag for clothes, instead of individually. We have spent some of time in the previous year helping them sort and move clothes from their storehouse to their storefront, but this year we were on the receiving end of their kindness. When they found out what we were doing, they donated all the clothes we had picked out for the two little boys!

1. The grandmother we were helping at today was so grateful for our help, that she prepared a huge BBQ lunch for all those at her house today. Knowing the situation she is currently in, we know that couldn’t have been an easy thing for her to financially do, so her gesture to our team meant even more because we know she had to sacrifice to do it. It makes it really easy to spend countless hours at someone house working when you know they honestly appreciate what you are doing!

First of many pictures...

Here's your Day 1 & 2 pictures.

Enjoy.

It's hard work being in Lynch!

Mission tripin' with kids requires play time breaks...

Waiting ...

Work day number 1 starts today. Nicole, big girls, Donna, and the men are headed to Ms. Joanns house to assess needs and start painting. The men are going to replace some flooring, put in a water heater, and fix some places where the rain comes in. The rest of the ladies and the little kids are sorting donations and shopping.

But right now we are waiting. We do a lot of that!
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Wednesday's TOP TEN!

Well, it’s Day One of the Lynch Trip.  Which means no actual work has been done, but we’ve had a ton of fun.  Follow along with our Top Ten and see what we mean…

 

10.  “Are we there yet?  Are we there yet??  Are we there yet???  Are we there yet???”  “NO!!”

 

9.  Wanna know how to scare Nicole?  Just walk up to her car window.  And watch her scream!  You really had to be there for that one…

 

8.  We put the lightest people (read as: kids) in the van pulling the heaviest stuff in the trailer.  What we really needed were a few larger people to balance out the weight.  Lesson learned.  And no, that is not a fat joke!

 

7.  The reason it takes us 7 hours to make a 4 hour trip is we have to stop for a 15 minute coffee break 30 minutes into the trip.  And potty breaks every hour.  That’s just how we roll when caravanning with 29 people.

 

6.  Speaking of caravans, we had the most interesting one on the road.  A church van pulling a trailer, a police cruiser (the Cox’s Crown Vic), a mini-school bus (the Felts’ Ford Flex) and two cardboard boxes on wheels (a couple of Kia Souls).  The only thing we were missing is those giant hamsters from the Kia commercial…

 

5.  Connie, our resident cook, was unable to join us this year on our trip.  So she supplied us with literally EVERYTHING we needed.  She cooked half of it before we even left and gave us instructions about exactly what to do.  Complete in a folder with each typed page in a page protector.  “Put 2 bags of salad in a large bowl.”  Hey Connie, what if I want to put it in a medium sized bowl??  And make sure you get the hamburger juice, because that’s what makes the burgers taste like they just came off the grill!  We give her a hard time about all the details, but honestly, we couldn’t do it without her help!

 

4.  Connie also sent us 10 lbs of frozen bacon.  And the instructions say to fix 3 lbs in the morning.  Problem is, she didn’t send us a chisel.  You know, to pry the frozen 3 lbs off.  So, after much deliberation about the consequences of going against Connie’s Book of Food, we made the decision to have only sausage in the morning while we let the bacon thaw.  Don’t be mad, Connie. 

 

3.  I’m concerned about Jason’s extensive knowledge of Big Foot apps.  Actually, just his knowledge of Big Foot in general.  It’s actually quite entertaining!  As we speak, he is using his Big Foot Sounds App to scare his wife…

 

2.  Anyone hear of “Flat Stanley”?  Google it. It’s basically a story about a flat boy who visits around the world. The kindergarteners do a project each year where they send a Flat Stanley to someone in another part of the world.  Sam has his Flat Stanley with us this year.  And Phil felt a little left out and Roy didn’t get to come with us, so he made his own “Flat Roy”.  Yeah.  I’m not joking.  We’ve probably had waaaaay too much fun with this…

That's Roy's face.  On a cardboard cut-out.  Flat Roy.

 

1.  At Solomon’s Porch, the bathroom situation is different each year.  This year, some of us are sharing a community bathroom.  While Nicole and I were getting ready for bed tonight in the shared bathroom, the guys concocted a plan with their “Flat Roy” and had him taped to the door frame of the bathroom.  Needless to say, when we opened the door, our screams woke up all the children.  And Nicole cried from laughing so much!

Here.

We are here!!! Yay!!

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Gone!

We just left! Wanna know how to double a 4 hour trip?? Stay tuned and we'll show you! Starting with 29 folks in a caravan to Lynch, KY!!

The baby in Harlan is doing ok.

	The baby in Harlan is doing ok. 8 lbs! Bigger than they thought and stronger. Next 2 days are critical, but he is doing ok. Still in Harlan. Ms. Joanne is sick and having tests to see if she may have a bleeding ulcer. Keep praying!

Got a highchair!

Yay!!!!!!
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We still need ...

A highchair, canned food, clothing for boys sizes infant through 5 (or even bigger, we can always take her boxes to store it), lots and lots of diapers and wipes, and some toys.

We leave Wednesday morning. You can email [email protected] if you have things to donate.

Follow us on the blog this week!
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Cute donations!!

We have been given a crib bedding set that has fire trucks, police cars, and dump trunks on it. It has fire engine red trim. We have a crib but need a crib mattress. We also have a cute white lamp with a red and white shade! Obviously we are starting a theme here! If anyone has fire truck toys that they'd like to send, that would be perfect!
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Specific Prayer Needs for Next Week

I had the chance to talk with the lady from Harlan County we will be helping next week. She is a very sweet and humble woman who wants so badly to be able to take care of her grandbabies and give them what they need. I can't wait to spend some time with her.

There are two specific things you can pray for on her behalf. First, and most importantly, her daughter is going to have a C section to deliver the baby on Monday. This is a very difficult situation because custody of that child has already been given to the grandmother before the child's birth. Please pray for safety for the baby and his mother. There is a good chance this child will be born with complications and may need to be moved to the NICU in Knoxville. Please help us to pray for him!

The other is a specific need for the family. She has had to store her lawn mower and other outside gas-powered equipment in her house for fear that it would be stolen if she left it outside. With the state having awarded her custody of the kids, there will be CPS visits and I have no doubt they will not allow her to continue to have those things in the house. Especially since she burns coal to heat the house. A gas can and gas-powered equipment in the house with open flame heating is not a good thing!  We need to find a solution to this problem for her. Whether it's a shed of some sort or finding someone else willing to do the upkeep on her property with their own equipment, something has to change. Please pray for guidance as we try to help her figure that out.  We have the man-power to be able to build a small shed, but that would cost more than we currently have in our fund for the trip.

Several of you have asked about diapers and formula. We still need A LOT of diapers!! We will make sure she has a good supply before we leave her. We won't know what kind of formula she will need until the baby is born and able to eat on its own, but Wal-Mart gift cards would be incredibly helpful!

Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. We are so excited about the trip and the opportunity to help this family!