During the first week of this month, a team of seven
from Trinity Church traveled to The Joy Center in Big Creek, Kentucky. We went there expecting to stay in the dormitory
there, but due to some unexpected plumbing problems, we stayed at the parsonage
instead. While we were there, Pastor
Becky stayed in her husband’s (he is also a pastor) parsonage a half-hour away.
We really didn’t know what to expect when we got
there. Most of us had never set foot on
The Joy Center and even though Patti had been there before, she had never been
with a group that had a work project like ours.
But every day was little short of amazing and
miraculous.
We were welcomed with open arms by Pastor Becky and
Nancy (who volunteers there full-time in lives in a basement apartment in the
parsonage) and everyone else we met.
Our original plan was to renovate two rooms for
Mitchell, an elderly blind man, who lived a short distance away but that plan
changed even before we left. Apparently,
the person who originally estimated the cost of the project was inexperienced,
and missed the mark by a considerable margin.
First, the cost of materials was much greater than estimated so we
probably couldn’t afford to do both rooms, and second, the second room would
require far more time than we had available.
And so, the next day we set to work tearing apart Mitchell’s bathroom. At least some of us did.
If you were here at Trinity when I was inviting folk
to go with us, you might remember that I said the folks at The Joy Center would
find something for everyone to do regardless of your age or skills.
They did.

You might have noticed that Warren and Kevin were
names that were unfamiliar to you, and you would be right. These men were not from Trinity, but were on
our team just the same. Warren is a
retired gentleman with some construction experience from Atlanta, Georgia who
volunteers on projects like ours at Red Bird for several weeks every year and
Kevin attends church at The Joy Center.
Each day we worked until dinner time, and then
returned to the parsonage for dinner and conversation about what everyone had
seen and done that day. After dinner, we
often found other things that needed to be done or repaired at Pastor Becky’s
parsonage or at The Joy Center. Since
the only “staff” there is Pastor Becky and Nancy, literally everything is their
responsibility. That meant that any
little thing we could do for them saved them precious time to do other
things. We sorted beans for bean soup
(sometimes sacks of beans have pebbles mixed in with them), mopped, dusted,
vacuumed, mowed grass, weeded, put up shelves, installed lights, repaired
things, installed a sliding board on the playground, moved boxes, replaces
screens, and anything else that we could find to help out.
We finished Mitchell’s bathroom Wednesday afternoon
but still found things to do at the Joy Center for the rest of our time
there. On Thursday we travelled to the Red
Bird Mission and toured the medical clinic, food pantry, clothing store, craft
store, the Red Bird School, the Red Bird Conference offices, and several other
things.
It is impossible for me to describe all the things
that happened that week in this short space, but Trinity should certainly be
proud of our team and the work that was done in Big Creek, Kentucky. You should be proud of the effort that it
took by the entire congregation to send and support our team. We saw much, learned much, blessed many, built
new friendships, and were blessed beyond measure ourselves.
I hope that you were able to come and hear Pastor
Becky when she spoke at Trinity this month or have been able to see our
pictures, or have been able to talk to some of our team members. Everyone was so excited that they were all
talking about going back before we had even started for home and we are
already, tentatively, planning another trip next Spring.
And just in case you were worried that going on a mission
trip meant that you would have to preach or something, not one of us had to get
in front of a group of people. Our
entire witness on this trip was all about being a servant and doing things for
others as we were able.
There is a famous quote that sums up much of what “missions”
really means.
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