WORSHIP SERVICES: SUNDAY AT 9AM - SUNDAY SCHOOL AT 10:15AM
The Pine Island United Methodist Church sent thirteen individuals down into the heart of Appalachia to help build a room and in the process ended up building so much more. It all started with a group, under the leadership of Dawn Rohl, trying to find a place where they could be used to help people who were in need and at the same time connect with their faith in a new way. As they examined the options they chose to go down to Appalachia because that area has had extreme poverty for years even prior to the recession and this recession has even caused life to be worse down there. Prior to the recession the average family income was only $18,000 compared with $56,000 for Goodhue County and unemployment is typically double the rates of what it is here, being as high as 40% at times. Because there are very few economic and educational opportunities drugs are a big problem as well as other forms of illegal activity. Because of all these factors most people live in homes that would be condemned or deemed as unsuitable to live in if they were in our county. Yet, in the heart of this poverty there are places that bring hope and opportunity into the particular area we went to. The Red Bird Mission in Beverly, Kentucky is one of these places. The Red Bird Mission started in 1921 as a school house and has grown to its current level where it provides multiple levels of services. They recently built a new private school (building and tuition was mostly paid for by donations) that has 242 students and traditionally sees 80% of its student body going on to college. Red Bird also has a hospital, dental office, community store and a work camp that sends out volunteers that work on close to 250 homes a year. Seeing the organization, the impact and the message the mission was bringing to the area made it a perfect fit for the Pine Island United Methodist Church and the mission team it was sending. The trip started out July 25th, 2009 at 7am in the morning and they drove 15 hours down to Louisville, Kentucky where they spent the night. They awoke Sunday morning and went to Southeast Christian Church, which is currently the sixth largest church in the United States averaging close to 19,000 people in attendance every week. While people where skeptical that such a place could provide the “intimacy” they were used to in worship, they came away surprised not only by the powerful message and music, but the overall demeanor of the place. It started out the week well as the message focused on “knowing God” and how much God knows us.The group carried on from meeting God in worship to moving on to meeting God with their hands and working with someone in need. They traveled the curvy roads of Appalachia and finally got to Red Bird to discover they would still have more curvy roads to travel as their “project” was about 30 miles from the mission work camp. So every day the team set out on windy roads that have steep drop offs and was mostly only one lane even though traffic could go both ways, that in and of it self was a practice of faith for some. When they got to the site, it was a home made mostly of old doors craftily put together to form a 10 x 24 room that was home to Doug. Doug was typical of many people who lived up there, having spent some time working at the coal mines and doing some logging. Currently he was unemployed and strapped with debt that made getting ahead a difficult task for him. His home had power, but did not have any running water, which created some challenges for the work team. Doug with his graceful spirit embraced the work team from the moment they arrived. He helped them carry supplies up his steep driveway, since the work van could not go up it. Every day the work team started with prayer and Doug immediately took part in praying and even lifted up prayers himself for the work team and those who made it possible for us to be there. Everyday provided new experiences for the group as they learned more about construction, the area, God and each other. On Monday and Tuesday most of the time was spent working on the room and learning about each other. On Wednesday we were given a day off and decided to explore the Cumberland Gap National Park located where Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia meet. The Gap is a part of the Appalachian Mountains that rises up and provides a key entry way into lower Appalachia, which was used by settlers and was a key military place during the civil war and pioneer times. On Thursday night the work camp allowed the 150+ campers to share their talents and the Pine Island United Methodist Church mission team decided to share a melodrama written especially for the trip by Cheryl Finnegan to the rest of the crew. The melodrama shared some of our Minnesota heritage and helped lead the crowd to cheers and laughs. On Friday night we closed with a communion service where we learned about what each of the work teams did and how their experience touched them. With each new day and each new experience people’s lives were touched by God. So while building a room for Doug was a very important part of the trip, it was the relationship that people made with Doug, each other and God that made it a truly transformational experience. Doug made it memorable for us as he shared about his life, his grandkids, his life’s journey and his faith. He made us feel at home and we were brought together even closer as we celebrated his birthday. The team presented him with a set of chairs as all he had to sit on was some large bricks and a pair of binoculars to help him look for Elk, one of Doug’s favorite past times. By the end of the week the team had built him a room that the assistant from Red Bird who occasionally stopped by to check on us called “the most structurally and solid room he had seen built in a long time.” A compliment that made this work team proud since only one person, our construction leader, Ben Rohl, had any extensive experience working in construction. We left feeling that we built more then a room, but a place that would be home to someone who in our short time we grew to love and will never forget.
On Friday we parted from Doug with lots of hugs, prayers and tears and on Saturday morning we headed back home. On Saturday night we were treated to a wonderful meal hosted by Pastor Greg’s in-laws and his wife Jill Strunk. We woke up on Sunday morning and had a very different time of worship compared to the “mega-church” we went to the week before as the mission team along with some of our hosts gathered for a time of reflection and communion in our host living room. In the midst of that worship the mission trip was summed up well as people shared how it impacted them. They shared how working with their hands helped them experience the “scarred hands” of Christ more, how it challenged them to give more of themselves to God and others and how walking along side Doug for a brief time made it easier to see God walking along side them.
In summation the Pine Island United Methodist Church went down to build a room and found that they had a lot of room in their lives to open up to God, Doug, each other and many people they know they will meet along life’s journey.
If you would like to know more about this please come to our special presentation on the trip at the Pine Island United Methodist Church on Sunday the 23rd that will start with a pot luck around 11:00am. After the pot luck we will share our experiences and the play we performed at Red Bird as well. You may also go to our website piumc.org and click on link to missions and red bird to see more pictures of what we did and accomplished.
GROUP AT SOUTHEAST CHRISTIAN CHURCH - THE SIXTH LARGEST CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES - (19,000 AVG IN WEEKLY ATTENDANCE) ON THEIR WAY DOWN TO RED BIRD
WORK GROUP AT RED BIRD MISSION CAMP.
WORSHIP SERVICES: SUNDAY AT 9AM - SUNDAY SCHOOL AT 10:15AM
