By Mo Scarpelli

For many Americans, a heated house is a necessity. If that means installing a new heat pump, so be it. But to those in McDowell County, West Virginia, Jack Fultz says even basic home repair is not a given – it’s a luxury.

More than 24 percent of family households in McDowell County make less than $10,000 a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“They have no options. Our people have just enough money to get by,” said Fultz, founder of the non-profit group School for Life in Gary, West Virginia. “They have just enough for food, gas, utilities, with no extra money for home repair.”

That explains Carlisa and Donald Merriweather’s story. Four years ago, Carlisa moved into the house her mother had grown up in. Her new home was actually a very old one, dating back to before the 20th century. She never had the option to turn on the heat in her home save for small kerosene heaters in several rooms.

“In the wintertime, Carlisa would come down and stay with us because it was cold,” said Carlisa’s mother, Olivia Bell. “It’s not good when you keep the kerosene on overnight, it’s expensive and you have to watch inhaling the fumes too much.”

The whole neighborhood, known as the Gary No. 11 camp, was built more than a hundred years ago by the U.S. Steel Company for mine workers and their families. The house foundations were constructed with only a couple of feet above the ground, making them too low to install electric heating pumps underneath.

Carl Bell, Carlisa’s father, says the family had two options: they could build an additional room on the house for the heating pump and pipes, or they could hire a contractor and crew to install all of it in the attic.

“If you hire a contractor, you might as well give them the house,” said Bell. “It’s that expensive.”

Bell and a few family members decided to add to the house themselves, but found it hard to acquire the funds and spare time. The new pump alone cost more than $600, and Carlisa’s husband had little time after work to help Bell.

This is where Jack Fultz and his wife, Brenda, came in.

“Carl is one of the first guys I met when we came out here,” said Fultz, who moved into the unused Old Gary School three years ago to start his nonprofit company. “Carl and his brother would help us out at the school, they’d unload trucks and do other things.”

The school’s upstairs classrooms have been converted into living quarters for volunteers that want to help Fultz chip away at a seemingly endless list of residents like the Merriweathers in need of home repair. Experience Mission arrived at the school in early June and their first teams of volunteers, one from Greenville, North Carolina and another from Pennsylvania’s Panther Valley area, found their way through the misty mountains to the school a week later.

The teams then split up to take on different projects: some stayed at the school to teach and play with local children during a bible school program called Kid’s Club; some helped Brenda Fultz sort through cluttered classrooms in the school; and others set off to tackle construction projects. This included a team of five EM volunteers that arrived at Carlisa’s house, eager to finish what her father had started.

“It makes you feel helpful,” said 17-year-old volunteer Brandon Hefferfinger while on a break from laying drywall with his father and friends. “It’s not an off-the-wall, different thing to do, the jobs are very possible for anyone. These people just need help.”

EM has helped, by spending more than $300 on materials and by recruiting volunteers like 18-year-old Joe Folk, who believes that the quality of life for people of West Virginia is just as important as anywhere else.

“We considered going out of the States to do mission work,” said Folk. “But then we decided to help one of our own.”

Merriweather says she is grateful for that, as she was dreading another cold winter with her 7-month-old son. Jack added her house to the his list of repairs almost two years ago, and with the help of EM, finally got enough hands to do the job.

Having EM crews work comforts Merriweather, who says she prefers EM because she can trust the crew.

“You don’t have to worry about ‘em out here fussin’ and cussin’ and fightin’ or taking anything,” Merriweather said. “I was glad when they came, relieved.”

Jack Fultz and EM volunteers try to spread the message of Christianity through
this kind of help all summer long in McDowell County, one of the poorest counties in the country.

“Most Christians just go to church,” said Fultz. “The Bible says, ‘Ye shall know them by their fruits,’ and this is just some of the fruit we can provide, by giving time and hard work. Others will notice because these houses beautify the community.”

Experience Mission is offering Summer 2009 mission trips to West Virginia and other locations in the U.S. and abroad. Visit www.experiencemission.org or call  360-732-0986  to learn more.

Delays and unforeseen problems seem to like to find their way into our first day’s schedule here in West Virginia, as we have seen this happen every week and thus have almost come to expect problems. Wesleyan Chapel United Methodist Church brought 31 members, and it was our largest single group yet. This group of 31 was full of spunk and already seemed quite unified and just happy to be together, which made for an easy-going and fun environment. The first night was off with a boom when Jackie Colenda and Elliot Malpass led worship in our group time on keyboard and guitar.

As I talked about earlier, Monday morning had a slow start when construction coordinator Todd got sick, which put him out of commission for our first day of work. So Emily and I scrambled to get scaffolding and ladders to two different painting sites, to find the right paint colors, to give out directions to a project 30 minutes away, and to do it all with one vehicle and to make sure everyone was happy while it was all happening. So we got Todd some medicine and sent him off to bed and then had to share the van to deliver groups and their supplies to each work site in somewhat of a timely manner. When all groups and we thought, all the supplies were finally to their destinations the problems didn’t stop there. The wrong paint had been dropped off at the wrong location, and the scaffolding didn’t fit together and there weren’t enough ladders and the benches for painting were wet, and our community partners, Jack and Brenda were gone for the day, and there was only one van and two interns to fix it all. By the grace of God Emily and I didn’t crack under the pressure though, and we slowly but surely worked everything out to where each group was happy and working, at least for the morning.

The next couple days mellowed out a little, and once again God proved He had it all under control and apparently just wanted to make sure we knew it. Life in West Virginia is always an adventure, and never without struggle, but we have come to expect and look forward to each new day, not matter what it brings. The week ahead is sure to be productive and a learning experience for all!

Lovin’ the Lord in West Virginia,

Leanna

This week has had a different, but good, atmosphere, as this is our first week with only one group at a time. They traveled all the way from Maryland, and despite wrong turns, tornado-like wind and rain and the treacherous mountain roads of West Virginia, they made it!

They came prepared with knowledge, skill and tools to take on some pretty big projects, and that’s just what we had planned for them. Monday morning got off to a slow start with divvying up just where everyone was going to work, but after all that was sorted the groups took off in a blur of excitement.

The devotional lesson the night prior had been about seeing others around us through God’s eyes, and respecting and loving them just as they are because that’s exactly how God made them. I encouraged the group to get to know the people, and as these past few days have progressed, I have seen that happening even more than I was expecting.

I noticed relationships forming in kids club, which has been smaller than usual but the group from Our Savior Lutheran Church has taken it all in stride and has used this to their advantage. “There have been some really awesome individual connections made between the kids and my group,” said leader Natasha Bowlds when asked how she thought kids club was going. “Ya know, we may not have as long of a story or song time, but we’re playing with the kids, and spending time with them, and that’s what they’ll remember when we leave; that someone took time to care about them, and to really want to spend time with them, and that’s what we’re doing out there.”

I also got a chance to visit the work sites today, and was in awe of what I saw when I arrived at the second one. I walked up the road to the old broken down house where the group has been building a needed new porch for a small and broken family. As I got to the front yard I noticed two of the girls sitting up on the finished portion of the porch talking with and getting to know the daughter and mother in family. They were dirty, and one could tell they had not washed for days. It is also well known that the daughter is a prostitute and crack dealer. None of this held back the two high school girls from Maryland though, they all sat together playing with the dogs, talking, and sharing their lives with one another. I could see the love of God flowing out of them as these may be some of the only people this family meets, especially the younger daughter that are showing them true affection and not asking for anything in return.

Needless to say, these first few days have already been exciting and that makes me more excited for the remainder of the week! God is definitely at work here! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Lovin’ the Lord in West Virginia,

Leanna

“There’s enough work to be done around here for the next 25 years,” says our community partner Jack Fultz as we drive around McDowell County in his full size donated mini van. I take another drink of my fifth water bottle of the day as air conditioning are not commonly heard words down here, and the hot sticky air seems to be quite persistent. “There are good people here, and they really appreciate what we do, that’s why it’s just a good area to do this work, ” comments Jack as we go from house to house looking for ways to help. We have come to discover that this County is full of history and life, but many have maybe lost hope because of the living standards. Jack and Brenda Fultz, the full time missionaries living here, have helped build up those standards and with that bring even more hope.

McDowell County used to be the biggest coal-mining spot in the world, but has now been reduced to the poorest community in the country. Coal mining is still present today, but nowhere near the same scale it once was. The severe deterioration of the county is obvious from the dilapidated houses, lack of jobs, and shortage of hope. Our job this summer, partnering with the groups that come down, is to help repair and rebuild as much of that as we can.

Jack and Brenda own an old school in Gary that they have been working on and out of for about three years. It is now called the School for Life, and started our as just a ministry by Jack and Brenda that was teaching people marketable skills on the old and donated computers. A few years later they now have a thrift store, are very active in the area, and have opened their school to outside groups such as Experience Mission to use for housing for weeks of service in the community. They are an amazing couple and never stop working for the Lord and for this society.

We have only been here a few days, but have already seen some huge ways we can serve, and are excited for how God will move this summer. These past few days have been spent cleaning kitchens, rooms and bathrooms from top to bottom in order for the teams to arrive. The work is hard, and the heat is stifling, but the goal is great. We are in great anticipation for the coming summer and teams coming down. We ask for your prayer over safety and health this summer, that God’s hand would fall on this community, and that we would continue to further the work Jack and Brenda have already begun.