Chicago Skyline

Chicago Team Picture

The windy city greeted us harshly our second day here with 80 mph winds. Having now been appropriately acquainted, we have also become somewhat oriented with the area. Blue Island took us by surprise, being a very separate city from Chicago, as well as a friendly and welcoming neighborhood.

The first day of our work trips has led to bonding, stories, a workout, and many a paint stain. We have been openly accepted by all of the communities in which we are working and relationships look promising. People are eager to help and to inform us about the areas where we are located as well as about their own personal stories. From Stephen the friendly Menard’s paint expert to Von the seeming life expert, we are anything but short of outside support.
Rain and storms have tried to slow us down, our group has been perseverant. Significant work has been: raising the enormous tent at Circle Urban Ministries for their annual Harvest Fest, painting for H.O.M.E., and gardening/cleaning as well as activities with the children at Blue Island Salvation Army. Much more is to come in the next day of work!

The evenings have been full of worship and devotions, basketball, Frisbee, ping pong, Bang!, and Quelf. Dull moments are scarce with this “Dream Team” from Atlanta, but every activity has been enjoyable. We’ve learned new games, including Foot tag and Ninja, and have participated in such daily activities as Awkward Day and Dramatic Comment Day.  We now look forward to Sarcastic Tuesday! Mount Pisgah has had much to offer us since their arrival, and we are already dreading their departure in two days.

Experience Mission is offering summer 2011 mission trips to Chicago. Learn more at www.experiencemission.org or by calling the Office at (360) 554-8060.

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.

In Junquillo, Honduras, many residents can’t afford to eat and don’t have access to running water. In Catadupa, Jamaica, children need a restroom for their kindergarten so they can avoid dangerous pit toilets. In Atlanta, children are in need of social programs to prevent them from falling into a violent gang culture.

Help address these vital needs by making a general donation to Experience Mission, 100 percent of which will go toward helping facilitate mission trips and humanitarian aid projects to the locations mentioned above and elsewhere.

Visit www.experiencemission.org or call 360-732-0986 to learn how you can help.

EM Executive Director Chris Clum flew to Scotland in January to assess needs there and to plan for 2009 trips to the region, and left confident Experience Mission could greatly benefit ongoing ministry efforts there.

“I went over to meet some key people and verify that there really was some potential for us to partner with leaders there and make a long-term commitment to working in Scotland,” Clum said.

Clum flew into Edinburgh and traveled north to the mountain town of Inverness, which sits near the fabled Loch Ness. There he attended “Deep Impact,” a monumental gathering of more than 300 Scottish youth leaders. Most were not full-time youth pastors.

“The majority of the churches in Scotland have fewer than 50 members,” Clum said. “It’s extremely rare for any church to have a full-time youth pastor.”

The conference was in support of a larger movement called Hope 2008, a nationwide effort to encourage British churches to work and participate more proactively in their communities. Clum also met with Marco Palmer and Rodd Christensen, former ministry partners of his who achieved nationwide notoriety in the United Kingdom as members of a touring group called Acts Drama Company. Christensen went on to star in the children’s TV series “Balamory.”

Palmer and Christensen will spearhead EM’s work there by establishing connections with key church leaders.

“The whole focus of what we’re doing is going to go in to work with inner city ministries supported by those efforts,” Clum said, adding that EM would later sponsor inner-city youth from Scotland to go on mission trips themselves.

Experience Mission is offering summer 2008 trips to Inverness. Visit www.experiencemission.org or call the EM office at (360) 554-8060 for more information.

We, Experience Mission, along with One House at a Time, have been working on the inside work of George and Lulu Jones house since the beginning of the summer. George and Lulu Jones have been fighting for almost two years to replace what they lost in the storm. They have not had much success other then their faith in God and humbling themselves to accept donations. Their house literally ripped in half when the floods and hurricane winds swept through Pearlington, MS leaving them with a mess. In 2000 George’s health started deteoriating and since then has undergone several surgeries on his neck to restore discs that were out of place. In 2002 Lulu suffered a stroke which has had various effects on her health and hindered her ability to get a job. George is a retired veteran from Viet Nam and is on a fixed income, thus leaving them with no chance of a loan.

It is going on two years that George and Lulu have been living in a FEMA trailer that is parked where their house used to be. Right beside their trailer they park their car, right on the tile where their kitchen used to be. They have been fighting to keep their heads up high as they wait their “turn” to receive help. Although they have no house, the one thing you notice when you drive by is how they take care of their yard. Their property is spotless and their grass is green in contrast to the other yards spotted with debris and mud. This yard is just a symbol of how they take care of their lives and hope that the future will be bright.

Autumn Merritt, Experience Mission

www.experiencemission.org