By Mo Scarpelli

When several men from Woodruff Road Community Church in Greenville, North Carolina arrived at a house in Gary, West Virginia last week to repair a water-damaged room, they expected several days of hard work.

What they didn’t expect were two smiling little girls to keep them company throughout the project.

“We were looking for somewhere to put our nails and Kaleigh brought us a little princess box,” said Todd Gleason, Experience Mission Construction Manager. “She kept coming back in the room and saying, ‘It’s so beautiful, it’s so beautiful,’ even though it was still under construction.”

Kaleigh, 4, and Brooke, 2, live with grandparents Beth and Ronnie several miles from historic downtown Welch, West Virginia.

The family applied to the local nonprofit organization, School for Life, Inc., two years ago for home repair. School for Life, Inc. partners with Experience Mission in home repair projects for those in need.

The small EM team spent last week laying drywall and spackling the cracks of the Finley’s back room, where their granddaughters will have their own rooms, for the very first time.

Beth and Ronnie Finley’s house troubles began in July of 2001, when a great flood struck southern West Virginia, leaving more than 1,500 families without homes.

The Finleys were nearly one of them. Their backyard washed away into the creek behind their house and part of their roof tore off in the relentless wind.

“It pulled apart from the beams and water started getting up under the roof, not just falling on it,” said 45-year-old Beth Finley. “That’s when the ceiling fell down.”

In the seven years since the flood, the Finley’s roof has never completely recovered, despite their best efforts to repair it.

“We bought plywood and rolled roofing (tar paper) and tried to fix it,” said Beth, who has been married to Ronnie Finley for eight years. “It got us through the winter, but started leaking in the spring again.”

After getting off work at the body shop, Ronnie Finley would hoist himself up on top of the house to patch the roof with scrap tin that he’d gotten from a friend. Beth calls it “our flannel shirt roof” because there are so many different colors.

Beth says she didn’t really mind the leaking too much until she adopted her granddaughter, Kaleigh. Ronnie put up a partition to block out the corner of the room where water damage was the worst, and Kaleigh occasionally slept in the front part of the room, though she was more comfortable in her grandparents’ bed.

With Experience Mission’s help, the rooms are now leak-safe, which Beth says is perfect timing for the Finley’s, considering they are in the process of obtaining full parental rights of their second grandchild, Brooke.

Brooke, now 2 years old, was born to a drug-addicted mother and soon after, her father, Beth’s son, was arrested for breaking and entering and sent to jail. Beth and Ronnie Finley have been fighting for custody of their grandchild for more than a year, as she bounced from foster care to her mother’s care to her other grandmother’s care in the meantime.

Beth says with paperwork and court dates out of the way, the family is finally achieving stability. Now that the children have permanent homes, Beth says EM house repair help will have a big impact on the girls’ quality of life.

“The girls are going to have their own rooms for the first time ever,” said Beth Finley. “We’ve been daydreaming – Kaleigh picked out sheets and wallpaper. She goes back there once in awhile to see where she wants to put her bed.”

To Gleason, home repair for the Finley’s wasn’t just about fixing a room. It was also about setting an example to the girls of how faith can lead to compassion and hard work.

“Beth couldn’t express enough how much it meant to her that there were young people interested in doing this work,” said Gleason. “All the young people around here that she knows are into messed up stuff.”

Beth says she often sees crack cocaine and methamphetamine use go undetected by police in her area.

McDowell County has the highest drug-related mortality rate in the state, according to a 2006 report by the West Virginia Prevention Resource Center. More than 30 percent of deaths involve drugs or other abused substances.

Beth worries about this, mostly because she saw her own son fall into a desperate drug addiction. She says five of her neighbors are also grandparents taking care of the children their kids’ couldn’t, due to drug problems.

“It’s real bad here. If they had more people like you –“she said, pointing at EM volunteers as they scraped joint compound on the ceilings, “then they wouldn’t want to get into drugs in the first place.”

The team of five – Earl Nadeau, David Gray, Steve Kinney, Sam Farley, and Gleason – finished in three days, though the rooms still need painting.

Kaleigh Finley says that part is her job.

“I’m going to paint my new room with my daddy and we’re going to make purple butterflies!” said Kaleigh, as she looked around the back corner room she claimed as her own.

EM continues to partner with School for Life, Inc. until the end of July, bringing hundreds more volunteers to assess the needs of McDowell County residents.

Experience Mission is offering Summer 2010 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.

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.

Find Your Caribbean Mission Trip
www.experiencemission.org

Find a Jamaica Mission Trip
www.experiencemission.org

Find a Urban Mission Trip in Atlanta or another city in the USA:
www.experiencemission.org

Christian Youth Mission Trip
Walking through the Jonesboro Trailer Park in Atlanta this summer, Jason Pope of the Salvation Army saw something that in most communities would be considered fairly shocking: As a black lab with no apparent owner wandered along, several teenagers drove up, stopped to shoot the animal with a BB gun, and then drove away.

Sadly, the incident was one of many reflecting a general environment of chaos and instability in the dilapidated, impoverished community comprised mostly of struggling immigrants.

“It’s hard to describe it exactly, but it would remind you of being in a two-thirds world country and seeing poverty when you’re there,” Pope said. “There are no boundaries for the kids in that community. Another kid walks up with a dead squirrel, playing with it like it’s a puppet, trying to get it to climb up trees, and we try to explain to him that he shouldn’t do that, that he could get sick.”

“When there’s no hope there, they just make stuff up,” Pope said.

Like other teams working in new urban communities across the country this year, the Experience Mission Summer Staff Intern team assigned to Atlanta had to adopt an approach of patience, consistency and sensitivity to try to reach the children.

Most kids in the struggling community were generally defiant and uncontrollable and had grown up surrounded by outside influences that glorified gang culture, intern Matt Crouch said, adding that one gang in particular had a heavy influence on the community.

“These guys growing up are seeing that’s the way to get the money, that’s the way to be cool,” he said. “So they’re 10, 11 years old and they’re trying to be part of the gang.”

Crouch said he and fellow interns were the regular objects of curse-laden tirades or obscene gestures as they returned to the community day after day to forge new inroads. At one point, Crouch was even bitten by one boy.

“He just wasn’t happy that he got out in four square. He was just going crazy, and I had to hold him back from hitting another kid, so he decided to bite my arm,” Crouch said. “I just had teeth marks and bruises for a week.”

But they didn’t let that incident or the constant deriding they received from many children dissuade them, and instead showed up every day and walked through the community to talk with families there. Crouch speaks Spanish—something that allowed him to communicate more personably with the dozens of Mexican families living there.

It was slow going, but Crouch said he found that if was able to win over the confidence of one family member, it most often translated into an open door with the entire family.

He said it was startling to see some poverty stricken families working to instill healthy discipline in their kids while others approached parenting with a sort of abandon. More active parents, he said, were constantly worried about the negative impact of the rebellious, uncontrolled children.

“It was amazing just to see the different sides of the spectrum and how they can exist so close in one community, and how they can affect each other.”

Results worth the effort
Slowly, Crouch said, holding Kids’ Club in the community every day and having the same three interns show up consistently started to send a trickle of structure through the group they were working with. That had been the hope from the beginning.

“One of our great challenges was to build at least some set of boundaries so they could feel safe and have some kind of discipline throughout the summer,” Pope said, adding that the only place they had to hold Kid’s Club, in an open field, didn’t necessarily help add to the sense of order.

Still, Pope said community members noted the improved demeanor of the 25-30 children who regularly participated in the Kid’s Club. He said their language could be used as one barometer of their progress, and recalled one day when a particularly prolific young boy went a whole day without cursing. One of the interns complimented him.

“I asked him how that felt, and he said, ‘It feels good,’” Pope said.

He said major improvements like those were most visible in the last few weeks of the summer. Pope said that while mission teams have been to Jonesboro Trailer Park before, they typically came for one isolated week. Having a stable leadership team and a consistent flow of volunteers made a significant difference this year.

“They always knew they were going to have that consistency week after week and it wasn’t just a drive by deal,” he said.

By the end of the summer, what would have been a five-minute walk through the trailer park turned into an hour-long trek for Crouch—he was stopped for small chats at nearly every home he passed.

“That was what was so hard about leaving,” Crouch said. “It takes about that much time—I was there two months, every day—to finally be accepted, where people finally start trusting you significantly.”

All urban locations initially tough
EM Executive Director Chris Clum said it was similarly difficult to make headway in other stateside urban communities, but that like in Atlanta, volunteer teams ended up spearheading the establishment of new, potentially life-changing bonds.

“Early on, we struggled in the urban communities,” Clum said. “It was a bear the first half of the summer. But the relationships we formed with our partners…it was extremely rewarding to the teams. We were able to make some pretty strong inroads, and it made a significant impact.”

In Portland, Maine and Fort Wayne, Ind., volunteers had the opportunity to work with predominately Muslim refugees—something of a unique experience for a stateside mission trip.

“There were many opportunities to talk about Christ with the Muslims, and it was done in a very appropriate way, so we’re always pleased about that,” Clum said.
Experience Mission is offering Summer 2009 trips to Atlanta, Portland, Fort Wayne, Baltimore and other urban locations. Learn more at www.experiencemission.org or call the EM office at 360-732-0986.

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to go to a homeless community in the heart of Baltimore.  I wouldn’t have expected it, but the park where the homeless gather is right next to the Metropolitan Police Station and lies on the property of St Vincent de Paul’s Catholic Church.  Initially I couldn’t figure out why they chose to stay in the place they were, but after spending some time with the people there, I realized that they had nowhere else to go.  In fact, they are still facing a forced move from the city and government officials.

As I talked with the men of the homeless park, I could see the hurt in their eyes and their desperation for food and water.  Although I was able to take a case of water with me, I still felt like there was so much more that needed to be done. I don’t know what that is in all honesty.  I’ve been thinking about what it looks like to help the poor and needy, but it’s a pandemic that is so much bigger than me.

The backgrounds of the people at the homeless park were so vast, I struggled to understand what their old lives were like.   Many of the men and women at the park left homes and families for one reason or another.  I knew there would be people who were evicted from their homes, caught up in drugs, and those who left for domestic disturbance reasons, but what was most shocking were the people who were so hopeless that they just simply didn’t care anymore.  They didn’t have motivation to live.  Perhaps the most tragic moment in a person’s life is that moment when purpose of living is lost—when the mountain of having true life in  Christ is so distant that life loses meaning.

I believe as we, as the Body of Christ, reach out this community and welcome them with loving arms, we can restore hope to a people who have none and share with them the true life of following Jesus.  I’m looking to go back soon and meet with these wonderful people again…very soon

For all of team Baltimore,

Blaine

Jump rope, beads, pipe cleaners and more captured the children in Ruiz this week.  Kids Club took place at the church in Ruiz where fifty children gathered for games, crafts and singing. The team from Kansas practiced their Spanish with the children through interactive activities and acting out the Bible story in a drama.

The children learned about the life of Saul and the fruits of the Spirit by creating their own fruits of the Spirit with cut out fruits.  In addition they heard the story of the lost sheep and lost coin. In order to learn the memory verse the children came up with their own actions to present in front of the group while saying the verse. 

Songs got the group energized and excited as they tried to sing louder and faster than their neighbor. One new song talked about all the animals that God has created and lastly stated, “los ninos que aman a Cristo, oran, alabran y se van al cielo (the children who love Christ, pray, praise Him and go to Heaven).”

Mission Trips to Mexico
For the past week, our two small teams of women from Canada and Kansas have been doing their best at staying true to the old saying “When in Rome do as the Romans do.” Their commitment to experiencing the Mexican cultural has produced a week of activities that can only be found in Ruiz.

We started out the week with a tour of the local market. The group of eight got up early and we walked through the stands of fruits and vegetables, meats, and craft supplies. The market is usually buzzing with activity by 6:30 am and the bright colors of tropical fruit mix with the smells of tamales and the sounds of quick barters in Spanish. Our group walked through, briefly stopping to sample some pan dulce before heading out to breakfast and our day of work. Though our official tour ended that day, many of the girls returned the following morning for souvenirs, gifts, and more experiences with the sights and sounds of early mornings in Ruiz.

Later in the week, a few of the girls bought some embroidering threads, needles and napkins. Many women in the community embroider decorative tortilla napkins to use in the house, so making these napkins has become a hobby of some of the interns. Although the napkin itself might be used for other purposes when we return to the states, it has certainly been fun learning the craft from other women in the community and passing it along to the groups this week.

One of the activities that brought the most laughter was an informal tortilla making session. Since the cooks typically make handmade tortillas for a meal at least once a week, we asked if the small group could join in on the fun. The simple task of balling the dough, flattening it in the tortilla press, and flipping it onto the grill turned out to be much harder than the women made it look. Everyone took a turn at the process and almost everybody lost their tortilla on one step or another, whether by smashing it too thin, ripping it while taking it from the press or folding it over while placing it on the skillet. 

Overall, this week has been a lot of fun. Though we come to Mexico to serve the community, it has been a great week to also experience what Mexico has to give.

-Emily Ruehs

Go to www.experiencemission.org to view our Christian youth mission trips to Mexico.

Every day here we see the beautiful kids in this community.  Whether it be one of the hundreds of kids that came through Kids Club, the children playing with us during breakfast in the morning before they had to run to school, or simply those whose home we were building a toilet for.  They were all beautiful, but some we truly made a connection with.  And one of the girls from our last team made an amazing connection with these three little girls in the community of Cambridge. And for this story I asked her to tell it:

“When I came to Jamaica I expected to be working hard for Christ – getting in the mud and shoveling dirt, being His hands and feet. I never expected that my service would be spending time with a group of three small girls – Kimmy, Kacey, and Tiana. Throughout the week we taught each other games, blew bubbles, and just sat and talked. Every time they saw me come off the bus their faces lit up and it put a joy in my heart that I had never felt before. We grew so close as the days went on and it felt as though we would always be together, as though I would never have to leave them.

“Then the last day came and the tears started to fall. Seeing these girls cry made me hurt inside and I spent most of that day comforting them and holding them. As I was getting on the bus, the girls handed me two pieces of paper and we said our last goodbyes. We were headed back to the school where we were staying and everyone else was watching ‘Remember the Titans,’ but I was sitting there crying. The girls had written me a goodbye letter and a poem.

“The relationships God helped us build during this mission trip to Jamaica were incredible and everyone will remember the friends they made, whether they were elderly adults who just needed someone to talk to or small children who just wanted a playmate and someone to hold them. I will keep Kimmy, Kacey, and Tiana in my heart and in my prayers always, and I thank God for putting each one of them in my life,”

- Annabel

It is because of relationships like the ones Annabel made with those three little girls that we are here serving and working.  It is awesome to be able to serve by meeting the physical needs of the people surrounding us but I truly believe that the world will change when it sees the love of Christ in its relationships.  That is why we serve.

Until All Know,

Nathan Heath