Last Day of Work

This was the last day of work at our mission site, and quite frankly, I think we are glad for it.  It has been hard work, and every day seems to accumulate.  We are tired but grateful for what has happened this week.  

_______________________

There are some in the church who might be wondering who Morgan and Alice are.  The answer is that they are phenomenal women.  They are not part of our church, but certainly know many in the church through the hiking group.

Morgan has a kind, generous, gentle, compassionate heart.  She has a special relationship with nature.  She is wonderful with children.  She is always there to help, to talk, to listen.  I really appreciate her spirit for the week.  There are some pretty scrawny cats and an underfed dog around the worksite.  Today, Morgan bought some cat food at the convenience store and fed these poor animals.  She did amazing watercolors this week, one of the local scenery that she gave to me and I will treasure.  She is never afraid to talk to local people here: to reach out to strangers and people respond to her kindness.  Here is a poem she wrote, just impressions of the week, and I think she is spot on:

water falls

windy roads

blizzard cups

biscuit world

Dotty's way

John's chicken

Matt's muscle

Mary's mitts

Alice's slings

Rick's wisdom

Dust and dirt

sledge and hammer

poor and poorer

West Virginia

Take me home.

Alice is 82 years old, but it is clear that age does not define her.  She has more energy, more stamina, willpower than most people half her age.  We have heard folks from the church say, "if I were ten years younger, I would go..."  Well Alice totally takes that excuse away.  You should see her "sling" a piece of debris over the walls of a dumpster.  She is also a caring soul, and someone who connected with the local people, too.  She is always there to help, at the work site or here at "base camp."  I appreciate her unstoppable spirit and her loving ways.

______________________________

Today, they asked us simply to clean any debris in the apartments, and there was plenty of work.  The miracle of the day concerned huge contractor bags of drywall etc. that had been left out on two outdoor balconies.  They were waterlogged and weighed a ton.  Our first impression was pretty predictable - "we can't possibly move these - let someone else take care of them."  But then we thought, "if not us, who will?"  Dotty, as usual, came up with a plan to make the impossible possible.  We found a way of getting these bags into a small wheelbarrow, then step-by-step, got them downstairs, and somehow, got them in the dumpster.  One heavy wet trash bag after another came down, with a lot of grunting and cursing, but before we knew it, they were done.

In some way, I thought this is a good metaphor for what we do in West Virginia.  What other people see as useless, to much to do, to impossible to try, we just start doing it anyway.  Then low and behold, it's done.  St. Francis again: "first do what's necessary, then do the possible, suddenly you're doing the impossible."

Sometimes, I think Jesus calls us to be the world's garbage men/women.  What the world thinks we should not bother with: too messy, to far gone to help - Jesus tells us to go in and do something.  That's what Jesus did in his three years of ministry.  Going into the messy places, helping people clean out the garbage in their lives.  That's how resurrection happens.  You clean out the garbage and prepare a place for new life to begin.  That's what this week seems to be about.

___________________________

We worked with several people from SALS.  There are people connected with volunteer organizations, like Americore and Vista.  They don't get paid a lot and its obvious that life is not easy for them.  Some of them really don't do much work at all.  For every minute worked, there is are two or more minutes taking a cigarette break.

But then there was Tyler.  He was quite an amazing young man.  He drives a car with Batman symbols on it, sort of his version of the batmobile.  He has dreadlocks (no - he's not Jamaican).  But Tyler works hard and doesn't take too many breaks.  We've heard that he might become a supervisor in the organization at one point, and I could see him doing a great job.  His passion and commitment to get the job done really inspired us.  And we inspired him, too.  He couldn't believe how much we got done.  He even wanted to give us some ramps (ask Sue Wingfield what they are) but we'll be gone tomorrow.  We didn't get a picture of Tyler, but we certainly will remember him and pray for the best for him.

__________________________

We went into this week not knowing what we would be doing, what this is going to be like, etc.  Now we are leaving amazed at what happened.  We also leave glad we don't have to do this tomorrow: we've hit our limit.  Tomorrow morning, we'll go the New River Gorge and do some sightseeing and hiking in the morning.  Then it's heading back home.  We'll be stop in Harrisburg, PA tomorrow night, then a trip to home sweet home in Bedford  on Saturday.