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My First Mission Trip: Lynch, KY

Finally taking time to update my blog about my mission trip to Kentucky's Appalachian Mountains. We had a marvelous time, if you can classify working your tail off, sleeping just enough to stay alive, and enduring frigid temperatures "marvelous." I know i do.


We drove into the mountains at just below 50 degrees. When we left it was about 40 degrees. From our first morning to our last night there, it snowed. The high temperature was 32 degrees. For 3 days. The above photo is the morning the snow started, and the picture below was the view on the highway coming out of Kentucky, after much of the snow had melted.


Once we arrived, we threw a giant Block Party for the townspeople. That was really fun! I met some great people, and they were so welcoming of all us strangers! 



We got to attend church in a neighboring town, where our worship team actually took over the worship for the day to give the locals a taste of the more contemporary worship styles. That was neat, too. The little kids seemed really excited!

Then we had two days of work. I was assigned 4 girls and an apartment to gut. We hauled away stuff and furniture, shlepped it to the basement for storage, then ripped out carpet and swept out the entire unit. There was no electricity in the building, so we had no lights and no heat. We only had one mild frost-nip incident, and that was due to repeated trips through the snow to the basement with all that stuff. Then a hot dinner, some music, and some sleep. End Day 1.

 


On the second work day, we were ready to paint. I taught each teenager to paint, both with a roller and with a trim brush, and it was with immense satisfaction that i watched them cover the orange walls with taupe paint ... and greater and greater skill.



I do have more photos, but in the interest of privacy for the girls who were working, as well as courtesy to the ones who used to live in the apartments we were revamping, i will keep them to myself.

I must say, though, that God was with us on our journey. I didn't have any thyroid flare-ups, stomach upsets, or blood sugar issues. And my body allowed me to eat what they served me and work hard without complaining (much). We traveled a distance, but God met us there, and He multiplied our energies and efforts.

I am definitely looking forward to doing something like this again.

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