Faith Stories: Appalachian Service Project
As a follow-up to Andrew’s faith story last week about his experience participating in this summer’s Appalachian Service Project mission, others who participated share this week.
Judy
Having had my last child move out recently, I realized that I did not know many of the current youth at St. John’s. I volunteered to go with the youth on mission with the Appalachian Service Project. In addition to showing my faith through works, I had a goal to get to know the youth of the church better. What a glorious blessing I received by joining them on the ASP mission. We spent a week helping people in need in Boone, North Carolina. Through work, play and devotionals, we got to know each other and were blessed with an enriching experience. We served wonderful families whose faith and friendliness touched our hearts. When we go on mission, we go forth to help others but find that Christ is there to help us-to become more spiritually mature and faithful.
Andree’
I’m glad I got to go on this ASP mission trip. We all got to meet many different people from different states and experienced cultural difference. I enjoyed working with everyone and we were able to finish without much problem. ASP was a great experience and got us out of our comfort zone.
Will
ASP was one of the most eye opening experiences I have ever been through. It was truly remarkable to see the lives of some of the families we worked with and the immense struggles they consider day to day tasks. The Appalachian Service Project was a remarkable journey that I’ll hopefully be able to make again in the future.
Catherine
The family that we were able to serve was so loving and welcoming. We had so many conversations with them, and we bonded with every member of the family. You could see in each of their eyes how much we meant to them.
Tori
I saw God in the grandmother of the people whose house we worked on. We just randomly showed up without giving her much of a heads up. She was thrilled to have us though. She showed us her chickens and pigs (which we got to chase).
Elizabeth
ASP was an incredible experience. We helped our families through hard work and smiles. We all had an amazing time and grew closer to each other and new friends were met.
Kyle
I saw God in the lady we helped working with us every day and making us baked goods as we built her a porch.
Carsten
It hardly felt like volunteer work; we were given so much in return by the family we helped…stories, brilliant music and friendship. I’m so happy to have met them.
Colin
My time spent on ASP broadened my view of the world we live in and the hardships people face. ASP also helped me experience different ways in which I can be beneficial to my community.
Luke
This ASP I got to hang out with some of my long-time friends and basically joked around the entire trip while doing good for strangers, which was rewarding. We were able to accomplish our goal, and thinking about where we started out from to the final end product made it seem all the more worth our hard work and effort.
Amber
Thank you to everyone that made this latest mission to Appalachia Service Project possible! It was such an amazing experience to share with these youth. There were 14 of us that traveled by van, singing wild 80s songs, writing thoughts on clipboards for Andrew and sleeping…lots of sleeping. We were housed in an elementary school that had a fantastic park/playground that served as the gathering center for all of the youth groups that came. The kids bonded through playing on the jungle gym, games in the field like ultimate Frisbee and football.
Your youth were very accepting and absolutely wonderful at meeting other kids from all over the country! Be proud of how hard they worked and how beautifully they fellowshipped with the families they served as well. It was a blessing to watch and serve alongside them running away from bees, digging drainage ditches and forming assembly lines to make sure we can do all that we can, as well as we can. One of my favorite kids to watch was Will. We were in the same group working on roofing and ditch digging. Every time something was needed, he was ready to respond. He worked hard and never complained but rather stayed around until things were wrapped up. That week was so much fun for me to watch and experience!
Thank you again for helping me get there and helping get the youth there as well as all of the prayers that were so incredibly helpful!