There's no place like home

Hello, it’s Pat – We arrived back home Sunday night at around 7:30 and there is no place like home. I wanted to close out this blog with some reflections on the week and tie up some loose ends… again from a first time missioner and from an adult’s perspective. I’m sorry we didn’t blog on Saturday night – we didn’t get into our church location until late at night and it was a loooooong day of travel. We stopped at a church in Warrensburg, MO. The church is undergoing a huge expansion and it was quite exciting to see. We got up very early on Sunday morning to complete our final leg back to Colorado.

We were tired, sore, humbled by what we’d been through and yet – everyone got along great on the trip home. I was quite impressed by this. Of course, some comic relief helped – like when the bird flew into our van, and the remains and feathers hit the second van. And then there was the time that Heidi went ahead and paid for our gas, and we promptly drove off without actually pumping the gas. We got a few miles down the road when Bonnie said something causing Heidi to look at the gas gauge. So we had to turn around and claim that gas.

John and Russ promised that we’d tell you more about our adventures with Bertha and Wilma (our GPS’s). They were quite helpful along the road – finding restaurants and finding our interim destinations. But when it came time to find Redbird – they were useless. They didn’t have a clue and we had to rely on ourselves to get there, hence the phrase that was coined by Michael “I am my own GPS”. I have to admit that he did great getting us around in the back hills of Kentucky.

Some reflections on the week – I find it so hard to comprehend the extent of the poverty in this part of the United States. I’ve seen it in places like Baja, Mexico, and some parts of Russia but in our own country? Values are really different in this part of the world, where no one gets driver’s licenses or insurance because they can’t afford it and because there is no law enforcement, so why bother? But, if medical care is needed – they can’t risk driving into the city. Education is not valued by many people and they don’t have a lot to do – so they sit around on their porches or in their homes all day long. It feels hopeless to the casual observer.

I have a deep and humbled appreciation for what Redbird is trying to do here – their mission is multi-fold and all the people who work here have huge hearts. There are volunteers that come down year after year to contribute whatever they can. There are people who have retired from their professions who make Redbird their new home. The two physicians are husband and wife missionaries from Kenya who are willing to work for very low wages. Our group leader was Tim and he worked with us side by side on the job – talk about patience! None of us were really qualified to build this addition and he affirmed us and joked around with us, but worked so hard. James was our supervisor and no matter what we did or how we did it – he was able to make it work.

At our closing service on Friday night – so many people stood up to share their experiences of the week. Some of the stories were so moving and I really got a sense of how God was moving through each and every one of us. There was the iron worker who was told by his company that he could not take the time to come to Redbird – did so anyway and upon arrival learned that some welding needed to be done on some bridges. He was the ONLY one with welding experience that could do that. The following week when he returned to work, he learned that he was fired. So he turned around and came right back to Redbird to continue where God needed him to be. There were people who came back to Redbird year after year to do whatever was needed. There was the job that is too disgusting to even mention in this blog – where the missionaries just delved in and did the work… despite the fact that when they returned the next day, they found the same behaviors continuing. The worship at the end of this week was powerful, moving and unbelievably beautiful.

I had a lot of time to reflect on the trip during our long journey home and I still have a lot to process. It seems hopeless and our work there seemed like a drop in a bucket. It didn’t feel like we could possibly make a difference from my human point of view. There is so much to be done. Yet, it is clear that God has a plan and who am I to doubt this? We may not, and probably will never see how His plan is unfolding. It is not our job to see and know that plan – it is our job to simply be the hands and feet of Christ in our world and reflect His light into a world where there is little. We did that and the people of Good Shepherd UMC should be very proud of this group of missionaries. As shared by Aysha that night at closing, we need to make this be, not the end of our mission journey but the beginning of many.

Who’s ready to go next spring?

Pat

The last of the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02

Hey there it’s Andrew I’m writing about our sixth day of mission work camp. We were able to finish one of our three projects, the house of laying linoleum and tacking up base boards. Michael, Andrew, Maggie, Kendall, Lynne, and Ari worked on this house. Our second house was to put up metal sheeting around a house which our crew head had to finish because of a gas line but Andrew, Pat, and Josh were able to put up many parts of it. Our third project was to build the room addition turned out to be a lot harder than we expected but we were able to build the room except for putting shingles on the roof, everybody worked on this project on top of all the other projects that we were working on. The experience was very eye opening for everybody. We of course played football again today. Some of the adults had a fun time taking John to the airport to catch his flight. Tonight for dinner we had chicken and broccoli, all the food we had this week has been all southern food so it had a different taste than we expected. We had a closing service where we took communion and discussed how our weeks went every group was able to finish a lot. We all figured out that we were taking out more out than what we could ever give. The people we served and fixed their houses were very grateful that we were able to come and help out them. Well I gotta go have to go to sleep so I can be ready for the car ride home.

Andrew


More pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02

Day Three - Great Progress

Hi Y’all. It’s Kendal. Unfortunately I’m one of the few who has not picked up the famous Kentucky accent. Well today started off as another cold morning where all of us were still half asleep unloading the timber to build our room. We split off into different groups today to get more done. One group put down baseboards, another group put up skirting on a house, and the last group stayed and finished up the walls of our room and laid linoleum in their living room. Today was such an accomplishing day, because by lunch we had completed two out of three projects, and our room now has freshly painted walls. Even the roof framing has been built. All that’s left for tomorrow is to finish up the roof, and paint some siding for the house. Being here at Red Bird has been an inspiring adventure. We have grown so much closer to the other servants of God around us. We now care about each other so much, that even though Skippy (John) fell asleep, Ari made him a sandwich to support his majesties hunger when he slept through lunch. The work that we have been doing down here has given us more than the satisfaction of helping others, but newly found friends for life. When work for the day was done, we all showered up for dinner. It was surprisingly good seeming as Nick swore he saw it moving. Some sort of ground meat with mashed potatoes and gravy. But with all the work we have been doing, we would shovel down anything you put in front of us. Tonight was the talent/ no talent show. Maggie sang us a song, and let me tell you the girl is astonishing. Michael and Russ went up and sang for us. Russ looked like an angel up in heaven when he sang. The night was filled with laughter and worship. Even Alex pitched in, though he reached notes no man should ever reach. We have one more day of work before we start on the long journey home. God bless Heidi’s patience, as she’ll need every ounce of it for that car ride. We are blessed to be here, and we can’t wait to return home to share our stories with you. See you all soon!

More pictures at:http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02

A day of rest

Hey everyone this is Sam writing the blog for tonight. Today was our day of rest we got to go out and do whatever we wanted. I’m pretty sure most of us were excited about that because it meant we got cell phone service!! Oh and we got to sleep in a little bit if we chose to which was nice. The hardest part to believe however is that the boys woke up and wanted to clean their clothes because they smelled a little which made us late for our ten o’clock departure time. We were waiting for them for over an hour it was ridiculous but at least their clothes are clean. The first thing we did was go to the original Kentucky Fried Chicken and ate lunch…it was delicious by the way. They had a statue kind of thing of Mr. Sanders and most of us took a picture with him. After that we left for a national park. It had a beautiful waterfall and apparently at nighttime it has a moonbow which is a rainbow at night. I think that is pretty awesome! We also went swimming at the park and played five hundred it got pretty intense. After the national park it was time to eat dinner. We soon left there to go back to Red Bird Mission. On the way home though, in the other car Alex and Ari were making everyone laugh at them…because well who wouldn’t laugh at them. And in our car Maggie and I sang some songs for everyone. They were awesome songs pretty much just Disney songs and duets but it was amazing. As soon as our car got back Rev. Michael and Russ were singing songs at the campfire with a bunch of other people and we gladly joined in. Today was a pretty great day…everyone is tired and ready to go for tomorrow. Well that’s all for tonight I am on my way outside to join in the fun they are having without me.


Updated pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02

Reflections from Heidi

Hello community of faith. We have just finished the fifth day of our trip and our second day of servanthood. Today we accomplished a ton of work. One team laid linoleum in one home while the other team finished the floorboards, and framing three walls. The first home belongs to a man moved to the area to be by family. He is extremely grateful for the help and is very friendly. He spent time talking to the team and sharing his collection of keychains from places he has visited. The second family is a little more shy but come out and watch us as we build. They are becoming more comfortable with us now and will talk for a bit. That house has ten people living there – four generations. The room we are building will be for the granddaughter and great grandson.

Just a couple of random thoughts I want to share. First I know there has been a question of why would I want to take the youth clear to Kentucky when there is so much need in our own community. I have wanted the youth to see that there is not really a stereotypical poor person. They have worked in the Denver area with COFU, DENUM and URBAN PEAK seeing how poverty is closer than they thought. They have also seen world poverty through their work with World Vision. Several of the youth did hands on work on a Native American Reservation seeing how poverty is rampant throughout that community. So my goal was for the kids to see how poverty can be generational- much to my surprise I was the one who was SHOCKED at the level of poverty in this community. The Beverly area is the 5th poorest county in AMERICA. The median income is only $19000. The conditions of many homes in the area are complete disarray with windows missing, doors hanging on hinges, mold growing up walls, holes in siding that go through into the house, leaking septic tanks. The house we are working on had an area that had burned down and everything was left lying on the ground. We found broken glass, burnt clothes, toys and rotting carpet to name a few. It was completely heartbreaking. One side effect of the poverty is the absolute feeling of hopelessness by people in this community.
After seeing all of this my admiration of the Red Bird Mission has grown. They do so much for the people in this community. Tonight we had the opportunity to tour the Red Bird Mission School which provides a Christian based education for children K-12. The school has 230 students 13 who live in the dormitories. It is a fully accredited school that has a 98% graduation rate and a 68% that go onto higher education. We also had the opportunity to tour the medical clinic that also serves as food bank, GED services, computer classes, preschool and dental clinic. Clients pay on a sliding scale so most services are paid by Medicare, Medicaid or grants. The work they are doing on the campus is truly the light of Christ in a darkened world.

My second thought is I want you to know how awesome our team has been. The adults are truly giving of themselves with each other and the youth. The youth have been outgoing and great in meeting the youth from other states and inviting them to play basketball and football. They also volunteered to help an elderly group with dinner clean up even though they had done it the night before. All of this has been on their own without any prodding by the adults. We should all be so proud of what great kids they all are.

I pray that you are all fine and I also pray that as a community we be open in our hearts and our minds to the acts of mission that are available to us so that we can keep making positive Christ driven changes in our hurting world.

God Bless you all
Heidi


More pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02

Please feel free to comment on our blog or send email to patc303@gmail.com. We would LOVE to hear from you. We don't get cell coverage up here and this blog is our only contact. We would all love to know that you are looking at it.

Calling All Carpenters

Hey everybody in Colorado, its Josh. Just going to tell you guys what happened on our first day of working on the job site. This morning around 7 a.m. in Kentucky time that would be 5 o’clock Denver time, we got up and went to breakfast and had one of the churches did the morning devotion for everybody. After breakfast we got ready to go to the job site in our vans. When we got there from our 40 minute drive, we all piled out and got the supplies out of the foreman’s vehicle and got to work on putting up the supports for the frame of the house, with tedious shoveling with the posthole diggers. With the post in the holes we got the floor joists into to place and were ready to get the floor boards down, when we notice that our frame was not squared. So we had to break the frame down and had to START ALL OVER!!!!!!! So we measured and re-measured like 12 times, dug more holes and fixed all the postholes and put the posts down a SECOND time - got the floor joists down again, when we found out that the floor boards are STILL not squared yet again, but by that time it was time to leave the job site and have dinner. After dinner we all went to the craft store and bought crafts that were made by the people who live in the area of Red Bird Mission Center.

Now at 10:00; Alex, Nick, Ari, Aysha, John, Andrew, John, Jessica and I are going to play a “nice” little game of cards until we have to go to bed. So good night Colorado and you will find out what happens next tomorrow.

Note from Pat: The internet connection is very weak and flaky here - so if we don't get a post in, that is why. Hopefully I'll be able to load up more pictures...
http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02

Final Leg of the Journey

Hi folks this is John Stauffer, so the first night we stayed at the First United Methodist Church, in Independence Missouri. This church was available by a friend of Pat Campbell’s - his name was Bryson Lillie. The hospitality that was given to us was so appreciated. Many of us had couches to sleep on, and Bryson was very kind to meet us at 11:30pm. After we arrived Bryson informed us of where we would be staying. We had the use of a shower which for at least the girls, was a welcome treat. As he was explaining this to us he mentioned that a youth group had stayed there several months prior and that they had broken something of the church (a copier). It hit home a lot with our group because we have offered our church for a couple of groups and I know if something we made or bought for the church would mean a lot to the people of the church, and disrespecting another church whether intentional or not is not something that we would be so quickly to allow another church group to stay so quickly. For most of us we had a great night sleep. For the boys of the youth group they stayed up all night too excited to sleep as they were ready to get back on the road again. Bryson also provided us with breakfast. We had coffee and cereal and fresh fruit and last but not least was doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. The church we stayed at, FUMC, was established in late 1800”s so lots of history involved and it was beautiful. It was much appreciated for driving over 600 miles the first day we needed the good nights sleep. On the second day, we traveled from Independence MS all the way through to Louisville, KY and stayed at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.

Hey, everybody! Russ Stewart here… just like John said, we sure have appreciated the kind of hospitality we are receiving on this loooonnnggg journey! After making it to Louisville (Andrew Wayland and Russ watched movies the whole way), we used the GPS system to find St. Paul’s UMC. A quick point about GPS (Global Positioning System) . . . it is awesome!! We would not have been able to find our way around so quickly. Lynne Ellerbrock brought her GPS, and Pat Campbell brought hers… one for each van! We have them nicknamed…Bertha and Wilma more on that later. Anyway, we made it to St. Paul’s, and our jaws dropped when we saw the SIZE of the church! We met Larry, who very graciously showed us where we would be staying! Apparently, a tragic drunk-driving accident occurred several years ago, and the whole family life section of the church was built in memorial to the young lady who died in that accident! The new section has a large athletic facility on the upper level, and a very nice youth “parlor” downstairs, along with a kitchen and an awesome space set aside for fellowship! Also classrooms, and plenty of comfy furniture. Me, Pastor Mike and John Stauffer stayed in the purple classroom with the tv! I’m sure we’ve got pictures… check them out and see this awesome place! The stayover was fun, fun, fun! Larry directed us to “Wicks”, an excellent pizza place where we stuffed ourselves full of pizza and spaghetti… and caught the Olympics on the tv’s around the room. Then we went back to the church and had a very competitive basketball game! Several of us ended up walking away with a limp…. Great game guys… as it turns out, Kendall is quite the defensive maniac!

A quick shower, and then bedtime about 12:30am… then up again at 7:00am… keep in mind folks… in Denver time, that’s 5am!

John again…We woke up early this morning which for some of us was 6:30-7am, all of the guys and a couple of the girls stayed up til 2pm playing basketball at the church’s indoor gym. So we did not get a lot of sleep. And the early wakeup call was hard for some. We made it to Starbucks for coffee and something to eat, we then made it back to the church for a wonderful contemporary service. The sermon we got to listen to was just great and stayed with me all day. It was about anger and how we should deal with it in Gods eye. I used it a couple of times with a few things that came up during our busy day to Red Bird Mission in Beverly Ky. As we had a check in time of between 3-5pm we decided to check out a couple of tourist things that Louisville had to offer. The first site was Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby horse race is ran in May. This year’s race was won by a Horse named Big Brown. We had a great time checking out the track and learning about the history of horse racing. We still had some time so we decided to check out the Louisville Slugger Company. For the guys of the mission we thoroughly enjoyed the experience of seeing some of baseball’s most famous names and signatures and the bats that were used while they played the game.

Russ here again! Just to let you all know, we ARE collecting items and souvenirs from these places that we are visiting! We have souvenirs from Churchill Downs and the Louisville Slugger company… I won’t tell you what they are now, but rest assured that some of you will think they are awesome! Hope you are buying stock…! After the tours, we took off to try and find the original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant! I drove this time… scary huh? And it turns out that we did not go to KFC, because it was too far out of the way. Maybe on Wednesday! As we got close to our destination, it started to rain, and rain hard! It rained all the way up until it was time to exit our vans and register at Redbird Mission . . . !

(John again) we made it here! I tried sleeping from lunch to here but unfortunately for me the van I was in wanted to talk instead of let me sleep, but at least I was able to let my brain relax from the stresses of driving so many long miles. Another blessing was that Rev. Michael and Russ were the 2 driving during the Monsoon rain we got. They did a great job of keeping us so safe and sound. Once we got here we received our information packets and got fed again. Then we joined for a quick sermon tonight where Russ and Rev. Michael led the music portion felt like we were in Good Shepherd having service there, Russ picked out the music we sang so we were very familiar with the choice of songs. Then we were introduced with the Pastor’s husband Craig. (he calls himself the Pastor’s wife). He spoke eloquently about things we should look forward to as we stay here and do GOD’s work. We finished with last minute instructions about the mission and how things work around here. Craig informed us that we could see snakes and for sure ticks here. I’m looking so forward to what lies ahead for us this week! We are the biggest group here which is really awesome, we are looking forward to starting this thing tomorrow morning. We get to see the job site and get the ball rolling with building the extra room and flooring for the kitchen. Were told it should not rain tomorrow but of course we will see!!!! So with all that said we are going to bed to get a good nights sleep for tomorrow’s big day.

Goodnight Good Shepherd from Russ and John.

More Pictures -
http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02