That’s what singer/songwriter John Denver called it. West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River! There are thirteen states that join together to comprise the region known as “Appalachia.” Of those thirteen states, only one is entirely and completely a part of this region…West Virginia! In the North Central part of West Virginia, in the county of Barbour (poorest in the state) is a town called Philippi - (pronounced ‘FILL-uh-pea’), population 2870 and home of the first land battle of the Civil War (June 3, 1861). It is here that we were anchored for the week as we joined nine (9) church teams from across the country (120 people) to “Show Christ’s Love and to share His Story!” We worked under the direction and supervision of World Vision who has a major distribution center in Philippi. You can meet the staff we worked with (Doug, Alan and Kris) by logging on to their regional website at www.worldvisionusprograms.org/appalachia.
A famous covered bridge, a sleepy town, a hill-top college and a community grappling with strong established pockets of poverty and impoverished living. Welcome to Appalachia. The term is used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. As of 2005, the region was home to approximately 23 million people. For the longest time, it has been held captive to the charactertures and stereotypes of life associated with coal mining, logging, moon shining, clan feuding, Hill-Billy music and poverty. The truth of 2010 is that there has been profound progress in empowerment but still entrenched pockets of poverty. To this land and people, 11 Central Church family members traveled to serve, love, learn and listen for God’s voice in our lives. Come and explore this journey with me!
DAY - 1
Five minutes off the main hiway (a two-lane winding country road), on a narrow road (paved but pock-marked), our vans pull along side of an old black and grey single-wide trailer. It has been amended by several plywood room add-ons and a tin skirt. While the front yard shows signs of unfinished projects, piles and parts, there are also beautiful flowers, bushes, gardens, social gathering places (several picnic tables) completed with meandering geese and ducks. Welcome to the humble home of Buddy and Kathy Trimble. An iron worker/welder with vertigo who is now confined to doing odd jobs and concrete work while he waits for his disability to kick in. Buddy is simple, humble, grateful and respectful. Kathy is calm, very warm, joyful and gracious - not to mention an amazing cook! 
Sara and I began our day with Buddy, measuring and digging foundation holes for deck posts in back. As we do our work, we plan, compare notes, talk, laugh and enjoy one another’s company. Our other workers are still in bed after driving all night from Detroit by Rental van after mechanical problems with their plane. Somewhere in the morning, it becomes apparent that we are not there to work FOR Buddy but WITH him. The “OUR PROJECT” that we came to participate in was truly a shared experience. Kathy offered drinks and conversation on the side grass patio complete with two picnic tables and a bench swing under a shade tree. This is where we spent time connecting relationally in conversation on breaks and during lunch. Our other group joined us for the afternoon and completed the perimeter of our new deck before packing up and heading for our college dormitory home at Alderson Broaddus on the
hill overlooking the town of Philippi. Here we shared brief devotion and prayer with all 120 at 7:00 AM in the dorm courtyard (upper right in picture) and individual church team devotionals each night in one of our pod apartments.
We left at the end of the day with the pride that we had already made a difference, that our work was destined to be a blessing and the realization that important work was about to be accomplished this week. Ten miles down the road, our VBS team (anchored in the mornings at Brownton Community Church with other church mission teams) told stories of Joseph, acted out skits, helped with crafts, loved on the children, read and handed out the children’s books we collected at Central and played games in the community center next door. The children were a wonderful mixture of mission project worker’s children and the locals. Together, they explored the importance of life lessons which the adults used in our evening devotionals: Dreaming, Accepting, Serving, Leading and Loving! For now, this week, Philippi is our “home court” to showcase God’s glory and greatness by humbly serving with joy, love and gusto! Help yourself to us, O God, and use us to spread your kingdom love and grace to all we meet.
DAY - 2
“Behold, I make all things new” Revelation 21:5 NKJV
FORECAST…thunderstorm! Lightning and rain! Life here is simple and slow - a patchwork of well-off and poor. Duct tape and tin, sealer and plywood all become metaphors for a life of “GETTING BY” and stretching the life span of old and worn materials. From the one who says, “Behold, I make all things new,” we came to participate in God’s offer and vision for a life that is not merely “HELD TOGETHER” but transformed! At this point, we are all on equal grounds and only recipients of, and witnesses to, our Lord’s grace.
Our van pulls up at our worksite. We unload and gather at the back deck. After prayer and job assignments, we got the joist hung for decking support. Not more than a few top deck boards were put into place and it began to pour rain with lightning. We all ducked for cover. Mike and I sat outside under the umbrella picnic table and chatted for an hour on our lives and our love for the Walk with Christ movement. After the storm, we hopped back up and continued decking until lunch at 12:30 PM. After lunch, we closed off the deck surface and tackled the railing which would be a bit trickier. I became known for saying “Measure twice, cut once!” To which Jon would jokingly reply, “I thought it was measure once, cut twice!”
Tonight, we went to the Barbour county fairgrounds for a country BBQ cook out with all the mission teams and some of the families that we were serving. Hot dogs and hamburgers were consumed, team photos were taken, many children running around playing and having fun. Because I was chatting with many of the other teams, I was last in line and last of our team to sit down. Unbeknownst to me, they had “lovingly” conspired to all get up and act like they were leaving as soon as I had sat down. Nothing says “I love you” like a united “Goodbye! (smile).
When we were back in our dorm pod-apartment doing devotions, I was reminded and aware of how humid and warm it was. Earlier, I had gotten out of the van to pump gas and my glasses immediately and completely fogged up due to the temperature change and moisture. The backs of our necks, our upper lips, and inside elbow joints were always wet and sticky. One of the things that you are constantly aware of in West Virginia in the summer is the HUMIDITY. Day and night, the air is warm, thick and moist. It is (to use the language of glue) “TACKY!” During devotions tonight, I felt hot and sticky again. And then, through the heat-induced fog of my mind–this clarion thought: “I am constantly aware of humidity!” I am never unaware of its presence all around me at every waking moment. With that revelation came this challenging, prophetic question: “What if I was as constantly aware (physically, emotionally, spiritually) of the presence of Jesus Christ as much and as often as I am of the humidity I am currently living in?” How would my days, my perspective, my outlook, desires and actions be different? If HUMID-ITY makes me long for a shower, clean dry clothes and fresh, cool air—maybe JESUS-ITY would make me long for God and His righteousness.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; they are the ones who will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6 TNIV).
DAY - 3
Go and play in West Virginia! Enjoy “Wild and Wonderful West Virginia” (as the state motto goes). World Vision always schedules the third day for a play day for mission teams. Our team divided off on two adventurous trips. Five of us went to the Cass Scenic Railroad mountain tour; a four-and-a-half hour adventure up to the second highest spot in West Virginia known as “Bald Nob” (4700 ft.). Our trip took a huge circle south into the heartland of West Virginia. Closter phobic is the word westerners would use to describe driving in the lush, rolling hills with deciduous trees and look-alike terrain everywhere. No sight lines, no long views, no distinct landmarks — everything and everywhere looks the same as we did most of our driving through the Monogahela National Forrest. The coal fired steam engine with open passenger cars were a fun trip up a beautiful mountain. The humid valley gave way to cool breezes on the mountain…but at the expense of black smoke and toxic smelling fumes from the coal furnace.
The hardest part of the day was what felt like an endless sea of two-lane country road hiways and 35 MPH slow-down turns every several hundred feet. A straight stretch for more than six blocks was very unusual. A driver in West Virginia sees the same things turn-after-turn, hour-after-hour! It all looks the same. When that becomes true, then two more things become true: (1) our minds and senses numb to what is already too much of the same thing around us and (2) we long from something new! So what does spending half-a-day on these twisting, turning roads teach us? Perhaps, this notion: “Lord, save me from a vision and experience of life that only imbeds me in the perpetual mind-numbing, joy-robbing, “S-Curves” of life that consume us with Navigation and rob us of Habitation! Teach me to dwell in space and time in a way that honors your creation….of me, of humanity and of this world. Orient me towards your promise of a new day and new world where only righteousness will dwell. Surely, in such a wonderful place, “S-Curves” will be forbidden!
“Look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells”
2 Peter 3:13 b NKJV
DAY - 4
“There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope”
Hosea 2:15 TNIV
Where there once was a wall and window, there now is a door and brand new deck. Today, we tore out an old window held enclosed in a rotten wall with years of decay and disintegration. Before we could replace the wall pieces with brand new, strong lumber, we needed to cut and tear out the old. It was slow, painstaking work–dust and dry-rot debris flying and falling everywhere at the vibration and rattle of the sawzall! It was an inside mess all held back by the veneer or covering that displayed normalcy. Does any of this sound familiar? To be a “healthy house” again and provide a strong wall with access into larger places (via a new doorway), a hole had to be cut, dead debris cleared away and new timbers framed in. This is how transformation and renovation happens in construction.
Our work progress was slowed when from out of nowhere a torrential downpour came. We quickly covered the opening with visqueen and then watched the most amazing thunder and lightning show with buckets of rain drenching everything. We all huddled on the tiny 12 x 8 covered front porch and yammered away as we waited again for a relief spell in the storm. Soon, the door was hung and in place. With this new door came a new opportunity to have a whole new OUTlook on acreage– and on life! The excitement of this new passage way was clearly a gift of hope to the Trimbles. They looked forward to many quiet mornings and evenings enjoying the back acres their property overlooks.
When we returned to campus at the end of the day, it was to the relief of showers, clean clothes, rest and the appreciation of a night of fellowship, worship, Bible study and group devotions. Our “Joseph’s Journey” team devotional helped us to ask questions about life’s detours, inconveniences, unanswered questions and spiritual applications for serving God with our lives. Each evening before bed, as we debriefed our day and probed our hearts and minds for meaningful connections to our work and life that we may not otherwise have seen had we been “home and busy.” These exercises on our trip were every bit as important as being active, task driven servants trying to accomplish much in a little span of time. It is a balance and symphony of all of these dynamics that leads to healthy kingdom living. This is what God wants from each of us:
Under Authority + On Assignment + In Reflection = ON MISSION!
(Life Lordship) (Life Deployment) (Life Learning)
DAY - 5
The Big Picture? Completion! It’s what every mission-trip project team is after. Finishing what we started and leaving with a sense of pride, ownership and service that made heaven smile and rejoice. “Job well done!” Truth is, life is a long-haul journey filled with many “to-be-continued” projects. Today, we “finished” ours—a new deck with a new wall and door and a new roof to keep the water out! And what does it all mean? Well, perhaps a tear flowing down the cheek of Kathy Trimble, as she prayed in our closing circle of prayer on her new deck was reminder enough that hope and gratitude are the more enduring work of God’s Spirit through our lives than any of our skilled work. What some might legitimately call an almost imperceptible drop in the bucket (our tiny project) was joined to a much larger and longer story.
For 18 years, World Vision has been working in the Appalachia region and deeply imbedded as a community partner for transformation of lives. Barbour County was the most impoverished and needy of all the counties in West Virginia (this state of just under 2 million people). Now, after 18 years of hundreds of mission projects and church teams from all over the country, this region has recently been “upgraded” from Poverty to At Risk. While both of these sound bad to us, World Vision says it is a cause for rejoicing and seeing the long term impact of turn-around projects and ministry that is empowering people for life change. Bridgette reminded us at our concluding leaders meeting that for every project completed, there is a tangible connection which occurs in the family’s lives that impacts their perspective, outlook, performance and elevates their vision and hope for their future and better living. The cumulative results are both clear and undeniable. A winning game is usually made up of many, many plays, possessions and plans for progress. Usually no “one” play finishes or seals the game. It is the cumulative affect of hundreds of plays (projects) by hundreds of players (mission teams) who have joined themselves to a larger and longer story–that will lead to an enduring victory!
It was my hope and prayer that our brief time in Philippi would be to participate in giving and receiving life. I reminded our group, with humor and grace (much to the delight and humor of Buddy and Kathy), that when it comes to choices we needed to make on our job site, we should strive to become like Jesus in all of his work. This is what the people thought of him:
“People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He has done everything well,’ they said”
Mark 7:37a TNIV