Tuesday in West Virginia

On Tuesday morning the ladies made scrambled eggs and bacon for anyone that wanted it. Others made their own toast, bagels or cereal. At 8:00 a.m. we headed over to Emmaus House for morning devotions with the group and were led through an exercise that helped us understand how all of us are born into different circumstances that play into where we end up in life. It was very disturbing for some of us and eye opening for others. Then we were sent off to our sites to continue our work.

The first thing we encountered on Tuesday was our friend, Mr. Copperhead. This time Roger was prepared with a shovel and on the second try he cut off its head. Like some macabre scene from a Stephen King novel we felt like we had exercised the demon in the house and were now ready to attack the day. With the sun shining overhead, we forged ahead and got a lot of work done on the house. Clayton, Roger and Chris tackled the bridge and its steps while Michelle Lord looked on. Everyone else was either painting or holding a ladder for someone who was painting the house. They even got me up on a ladder to paint the eves and the upper section of the back of the house. I tried to tell them not to take a picture of me. I was afraid people who saw it might actually think I was capable of doing some work on future mission trips.

At noon time we prayed, had lunch with Don and did devotions. At day’s end we had made good progress on all the chores. The guys had finished the ramp and the whole house had its first coat of paint and much of the house had a second coat of paint.

We headed back to the camp and the ladies had cooked up a wonderful meal of chicken, rice and broccoli. It was great. After dinner we took a trip to Walmart. We passed an active coal mine and took some pictures. We also saw where all the trains were heading that we heard several times each night. Hey were lined up ready to receive the coal and transport it elsewhere.

The trip to Walmart also gave several of our team members the opportunity to phone home. In Northfork there is no cell phone service and limited internet access. There are very few televisions and in some ways the whole area seems isolated from the rest of the world. For example I had to travel over half an hour to the next big town to get the tires on the van changed.

Northfork is a very small town in McDowell County. Many of the business are closed and there are a number of abandoned storefronts on the main street. Everywhere you look you can also find abandoned homes and broken down cars. It is like something out of a novel from another day and time.

At the turn of the twentieth Century this was one of the most prosperous regions in the country. Coal was king and everyone worked. But over time the coal companies destroyed the land and left town and took the prosperity with it. Bit by bit the people struggled to come back but this area was particularly hard hit by two devastating floods in the early years of the 21^st century. In June of 2001 a “hundred year flood” came through the region destroying homes and businesses. Just as they were turning the corner and building things back again a second flood came through and sucked the last bit of hope our of so many of the people. Hundred year floods don’t usually come so close together. Today we are working in that area and trying to restore hope.