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.

Our first day on site

On Monday morning we were up at the crack of dawn and we grabbed, bagels, toast, cereal and coffee to get us up and going for the day. At 8:00 a.m. we went next door for morning devotions and instructions on the day. There were two other churches in camp for the day and the group of forty plus volunteers were dived up to work on six different homes in the community. Most of the folks were elderly and had lived in the community for most of their lives. Some were retired coal miners. One couple were self proclaimed evangelists. There was a widow and another elderly woman who never married. All of them were living on the edge of poverty and just getting by. Their homes were very modest and in need of painting, roofing, and in some state of disrepair.

We were sent off as a group to work on the home of an elderly disabled man named Don. He had recently given his life to Christ. He grew up a Baptist but over time had just stopped going to church. Over the last several weeks he got to know some of the short term missionaries and their loving actions touched him and moved him to express his faith in a new way.
A new roof had been added to Don’s house and it had been primed fo painting. Our job was to give it two coats of paint and to do the trim around the windows and on the foundation. Because my dad as there for a couple of days, we were also charged with repairing floor in the bathroom that had rotted through and to replace the steps and parts of a bridge that spanned a small stream between the house and the road. The women did the painting and Roger, Clayton and Chris got to work on the bathroom floor that first day. The team also got to know Don. He was a delightful gentleman and very pleasant.

The only real adventure on that first day was the discovery of a copperhead snake behind the house. Roger was called on to dispose of it. He was told by Don’s neighbor, Wayne, that all he had to do was hit it and it would die. We found out that wasn’t true because it returned the next day. None-the-less it made for a good story when we got back to camp with the other groups.







Cal

Day one of the Appalachian mission trip

On Sunday morning we left on our mission adventure to McDowell County, West Virginia. A group of eleven of us piled into two vans and headed off down West Main Street. Of course we didn’t get very far. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts to give us that boost that would get us going. Then promptly at 6:00 a.m. we left there and set sail for the 750 mile drive. There were four from Central Baptist ( Ellie Eccleston, Michelle Madsen-Bibeau, Doreen and Roger Mainville) and seven from First Baptist ( Rachel Bober, Carol Calkins, Erica Corbett, Taylor Chaffee, June Deptulski, Connie Hayward and me) in our crew and we were enrolled as short term missionaries for the Mustard Seeds and Mountains ministry.

Sunday was our travel day and we hoped to arrive in McDowell County by eight o’clock that evening. We passed through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and then finally cheered as we crossed the state line into our final destination… West Virginia. If you are wondering why I mentioned West Virginia twice, look at your road atlas and check out Route 81 south through PA and Virginia.

Trips like this can be quite boring but we had a bit of adventure. About seventy miles from our destination the church van started to shimmy a bit and we pulled over. It felt like we had a flat tire. I stepped out and at first glance it looked like nothing was wrong. Then I noticed the tread on the rear tire was coming apart from the tire.

Roger Mainville and I unloaded the back of the van and started changing the tire. We had a couple of tense moments. We couldn’t free up the spare tire. We didn’t have a star shaped screwdriver to release the latch. Eventually we broke the lock so we could get at the tire. It was also a little unnerving trying to change the tire with the highway traffic going by at 60 plus miles an hour.

A Virginia State Policeman stopped and he helped us out. He radioed in another trooper to move the cars over to give us a little room. He was a super nice guy and immediately made several new friends from Connecticut.

We got going again and noticed the spare tire was soft so we pulled off the highway to find an air pump. That was a challenge in the small town we visited. Roger and I let the girls off at Dairy Queen for dinner and went off to find what we needed. When we found an air hose we took a good look at the tire and saw several small cracks in the outer wall. The tire was filled with dry rot. Thankfully it got us to our destination and in the morning I went into town and bought two new tires and kept the best of the others as our spare.

We arrived in Northfork at 8:40 p.m. and were met by my parents, Clayton and Michelle Lord, and my nephew Chris. They came in from Elizabethtown, Kentucky to join us for a couple of days bringing our crew up to fourteen people. After a brief orientation we were led to our house and settled in for the night. It was a good day and we were thankful that we arrived safely.

Cal

Yet another wedding in the church family

I've had four weddings in the last couple of weeks but only one of them was at the church. Ashley West and Daniel Moriarty were married at the church on Saturday. It was a really nice ceremony. Daniel was in Army National Guard uniform and Ashley wore a beautiful white dress.

The family was involved in some special ways. Ashley was escorted down the aisle and given away by her mother, Elsie West. Daniel's dad and step father were both in the wedding party as ushers> They stood up for him along with his younger brother.

The reception was at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Taftville.

We have two more weddings scheduled i the near future. George Rezendes and Maryann McComskey will be married at the Coast Guard Academy on August 15th and Nick Grange and Stacia Green will be married in Rhode Island at the end of September.

Zelda and Bruce Fellows will also renew their vows on September 19 at church.

Cal

Sent to Do God's Work

On Sunday we commissioned our short term missionaries in preparation for their trip to southern West Virginia along the Appalachian Trail.

In the service we distributed mission care packages and gathered around the team to pray for them. The sermon called us to remember that we are all invited to offer ourselves to God as He works out his purposes in the world. Our text was from 2 Samuel and we looked in on David and how God reminded him that he was going to be part of something much bigger than he could imagine.

With that thought, we gave our team our blessing. They will be leaving next Sunday morning at 5:30 a.m. and traveling down in two vehicles. Mapquest says the trip will take just over twelve hours. Our team will be working with a group called Mustard Seeds and Mountains. Our team members will be working with local families doing small home repairs and yard work. We start next Monday morning and continue through Thursday. Each day we will be at the worksite and each night we'll return back to the lodge for dinner and devotions. One night we will be going to a Bluegrass festival in town for fun.

Our team consists of Rachel Bober, Carol Calkins, Taylor Chaffee, Erica Corbett, June Deptulski, Connie Hayward and me from First Baptist and Michelle Madsen Bibeau, Ellie Eccleston, Roger and Doreen Mainville from Central Baptist. It looks like Clayton Lord Sr. and Chris Lord Jr., may also be joining us for a day. They are planning on driving in from Kentucky to meet up with us.

We hope to send back a few photos and reports while we are down there but that depends on the availability of wireless. We've been told that service may be hard to come by. None-the-less, we will have plenty of pictures when we come back. We will be returning on Friday, July 31st.

Cal

Getting the word out

This morning I finished up the Sunday Bulletin. Every week put together a mini-newsletter as part of the bulletin. We include the order of worship and add several announcements on upcoming events. It is one of the lifelines that connects our members and friends with the ongoing activities at church. Bob Walker will come in tomorrow morning to fold them and prepare them for Sunday.

Over the years we have continued to add other communication tools to our repertoire. We prepare the monthly newsletter. It has all kinds of information. It goes out in the mail and is also posted on the web. We have a web page at www.fbcnorwich.org that has all kinds of information. It includes pictures, sermons, history and so much more.

We have this blog you are reading too. It chronicles day to day life at the church with a mixture of photos and short stories. We have second blog which is inspirational in nature. We have added a Facebook page which compliments my own Facebook page.

All of this is done to keep the congregation up to date with what is happening day to day.

Got any other idea? Let's hear them and see if we can do even more.

Cal

Missional Church meeting

Last night our Missional Church team met to debrief our July Fourth event and to make plans for future community outreach events. We all agreed that the popcorn and lemonade was a hit. The only thing we would do differently next time was to wear FBC tee shirts and start cooking the popcorn sooner. We may see about doing the popcorn again the next time there are fireworks.

We also decided that we would do winter survival kits again in some fashion next January. We will concentrate on personal hygiene items and the kind of things you can't buy with food stamps. We could do the blankets again if we can find a sponsor or two. We liked the way so many people got involved and made some blankets. They cost about $400 to make the fifty blankets.

After a lot of discussion we decided that we would start collecting gently used winter coats and sweaters to give away to folks living across the street in the Mopsic Street area. We thought we could give them away in mid to late October just before winter hits. The idea was sparked by Erica Corbett's clothing drive and we thought we could work with her.

We also decided we would do another goodie give away on September 13. We will be meeting on Wednesday, August 12 at 7:00 p.m. to decide the particulars.

Cal