HABITAT BLOG, 2004

The new home of Geneva Wright under construction on Entry Mountain, Franklin, WV

June 27, 2004
On Sunday, June 27th, 2004, immediately after the 10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, 17 young people and adults departed St. Peter's Church in the Great Valley to begin the 4th Annual Habitat for Humanity Mission Trip. For the second year in a row the group offered its week-long services under the auspices of the Almost Heaven chapter of Habitat for Humanity in Franklin, West Virginia. We stayed in a residence hall at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia and drove the 30 miles each way over the mountains every day to report for work in Franklin.

You saw us off from St. Peter's after the 10:00 am service, and we arrived without incident around 5 p.m., ready to get to work tomorrow.

A note received  by a kind SPC parishioner:
I attended 8 o'clock yesterday so was not able to watch the beginning step of your adventure as you rolled out the driveway at St. Peter's. I'm sure you know that the prayers of all of us went with you---for a safe trip, and for a wonderful productive week ahead. You are touching the lives of people. That's a wonderful gift for them---and a wonderful gift for you to have that opportunity! We will be checking in to see how things are going.

Monday, June 28, 2004:
The day consisted of a construction project in that portion of Franklin, West Virginia known as Entry Mountain, where last year we demolished an old home to make room for its replacement. We also participated in a House Blessing of a newly completed home on the other side of Pendleton County, which helped us place all our efforts in right perspective. A very good day indeed!

Learn more about the moving impact of the Home Blessing for the Good family in which our team participated on this first day of our trip. It was extraordinary, and put faces on those we came to serve!

Here are some blogs:
Today was the first real work day at Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity in Franklin, West Virginia. The day started off with a wonderful breakfast and then it was time to take the one hour trek over the Shenandoah Mountains to Franklin. Mostly everyone slept as we were all tired from the night before:). The work day started at Painter's Point where we met the other two groups from Ohio and Connecticut and we got to do the "Habitat Cheer." After everyone got settled Bob, the head honcho, sent us in all different directions. The St. Peter's group was sent to the family's home that we helped demolish last year after it caught fire. We were very surprised when we got their to see pretty much a whole new house that was made by volunteers. At first everyone just mingled around until we started getting assigned different jobs. The jobs included installing windows, making a porch, filling in holes with dirt, and finding a missing sewer pipe. Almost all were accomplished. At 12:00 p.m. we were done with that and went back to Painter's Point to have lunch. As lunch ended the vans came up to pick us up and we went on (QUITE) a journey to a house that had just been completed and was being dedicated today. It was very nice to hear about everything that went on in that house, even though we did nothing building it. It turns out that the family that was going to be living in it actually helped out everyday with the building. It was incredible to see how thankful they were for all the hard work that everyone put in their new house and they were also very emotional and the wife was at a loss of words. Well I have to go finish a prank we're playing on someone.*

Chillin' on campus,
Grant

A note received  by a kind SPC parishioner:
Dear St. Peter's Friends,
As I painted our porch furniture today, I wondered what kind of projects you would be doing in West Virginia and about the people you would meet there. Tonight I opened the computer to find news of the trip. With your descriptive reports and photographs, all my questions were answered so thoroughly. Now I have a picture in my mind of the wonderful experience.

I want to thank you for taking the time to start up the website and for writing. Keep up the good work and I'll look forward to the next installment.
Godspeed

Today we started off to West Virginia at 8 am (much too early for most teenagers), and made our way to Painter's Point in Pendleton County. The ride over was quiet, since we were all pretty much sleeping. As soon as we arrived at our work site, we all received jobs right away. Christine, Katie, Ken, and I had the pleasure of putting a deck down. This was cool because we got to learn how to use power tools! The work was hard since we had to keep ripping up and replacing the boards, but in the end we got pretty far, which was satisfying. When our work ended, we headed back to Painter's Point for a Eucharist service and lunch. During the Eucharist service, people from other groups joined us. The service was nice and relaxed. After lunch we headed to a house that was recently finished and was ready to be blessed. The family was overcome with joy and gratitude, it was so wonderful to see how much what we're doing really helps people, and just how grateful they are to have a working window or door. Oh and as Grant has stated, the prank is still in process, this kid doesn't wake up!* Later people.

Relaxing in VA,
Carrie :)

Although only about two hours of work were actually accomplished this morning (Monday), it made quite an impact on me. I was astounded to see the progress made from last year on the house we began to demolish. It was a rotting old house that had been irreparably weathered over the many years of its use. So on our final day of work last year we started to tear down the decrepit structure. Today, less than a year later, we arrived at what looked like a completely new job site. The tasks for the morning consisted of decking, digging, and fitting windows and doors. It's amazing to see the progress of a year's work and I can't wait to see what we will accomplish this week.

KRISTIN GILMORE

*The Prank: Trapping newcomer AJ DiValerio in his room, so that when he woke up from his long nap, he would walk into an open wardrobe. The prank worked great!

It was amazing. I had walked up onto the wrap-around deck of the new house just looking around, when the House Blessing suddenly began. I was sort-of just stuck there, right with the family. Donna's sister had traveled from Florida with her husband to share in the celebration. The day before, they had picked up a black 7 week old toy poodle puppy; while the sister was occupied with wiping the tears of joy from Donna's face, another volunteer and I babysat the puppy. At the end of the ceremony, I held one of Donna's feeble hands, her sister held the other and we linked her to the prayer circle around the new house.

The puppy fell asleep in my arms during refreshments.

Martha Nelson

Tuesday, June 29, 2004:
The St. Peter's team has arrived in Bridgewater, fulfilled two days of service with Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity, and all with no mishaps or surprises . . . EXCEPT that no internet connection existed here at our dormitory at Bridgewater College until tonight, Tuesday, June 29th. Sorry for the delay, but we're now online. A beautiful day today, and so much more work accomplished at Geneva Wright's new home on Entry Mountain. So many memories, and everyone is safe and sound . . . thanks be to God!

The St. Peter's team spent its entire 2004 mission trip working on the new home of Mrs. Geneva Wright. Read about Mrs. Wright and what is being done to make her safer, warmer and drier in her new home.

Wednesday, June 30, 2004:
What an extraordinary day! A very full morning of work on Mrs. Wright's new home, then a further journey 30 miles north of Franklin for a free afternoon of white water canoeing. Many stories to tell, pictures to show . . . even a miracle to describe, but not at 11:30 p.m. All is well, and we'll 'talk' tomorrow.

Miracles Don't Only Happen in Sermons
Pete Gilmore

"I want to start today with a meeting of the minds," John said to me as we pulled into the Habitat work site. I knew he was referring to the miscommunication of directions by the numerous chiefs at Mrs. Wright's home on Tuesday. After getting explicit instructions on deck building by Bob the lead supervisor, we spent the morning measuring, cutting, and screwing into place the joists for a new deck. It is so amazing to work side by side with Brad and Ryan as young men rather than "the kids"!

Since Wednesday was a half day of work, at noontime we broke, cleaned up, and ate lunch on the run because we were heading for our "white-water" canoe trip. We drove to Petersburg and unloaded at Eagle's Nest Outfitters to get suited with life jackets and partner-up for an afternoon of fun on the water. Sue was in the front of the canoe, and I was in the back. Of course, we were zigzagging down the river, but eventually we got it together finding our rhythm: go through the rapids, stop for a swim, go through the rapids, stop for a swim. With bright sunshine and good friends, the afternoon couldn't have been better.

Six and a half miles and two and a half hours later, we pulled the canoes out at the required spot and waited for the outfitter's shuttle to pick us up. With no van in sight, I jumped back in the water for a last swim. When I got out of the water, I was squeezing the water out of my pocket when I stopped dead in my tracks with a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach - I had no keys to our van! I check the Velcro-ed pocket where I put the keys ten times before I could bring myself to go tell John that I had a problem. "I've lost the keys to the van," I said to John and Sue. "We'll figure this out and make a plan," he told me. The whole time I'm thinking about how much this is going to inconvenience everyone else.. Call AAA, get the van towed, call Mathew's Ford for a replacement key…time was wasting, the shuttle still hadn't arrived. I checked the path from the water at least a dozen times, hoping I would see the keys in the gravel. Jill and Ken even got into the water with me to look, but eventually got out knowing we were grasping at straws.

Not wanting to give up but also not wanting to get out, I stayed in the water to look some more. The sun came out from behind a cloud and as I was looking down through cupped hands I spotted what looked like a white matchstick at my feet about ten feet from the water's edge. Not wanting to lose sight of it, I called Ryan over and he went down and came up dangling the van keys! The white matchstick was the side of the plastic IC tag on the key ring. The odds of me ever finding the keys were probably worse than one in a million. This was definitely a miracle. God was watching over us and I am so grateful. God is good!

P.S. Thanks for all of your encouraging emails to the 'blog'! We really appreciate them all. Here is just one example:

Thanks so much for the blog. It is just awesome to be able to keep up with you through your stories and pictures. We are praying for you all, knowing that God is grinning widely at the pranks, the power tools, the sleeping puppy, and the canoes.
Blessings,

The responses from our wonderful church family continue to arrive, and I share another with you. Thanks for participating on this wonderful mission trip through the blog, and for praying for us:

The work effort on Mrs. Wright's house looks very well organized and productive. Thank you for all the pictures that document your involvement, progress and accomplishments. Phew, I hope you aren't too achey at the end of the day, just happily tired if that is possible.

The scenery is beautiful and the white water canoeing sounded like alot of fun. When you get home, I'll look forward to the description of the miracle. I'm curious about it and pray no one had a close call.

Thursday, July 1, 2004:

Today we hammered 85 nails and sawed 2 logs. But before that we were woken up by a great song sung by the talented Jill Wilson

The Wake Up Song
-wake up; wake up, wake up, wake up
-wake up; wake up, wake up, wake up
-and let the sun shine in
-wake up; wake up, wake up, wake up

Then a few more verses but we wont sing them for you, however it did wake us up.

We began our drive to the habitat site with the traditional game of categories, we arrived and dove right in to the decks framework continued from the day before. After quickly finishing that with J. Tampa and P. Gilmore and our new found friend Jud, we discovered that there weren't any deck boards to finish the project. What to do what to do, so we decided to play our game of steel toe rock toss (throw rocks at the opponents boots). After we were scolded by Jill (she isn't always mean) we joined forces and began our new task of siding. We were told by Jon the Supervisor that we wouldn't have enough time to get the siding up both sides of the house…. But what he didn't know is that we are St. Peters. Before we continued, we had to make another game, balancing on a 2x4 on a concrete block, that didn't go over to well when the elders realized what we were doing, fun though, none the less. We went back and continued to finish the siding with much motivation to finish the entire house by 3:00, it was then 1:45, good thinking but not quite as likely a scenario as we had thought. We did finish two sides and had began siding the front and back when it was time to clean up. We cleaned up our area and discovered two large cardboard poles that were sizable to jousting sticks (it's called a lance), hmmmmm idea, we jousted and we also found out that it hurts and it leave giant permanent bruised red indented circles of pain on your stomach, however we continued to play for another 15-20 minutes. We needed water but we only found the water that tasted like highly chlorinated pool water, so we drank 15 glasses each, surprisingly none of us puked. We finished the day with group pictures and drove home playing categories which Jill won every single time, while Ryan helped her knit her prayer Shawl, while Brad looked at it like a maze he didn't want to find his way thru (wow what deep thoughts we have). We had a great day all in all we accomplished more than what was thought possible, and had many of fun games in between, who says we can't have fun while working.

-Brad Gilmore and Ryan Theuer (guest starring A.J. in our games)

p.s. we went to Wal-Mart twice

Well since today, Wednesday, is our half day of work, we decided to go canoeing on the river with the Eagles Nest company for 3 hours. Even though they gave each pair a map and directions, the "rapids" were not as fast or scary as we were originally told. Everyone had their own little adventure along the way, John and I capsized by a rock and had to float down river until it was safe to get back in. At the end of the trip we all decided to go swimming, which was really fun and somewhat dangerous.

We are all woken up by Jill's "beautiful" singing voice, which by the way is not that great, sorry Jill! She just starts yelling at the top of her lungs at 7:00 am which is quite painful because of our 3:00 am bed time. There have also been many late night runs to Wal-mart, which we love so dearly!

On the work site however, Katie, Carrie, Ken, and I were hard at work on the back deck, we are now finishing the banisters that have had to be re-cut because of our site leader, who just had to have every single little detail perfected until we were mad out of our minds. Well that's basically our trip so far!

Christine Malcolm

P.S. Sorry, shout out to Becky from Carrie and Me!!!
 

Saturday, July 3, 2004
In a few hours we will all be back in Pennsylvania, and the Habitat Mission Trip 2004 will be a warm and fulfilling memory. Much to be thankful for - no serious illnesses or injuries - many new friendships established - and God's love extended back and forth between those we came to serve and those who served us in Franklin.

Thank you for all your prayers, love and concern for us while we have been gone. I'll let a few final pictures fill in the rest of the story . . . at least for the moment. Hope to see you all on Sunday, July 4th - Independence Day!

To learn more about Pendleton County, WV, (the second poorest county in one of the nation's poorest states) click here. And on behalf of the entire team, thank you for your interest in this important sharing ministry, and your prayers for safety and our ability to make a difference in people's lives.