Set Up Week!

So the past few days have been set up week here at the porch. We have been going around on IHVs (Initial Home Visits) looking at different possible houses to work on this summer. It has been filled with driving through narrow mountain roads in either Sandy our giant van or Elmer the truck. Its amazing the views that we see on the way to some of these houses. Today especially was cool as even though it was raining, the clouds rolling over the mountains looked amazing.

I have decided to keep up with "Torre's Critter Count" and keep up with all of the animals I see each day. Yesterday I saw a Ground hog, a baby bunny, a few turkey vultures, your standard cows and horses. However the most exciting was the turtle. To those individuals not familiar with the traditions of ASP, turtles are a vital part of the environment here in Appalachia. Staff members have done there best since the beginning of ASP to protect these little critters who seem to find there way onto a lot more roads then you would think. As much as we can we perform "Turtle Saves" and help these little buddies across the road so they can avoid being hit. I had an interesting start to my turtle saving career as I was unfortunate enough to be one of those despicable people who hit those poor turtles. It honestly was one of the worst feelings I have ever felt and my fellow staffers who were in the van with me can vouch for my sudden downcast look. Since then however I have done my best to make amends to the turtle community by going above and beyond the call of duty and putting my own life at risk. Not 1 hour after my act of murder I came upon one such turtle and performed my first Turtle Save. That was only yesterday! Today I was on IHV's in the rain with Chelsea and performed 2 more turtle saves. I have decided that I will not come out of my time of mourning until I perform at least 2 more turtle saves and then I will do my best to go on with my life.

On a more serious note, today I witnessed some of the hardest things to see. One of the houses we visited was a lady living in an old trailer that was in very much need of repair. There were 4 holes in the floor that were barely staying together. They had a leaky roof and only one safe exit from the home. To top it off she had 11 kids living there with her. 11! Here she was living in a home that was barely big enough for her own self and yet she still took on children to look after from those around her. It is amazing the people you meet here in Appalachia and even though they can barely get by them self, they still find it in their hearts to help out their fellow man. God works in mysterious ways.

Hopefully I can figure out how to put up some pics here.

Overview of Training

So I realize that I have been lacking in my updates on this blog and in general. For those who don't know, I have been at training from Wed May 26th until yesterday. During that time I learned a whole mess of stuff and met some amazing people. I realize as I am sitting down to write this that I will never be able to write out in detail all of the things that went on at training and I will try not to overwhelm everyone with trying to explain everything that I did but I will try my best to tell a little about what all I have been doing.

I left my house around 8:30, a little later than expected but no matter, and set out for Jonesville VA on Wed May 26th. The trip consisted of windy roads, spectacular views and much shuffling of music. I ended up stopping at a small town Wendy's and people watching for a bit but overall it was an uneventful trip. I arrived at "The Hill" and was met by a bunch of CDs (Center Directors) who had already been there for a few days for specialized training. Oh, ASP uses a lot of acronyms so I will do my best to explain them as I use them. I moved in my stuff, dropped my car off and headed up to the Porch. ASP has been using the Jonesville center for training for quite some time now and the Porch is a center piece of that. The Porch overlooks the hill that the center is located on and is filled with over 20 rocking chairs. All of the staffers come together here for our intense 10 day training every year and it also serves as a year round facility that ASP owns and operates.

Over the course of the next 10 days I would learn more about construction than I ever thought possible, receive specialized training for my position, go through sessions on spiritual leadership and just about anything else you can think of. Every day we devos, breakfast and then sessions pretty much all day. We learned about the different types of foundation, floors, both exterior and interior walls, siding, roofing, insulation, underpinning, electrical, plumbing, trailers, porches and ramps to name just a few. The little free time we had was spent meeting some new amazing people as well as hanging out with ones that I met at my SAW (Staff-Applicant-Weekend). On Sunday May 30^th we drove to The Natural Tunnel State Park for a picnic and one of the biggest moments of the week. Staff Reveal! I of course played a bunch of Ultimate Frisbee and sweated up a storm before we grabbed some food. We then started out on the time honored tradition of the Staff Reveal. We were put through the gauntlet of random activities ranging from putting on Skittle war-paint to finding of piece of PVC pipe with our name on it in a kiddy pool. Each activity narrowed down our groups until we were finally left with all of our staff minus our CD. We then were covered by a blanket until our CD came and pulled it off, revealing our whole staff team for the summer. It was an awesome time capped off with some ice cream and staff bonding afterwards. My staff consists of my CD Tina, our Returner (someone who has been on staff before) Chelsea as well as my fellow first-years John and Angie.

The days following staff reveal were filled with even more construction training as well as our specific position training. I am the Finance Coordinator on my team and I am in charge of keeping up with our Budget and insuring our accounts are paid at the end of each week. It is an important job and I think I am going to do a great job at it. I also found out where I will be going for the summer and it is not too far from where training was. To be specific it IS where training was, I will be here in Jonesville for the summer. I am staying in the equivalent of the Ritz Carlton of ASP Land and am very excited for it.

On Friday June 4^th we traveled to ASP Headquarters at JC (Johnson City) to get our vehicles for the summer. It is an ASP tradition that all vehicles in the fleet are named and ours are named Elmer, Lucy and Sandy. Elmer is a big green Ford pickup, Sandy is a massive 15 passenger van and Lucy is a smaller 12 passenger van. Elmer and Sandy are new to the fleet this year while Lucy only has a couple years on her. All three are going to great to drive this summer and I have quickly fallen in love with them. The next day was our Commission and sending off of all the staffs. It was a bittersweet day as I had to say goodbye to all of the friends I had made on the porch but I also got to get ready for the summer by moving into our center and making it our own. After saying goodbye to everyone our CD Tina surprised us with plans to drive to Hancock County and stay at a little cabin in order to get away for a little bit. After getting lost (something that happens quite often in Appalachia) we finally found the place and had a fun night filled with the Wilderness Survival Game, reading random logs from past people staying there and watching Juno.

We woke up today and ate at a little local place for breakfast before driving around for awhile more and eventually heading back to Jonesville. We spent the rest of the day setting up our staff office as well as reading home repair applications. Hopefully I can keep up with this on a more daily basis so that I won’t have to type up entire novels every time I get on the computer.As far as reaching me goes the computer will still be your best bet however if you really need to you can call our center phone at (276)-346-3377 ex. 28. I would really love any sort of letters you would like to mail to me and I will try my best to write you back as soon as I can. Here are a few pictures of some stuff from the past couple days and I will also try to post pics with all of my posts from now on.

Notice!

Quick update with more details to follow at a later date. Training is absolutely awesome and I can't wait to catch up everyone on all that has happened. All that I can say right now is that I will be at the same center that we have training at so send me stuff at the address below.

ASP Jonesville Center

PO Box 250

Jonesville, VA 24263

Hopefully I can sit down and write out a huge post on all that we have done so far soon!

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. James 1:2-3

The Beginning of Something New

As I sit down to write this a million thoughts are running through my head. I cannot believe that tomorrow at 7:45 am I will be getting into my car and driving off to Jonesville, Virginia. I will be leaving behind my friends and family for the summer but I look forward to the chance to meet my fellow staffers on the porch! I guess that I need to give a little back story though so that people will be able to understand what exactly I will be doing.

The past four years I have volunteered with my church to go on Appalachia Service Project. ASP is a home repair ministry that works in Appalachia, specifically counties in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. In those four years I have volunteered with ASP I have dug a 50 foot drainage ditch and put up gutters, helped to put on an addition to a home by putting in insulation as well as drywall, put in additional piers under a trailer home as well as moisture barrier and insulated the bottom of a home as well as putting moisture barrier under it. Now while I am sure that last sentence was a run on, it does not display the reason that I have loved doing ASP. The reason I have returned so many years is because of the impact the people I have met have had on me. Through ASP I have been able to meet some of the most amazing people that I would definitely not have met if I hadn't. I was able to meet families who simply did what they could to get by, families that put family before anything that they did. While their homes sometimes were not in the greatest shape, a lot of the time they could tell you stories about the land that they lived on and quite possibly generations before them had lived on. I met people who may have to work long hours for not the greatest wages and barely make enough to get by from day to day. These people however were some of the proudest, strongest people I have ever met. They were able to show me that material things are not why we are here on this earth. They were able to show me that family ties are much more important than personal gain as no one can be anything without the support of their friends and family. They were able to teach me so many lessons that have impacted me to this day.

One of the reasons I applied to be on staff was because of the strong backing people in my church gave me. Two of the leaders of our ASP group have always thought I would make a good staffer and have egged me on for awhile now. I was not able to convince myself for awhile though. I was afraid of the unknown, of being away for an entire summer and just doing something different than bumming around at home all summer. I ended up getting my application in at almost the last possible moment literally with minutes to spare (who knew the post office closed early on New Years Eve?). God was really sending me some "gentle" nudges for me to apply as it seemed all of my worries kept getting answered. I worried about the SAW (Staff-Applicant Weekend) not wanting to drive very far for something I didn't think I would be getting. It ended up being at a church literally across the street from High Point University. I worried about not being able to get recommendation letters filled out in time. All three were done in a matter of 2-3 days, leaving me plenty of time to write my essays which of course I was worrying about. It seemed that I was not going to be able to dodge applying and even my futile efforts at making it as hard as possible on myself, God's will prevailed. I went into the SAW weekend not really knowing what to expect but I quickly found myself realizing just how badly I wanted this job. I met some amazing people, had an amazing time and found out about an amazing game called ninja. If I had just one word to describe the way I felt after that weekend I think you could guess it. After that I entered back into "normal" life and waited to find out if I had gotten the job or not. When I found out I had actual gotten a position on staff I was absolutely ecstatic and couldn't wait until the summer. Fast forward a couple months and you will get me sitting in my chair at home just a mere 7 hours from leaving. Honestly I am scared stiff right now but I know that there is a reason for me going to Appalachia. I know that God will be leading me in everything I do this summer and that all I need to do is take a deep breath and let him take control.

As I begin to realize that I leave tomorrow I have realized a few things. I am going to miss my family and friends a whole lot. I want to thank so many of my friends coming over to my house today to hang out and eat together before I leave for the summer. I have realized that I probably should finish this soon as I still need to finish packing. I have also realized that should probably learn to cut down on how long these things are...

I didn't think I would be writing this much stuff for my first ever post but I hope everyone enjoys it? I cannot guarantee that I will be able to post something on this everyday as I do not know my computer time situation as of now. What I do know is that anybody can write me at the address below until June 5. After that I will know where I am going to be stationed and will able to give out me address then.

Appalachia Service Project, Inc.

Jonesville Housing Services Center

P.O. Box 250

Jonesville, VA 24263

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."