Eastwood Christian Church

(Disciples of Christ)

Youth stretch their physical and spiritual muscles

The sight of Mr. and Mrs. W.'s ramshackle, two-story house and its tall chimneys stunned two carloads of teenagers and their leaders into silence -- most of us thinking that we'd never even get this house scraped by the end of the week.

We'd already finished painting one small house on our mission trip to the Kentucky Small Farms Project in Beattyville, KY, and had been feeling pretty confident that we could fight the wasps, climb onto roofs, and get the job done. But the W. home -- where 10 people lived with one bathroom in a house that had once been used as a hospital during the Civil War -- looked like a mountain we might not be able to climb. Still, all we could do was get started on a house that hadn't been painted in 50 years and which we learned later was the largest house LeeRoy Brandenburg had ever asked a mission trip group to paint -- and with seven youth and two leaders from Eastwood Christian and St. Ann's Episcopal, we weren't that large a group.

Despite only having two extension ladders (just one of which was tall enough to reach the chimneys), the realization that the paint we were scraping was probably lead-based, one wasp sting, and two paint fights, we finished the house. We didn't manage to board over the hole in the eaves where bats and squirrels climbed into the attic, because we were afraid the wood was so old and fragile that it might split and crumble, leaving serious damage.

In the meantime, we discussed why people would stay in an area with no jobs rather than move, talked about the differences between rural and urban poverty, struggled with guilt over eating like kings only to learn that the catfish Mrs. W. fried up was caught to sell for $3 a pound and was one of the family's income sources. Those of us who climbed under the house to turn off the water admired the rows of canned goods -- vegetable soup, beans, pickles, etc., that would feed the family during the winter. We helped carry boxes for people picking up their monthly box from the food pantry located in the half of the building we were sleeping in and wondered why some of them drove better cars than we did. We learned from LeeRoy that people who had a low-paying job could often qualify for a car loan, but not for a house.

Many stayed, we learned, because their homes were paid for and no one would buy the house and land if they wanted to leave, their family and friends were nearby, they could have a garden and grow food, and the beauty of the land held them.

"There's a dignity to being poor in the country," Max F. (who survived dropping a 50-pound ladder on his head) observes. As members of inner city churches, most of us were familiar with urban poverty and agreed there seemed to be more compensations in Kentucky -- the gardens and spectacular landscape the chief ones.

We got out of our comfort zone and got to know people we wouldn't normally meet -- laughing over the story the owner of the first house told about locking his keys in the house and attempting to climb through a tiny skylight, only to get stuck. The fire department rescued him.

At the W. home, the younger kids and one of the adults came outside and helped us paint (the boards they could reach ended up with 5 or 6 coats). At first, we had a hard time even understanding the children because of their thick accents, and at first they were really shy, but pretty soon they were chattering away, showing us a lizard they caught, trading cards, and wanting to help. The fact that we had youth as young as 11 who painted all day really impressed the adults who met us.

Every night, we gathered for discussion of the day's highs and lows, a Bible reading, and what we'd learned. One night, when we had been feeling really bad about the feasts Mrs. W. was putting out for lunch every day, none of the leaders could come up with a Bible verse to start off the discussion. Louis Claus, age 11 and the youngest of the group, called out a random verse from Matthew. It turned out to be Jesus instructing the disciples on how to go into a town and preach. He told them not to carry an extra tunic, money, or food, because "laborers deserve their food."

Cortney F. organized games, Lori G. and Max F. entertained us with comedy improv, and Adrian B. and Max taught everyone to play pool. LeeRoy let us milk goats and let Julian (one of the leaders) help rob his beehives. Then we all ate the honey. Everyone cooked and cleaned and LeeRoy and his wife gave us a cookout and took us on a hayride Thursday. Our side trips, the Corvette Museum on the way up and Dollywood on the way back, were fun, but far from the highlight of the trip.

There was almost no grumbling, despite the heat. The kids enjoyed getting to turn their hand to manual labor. All felt that the best parts of the trip were doing real work and getting to know the people. We all felt like we left with many new friends and everyone wants to go back again.