St. Joseph 2013 ASP Trip: July 2013

HI from the Chavies Reversal group. Last night we had our family picnic at Buckhorn Lake where the families we have been helping out were the guests of honor. I'm sure you'll hear more about this from the teens in their postings tonight! We didn't get back to our center until late so we didnt' have a chance to blog last night. It's hard to believe this is the last day of our trip and we are heading back tomorrow.

The week has been a great experience based on the comments from everyone tonight during the circle of sharing "God Experiences" This is a tradition at ASP where everyone has an opportunity to share when they experienced God during the week. Some pass on the opportunity to share (which is OK) but most do share and it's gratifying to me to hear of their experiences and how they are changed by them. It's just one more reason for me (and most of the adults on the trip) to be involved in a service trip like this.

The vehicles with the trailers are leaving earlier tomorrow morning than the rest of the group as we can't travel as fast. Our hope is that all of us arrive back in L-ville around the same time. My best guess right now would be sometime around 5:00 or 6:00. Once we're on the road and have a better idea on an eta, we'll have all of the teens call their family. We will have the pick ups in the parking lot for SouledOut.

Thanks again for all of your support before and during the trip. It's greatly appreciated and recognized by the teens and adults alike. Here are the final comments from the teens. Dave

This is Team Newton and we're coming to you live to talk about Thursday and Friday. On thursday we went to the site and had a productive day for the most part, until it started downpouring for a good hour. It forced us to stop work on the roof and go inside and work on our projects there. After the workday we went to BuckHorn Lake for a picnic with all of the groups families. We ate hot dogs and burgers for dinner at the picnic. Then we went and swam in the beautiful lake in the middle of about 5 mountains. WE HAD A BLAST! Then we came back to the center and had a super sick dance party in the recreational room. Now, were going to discuss the awesome activities we participated in on Friday. As always we woke up and went to do some hard, sweat shedding work at our families house. We didnt finish our project comepletly but we did our absolute BEST to please our family to the fullest extent!! Then we came back to the center, as always, and did our thing and balled like the cool cats we are!

Team Big Bend had a very productive day on Thursday! We worked on the deck as well as finishing up the underpining for the house. We finished off our day with a fun picnic, were we invited the families. We thouroughly enjoyed ourselves, spending time with our families and swiming in the beautiful lake. On Friday, Team Big Bend worked really hard together to finish up our house. Through the downpour rain we pushed through to finish the landscaping in front of the house, a gift we provided for the family. We felt accomplished and over joyed at the end of the day as we said goodbye to our family! We are heading home now with a sense of accomplishment, knowing we made a difference in these peoples lives, as we know that they made a huge difference in ours. See you guys soon!!
Team Big Bend

While winding down this year's ASP trip American Somao was handling the difficult task of finishing the initially intended task and another one we took upon ourselves. At first the crew was given the assignment of replacing the floor on one of the trailers. It was not known that there was not one but two layers and a door that needed to be replaced. Due to complications with supplies and time constraints we had to work in high gear, not to say we were slacking off throughout the first half of the trip. By working conscientiously we were abe to make progress on the floor and the new door. After that day of work all the different teams and some of their families went to Buckhorn Lake in the Mountains were we ate hamburgers and hotdogs as well as swam in the Lake. On Friday we knew that this was our last chance to get everything done. While splitting the teams, one working on the door the other on the floor we were able to get the door done wit ease, unfortuantely we were not able to finish the floor but got a lot of it done. The day didn't end in total disapointment as someone adopted some of the very cute pupples, as the trailer's owner Ana Lee graciously gave us. - Nick Stratman

As we have come to the end of our ASP service trip, we have had a great week full of memorable experiences. We all went out of our comfort zones in order to help others which we dont commonly get the chance to do. We were blessed to have a very friendly and helpful family that was outside with us every step of the way. Not only were they very welcoming, but were also eager to help and even finished jobs after we had left the site. On our final day today, we didn't have much ork to do and spent most of the time just being with our family. We spent the extra money we had left over on gifts for our family that that clearly needed. We even bought the young daughter a water balloon toy that resulted in a full out water fight that was tons of fun on such a hot day. When we left you could tell how much the family appreciated our work and even though we had only been there a week, they were sad to see us go. Just within our work team we had many great times between singing and dancing in the car to getting shaved ice every day after work. All in all we had a great work site and team that I wouldn't trade for anything.

The week at ASP has now come to an end and it is a sad feeling. Our final day on the work site was out doors which was a great change from the all indoor work we have been doing. It was extemely hot outside though. We were digging holes and pouring in concrete. Yet guess what? We had to go to Lowes like we do everyday because we didn' have enough concrete. By the time that the trip was over and all the concrete wa set we it waas one o'clock. Janine had cleaned the kitchen the whole day and by the end it was spotless. As a parting gift we got the family flowers and the pot was covered in our hand prints so that the family had something to remember us by. It was a sad goodbye we will all miss Troy but we will probably miss the kittens more. This week was great and we can't wait to come back next year!!
Love, Capital Reef - Maiti, Riley, Sam, Matt, Janine, Meghan, Lauren

Leslie County Ky - Friday July 19th

So we are wrapping up tonight!

It's the last night and we have a very busy evening getting ready to leave. All the big suitcases need to be packed and loaded in the trailer as well as all the tools. We all gassed up and ready to hit the road by 7:30 in the morning. We have a long list of chores to perform this evening to clean the center and prepare it for the group next week.

We had an evening devotional this evening and we went around the room and over 80 people or so gave a description of their "God moment" this week. There were a lot of tears and deep emotional feeling as we all expressed how wonderful it can be giving to others. You cannot come away from a week like this without being touched by the holy spirit.

So, once again thanks for keeping up with us and we look forward to seeing you all back home.

I thought I would wrap up with a bunch of pictures from the week.

God Bless

Tom Noller

Bluegrass Dancing

Here are some follow up pictures from our cultural event last night. Yes that's yours truly out on the dance floor - we had a ball.

Down By The River

Nearby the center there is a Mine Memorial dedicated to a number of miners who were killed locally in a large mine explosion. Many of us took an hour this week to visit the memorial and my group even had a picnic lunch there today. Just a short distance from the memorial is what they would call down here a "wide spot in the river". One group ate there for lunch one day and many went swimming in the river which was pretty muddy due to run off from local mines (I was told this by a local resident). The youth even found a deep spot in the river a few hundred yards down stream with a rope swing and I included a bunch of pictures of everyone having fun. There's even a few second video of my famous whale call which got the attention of local residents :-)

The Smoky Mountains

More fun to jump with 2 or 3

Fairy Lights

It was very hectic tonight and we had a tough time getting anyone to blog so I decided to post pictures from my job site. Our job was to strip damaged siding off a trailer and replace it. With a little instruction, the youth quickly learned to work independently. We also did some underpinning and putting in trim in some interior roome. Kudos to my partner, Megan Pavelski, for leading the inside work - she's getting to be a pro.

As you can see, there were several
local dogs that visited us every day so of
course we had to feed them any left over food that we had :-)

An interesting aside - I laid out a large piece if insulation and turned my back for 15 minutes. The dogs proceeded to attack the insulation and toss the pieces all over the yard.

We had left the window open in the car and a bird decided to camp out on our dashboard.

We always have a group signature of our work somewhere on a site. This support board will forever be hidden behind the siding. We have one homeowner from last year who to this day refuses to paint an interior board because he wants to remember all the kids names.

There is always a unique creature we get to see every day

The group stone we laid in our Homeowner's garden

Our gift to the homeowner. St Joseph groups alway buy our homeowners a gift at the end of the week. We bought some stepping stones, flowers and birdseed which just thrilled her.

The Center

There is an invasive plant called Kudzu that is rampant aroun this area. It covers hill sides and also engulfs trees. The resulting landscape is like a beautiful work of art.

The school where we stayed and the outdoor showers

Field behind our center

What can I say - The girls are messy!

Having Fun

So there is a contest here where you put whip cream on your wrist, hit your arm against the other arm and launch a large pile of whipped cream into the air.