Lotts Creek 2009 Trip Report

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Lotts Creek 2009 Trip Report

2009 LOTT’S CREEK MISSION TRIP
2009 report to the congregation

Pictures below

On July 18, 21 members and friends of MHCC , representing this congregation, traveled together to the community of Lotts Creek near Hazard, KY to volunteer their time working to improve the housing situation for several families. Some of us worked at the "Kitten House" - nicknamed that because there were several generations of cats, including some four week old kittens living around the house. This family had a mountain of trash behind their home, some of which was left from a previous construction project. We loaded up drywall scraps, wood scraps and all sorts of junk and took it back to the school where a dumpster was fed. This house also had a rotten bedroom floor with a hole in it. We replaced the floor. Another house, nicknamed "the new house" because it was new construction, needed some major help. It seems that previous groups had gotten the order of operations mixed up: It is usually necessary to complete plumbing, electrical and heating before drywalling, however, this rule was not followed and as a result, we spent many hours trying to retrofit these systems. More on that later. Some more of us worked in the school building, cleaning and painting in preparation for the start of classes in three weeks.

We started and ended every day with a short devotion. One of our scriptures for the day told of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, even the feet of Judas, the one who would betray him. In doing so, he set an example for us to follow. His example teaches us that we should become servants of others, seeing to their needs without regard for recognition or repayment in kind. All people are our brothers and sisters, not just the ones who look like us and sound like us, not just the ones who are nice to us, not just the ones who profess our same faith, not just the ones who are educated like us or like-minded politically.

This lesson is not just a theory; it became a reality when we realized that some of our group felt disrespected by a homeowner who made the job more difficult when he repeatedly parked his car in the path of the trailer used to haul trash, even though he knew the trailer would be coming back soon. We were told to "get back to work" by one of the kids in the family. A pail of dead fish was left out in the sun right near where some of us had to work. This was interpreted as a hostile action. Even though family members were present, they did not offer kind words or even really speak to our group. It was hard to understand why we were treated that way.

At another job site, a young neighbor who was a relative stopped by and stated "Do a good job". It would be easy to take offense at such a remark, but Jesus' example encouraged us to continue to serve, no matter how the people treated us. It's hard to understand why family members were not more involved, but it doesn't matter, we did our best. The needs of the families were real.

As always, one of our daily tasks was to write a daily report. The following comments are taken from those journal entries and they provide a "slice of life" as we experienced it in Lotts Creek KY.

Sunday

"Some of us attended a heartfelt worship service at a local church where a lay leader led us in worship with old familiar hymns. Testimonials by some in our group and the locals provided an inspiration to all."

"Great day today! I got to sleep in a little. I was awakened by the smell of pancakes wafting up the stairs and down the hall. I spent the day reading, checking out two job sites and playing basketball. "

"We visited job sites and saw the need of the people in the community. It makes me thankful for my many blessings."

"Today I got back into the swing of things, by relaxing that is. It was so nice to get back to this wonderful home away from home. It was a great day to meet new faces of our group and reconnect with the old. It's going to be another great week!"

"Today we visited the job sites. The work starts tomorrow and I'm ready to go! After we got back, I attempted a rubic's cube. I can almost get it, but not quite...Overall it was a laid back day."

"Today was a slow day. The only productive thing I did today was that I went for a run. I need to stay fit."

Monday

"We successfully removed the trash and debris that lay scattered across the yard. It took all day but it's done. We then went swimming for the first time this week. The water was very enjoyable."

"Just like the old times...I woke up after only a few hours of sleep, excited to see the job site. Most of the day was spent sifting through a mountain of rotten 2x4's... l spent my time picking up people's trash at our job site. We filled several trailers of ruined building materials and the homeowner's garbage. I found out that their drink of choice is Mountain Dew. I am ready to do something different tomorrow."

"I learned two valuable lessons today: 1.Especially when you use an exclusive bathroom, check to make sure that there is toilet paper before you sit down. 2. The key word in drywall is dry. Do not let this stuff get wet and sit around for a while. It creates a nasty mess to try and clean-up."

"We met a dog named Cinnamon and we want to take him home with us."

"While we were there, we fed the cats and the dogs. Taylor also had an animal rescue with a small kitten stuck on the roof."

"I helped the group painting at the school. We painted in one room and prepared another for painting tomorrow. We cleaned walls. Everyone on the team worked hard."

"I pulled ticks off a pit-bull, saved a chicken from the jaws of a Chihuahua, forced Mr. Uhl to swerve around a box turtle in the middle of the road, and rescued a 2week old kitten from the gutter of an old house. I officially proclaim myself Kentucky's animal warden."

"In the new house, we cut a new doorway between the kitchen and bedroom. Had problems with drywall removal because the drywall was glued on. Redesigned the bathroom stool area and closed off the old doorway."

"David, Ed and I cleaned out this shed. My Goodness, It Was HORRIBLE! Tomorrow I'm going to work in an attic because I'm the only one who is small enough."

"We spent the day cleaning up big piles of debris behind the house - a nasty, dirty job. Late in the day, Pat, Taylor and I tore-up the carpet and padding in the bedroom, exposing the problem area - a rotted hole in the floor."

"I worked at the new house today. My first task was to remove the framing around the door from the kitchen which was only 27 inches wide. Then I cut pieces of drywall for the doorway and attached them with screws. Later I put up corner molding on 2 edges of the doorway.

Tuesday

"I've heard sometimes that things have to get worse before they can get better. We made the hole in the floor larger in order to fix it. The larger hole gave us room to install an extra joist to support the sagging floor. Two and ¼ sheets of plywood later and a new floor was born."

"The weather has been wonderful. The kids and adults are so nice-truly a little bit of heaven here at Lotts Creek."

"Today I helped to switch the door and window. The front room had two outside doors, which seemed stupid, so we moved one of the doors to a back bedroom and moved the back bedroom window to the front room. I felt like I accomplished something today. We have to fix so many mistakes that other groups made."

"In the ‘kitten house', we put down flooring in the bedroom, which looks much better. We had to jack up a very saggy floor joist using an old car scissor jack that we picked out of the trash the day before. It made everything work out nicely."

"Today I backed up John's Ford Bronco in the driveway. This doesn't seem noteworthy until you consider that on one side of me (very close) was the cabin and the other side was a sheer drop-off-very scary but I made it. Jane and I loaded up the back of it with all of the MHCC food donations to take to the hunger center. Once we got there, we unloaded the food and helped to organize the donations. The food was very much appreciated! This evening, many of us went to a community music performance called Pickin' & Grinning. An 11 year old boy with only 7 months training performed on the banjo with an astonishing degree of skill.

"After the work for the day was done, we planned to have a bonfire to burn up all of the wood trash from the job site. On the way to the fire, we hopped over some fences to save some walking distance. While going over the second fence, I landed on a rock and twisted my ankle. The fire was huge with flames probably 30 feet high. It was a good day overall."

"Today I cleaned up a lot of old drywall litter. We had a little trouble getting it out of the trailer because it kept crumbling, but we made it work. We also went swimming at the end of the day and played Texas Hold'em. I won a lot of ‘money' but it was really just packets of sugar, salt and pepper."

"Today I went up in the attic with Scot. Well, that was a story...before we went up, Tom, Scot and John (aka Grandpa) were talking high tech terms: rafters, trusses,--like really, what the heck are those things? This is when I announced, "hey guys, dumb it down a little -I'm a girl" so as Tom and John continued to talk high tech, Scot translated all of those terms to me. After that, I drilled tons of holes in the sauna of an attic. Well I guess tomorrow I'm needed UNDER the new house...it better not have snakes!"

Wednesday

"Wednesday, the day in which sleep deprivation kicks in and the fakeness of superficially nice personalities subsides. Today is the day of the breakdown and there was one to be found in Roger. Two remarkably similar paint colors caused him to fret and send his crew home early for lunch so he could contemplate the controversy of the paint in silence. Fortunately, I was a part of this early breaking crew and I identify today as a good Wednesday. After all, it's only paint!"

"We continued to paint within the school. For a while it seemed that we wouldn't have the paint, the razor blade scrapers or the paint rollers in time, but fortunately, all arrived and we were able to work without a delay."

"Today I felt much more helpful on the site. I was able to help install electrical wires in the morning and finished up the day with some mudding. After much frustration, Bob really stepped up showed me how to mud properly. Without his help, and encouragement I might still be struggling, Thanks Bob!

"Today I learned how to use some power tools. Kyle is a good teacher! We put up a window and everyone is mudding the drywall or fixing the wires. At the food bank, I moved boxes and bags. At the "kittenhouse", we didn't get much done because we didn't have the right tools and it started raining. Also, today at the lake, we all found four leaf clovers! I had a fun day."

"Since my ankle was in bad shape today, I headed over to the school. I started out washing walls in the hallway. That took up the whole morning. After lunch, the fun really began. I started to paint the 21^st century room. Before I painted, we prepped the room for painting. My ankle is feeling better and I hope to work on something different tomorrow."

"Today I spent the morning under the house or in the attic. Later I mudded a doorframe. There was only one catch-it was in the hall way entrance to all of the rooms of the house so you can just imagine how difficult my job was. Naturally, Scot and Sara decided that this was the best time to wire for the smoke detectors, so poor Sara was saying every two minutes, "Cierra, can you-"   Whenever I heard my name, I just moved. The doorway did get finished though, after all."

"With Pat's help we filled in the flooring at the doorway of the "kitten house". After lunch, John and I went on a trek to find Lowes."

"Most of the time I've been putting up drywall and screwing them in to place. Today, Ed and I made a trip to get some supplies. Turned out that Ed thought I knew the way to Loews and I thought that Ed knew the way. The truth was that neither one of us did., so we wandered around Hazard and asked directions 3 times before finding it and wasted ½ hour in the process. We finally got to Loews, loaded the stuff in and then looked at each other and said, ‘How in the heck do we get back?!'"

"Today I continued working on the door we installed yesterday. We had to use materials that weren't necessarily made for the door, but it was all we had to finish it and still make it look nice. I also spent time today helping to install the electric. This included crawling around in the hot attic and fishing wires through walls. I learned today that it is much quicker and easier to just cut a stubborn nail in a tight place then to try to pull it with a hammer."

"Today I spent the day mentoring. Sara discovered that she is a natural born corner mudder. Cierra showed us all that she has proclivities toward "tunnel ratting". Jenny and Taylor sling a mean nail gun. Danny demonstrated skill at joint mudding. Everyone did an exceptional job. It was a good day."

"Today we cleaned hallway lockers and walls at the school. Taylor and I worked as a team for a while which was nice. In the afternoon, I prepped a room to be painted and had a chance to talk to David. I like it when I get to have some interaction with the "kids" especially our kids -they are great!"

Thursday & Friday

"Pat, Kyle and I finished the bedroom in the "kitten house" by installing baseboard and carpeting. We must have done an extremely excellent job since we spent 3 hours dong a job that professionals would have completed in 30 minutes. This evening, while getting ready for bed in my exclusive suite, I plugged in my cell phone and bam, the lights went out! Thinking I blew a circuit breaker and having no idea where the breaker box was, I figured on feeling my way back to bed and going to sleep. But wait, what's that noise? Beep...Beep...beep. Can't sleep with what turns out to be an alarm system on battery back-up, so I head out to the main dorm to sleep on the couch there. Hmm, no lights outside either. It turns out that there was an area wide power outage that lasted about 30 minutes. Only 4 of us were aware of what had happened. On Friday, I turned my exclusive suite into a 15 bed dorm room for next week's group."

I spent the morning working on various wiring issues: outlets, switches, and installing miscellaneous boxes .After lunch, I taught Pat how to wire up outlets and switches. We went to the lake at the end of the day. Swimming was great!"

"We painted three school rooms and four bathrooms plus cleaned and painted part of the hall this week. I enjoyed the work and the team spirit.. I liked the way everyone got along this week and I enjoyed the Appalachian video and the trips to town. There was scattered free time which was also welcome."

"Today I finished wiring and put outlet faces on the walls. I also cut out a large piece of drywall for the breaker box. It took a while."

"Today I mudded with David and we had a system going and then Kyle came in and said, ‘you realize that you have to redo this again tomorrow'? So that is what we did on Friday."

"I worked at clean-up again-at the new house which I enjoyed. I like to keep my broom busy, I also took odd nails and staples from unexpected places so that others coming along would not get their hands cut. Later I cleaned walls and doors at the school. The painters have made a major improvement in the appearance of the hallways and a few classrooms. It's been a wonderful week. I am so glad that our friend Tom came along."

"Today I worked at the new house and did even more sanding. Also, today, we brought home Tucker, a kitten from one of the job sites. He is adorable! He wasn't treated very well here so Taylor is bringing him to Ohio with us to give to her uncle's veterinary hospital for adoption. I hope Tucker will have a nice home."

"I helped to improve the quality of life for two families as well as for a beautiful kitten, which I rescued. Adoption anyone?"

"The school is supposed to be painted with 4 specific colors. Other colors have been introduced along the way, which complicates the painting job. We removed the extra colors from the school. The remaining colors of paint were placed in one room so that the next group will work with the correct colors."

"Today was another day of mudding and sanding. The house is really starting to look good and I hope that the next crew coming will a nice job. We accomplished a lot this week."

"This morning, me, Kyle and Sara went to the ‘kitten house' and removed the rotten fascia board and gutters. The group coming next week will put new ones up. After lunch I kept busy at the new house mudding and sanding the drywall."

"Today we finished up as much as possible the more difficult areas of mudding. I helped install several electrical boxes. The entire week went exceptionally well. We had a good group and made good progress on the work projects."

"Here's my Kentucky list:    Bugs: too many;   snakes:   2 lumpy bed: all of ‘em trash hauling: 2 days worth new kitten: 1 new skills: 3 Improved skills 4 basketball time: 2 days swimming: 3 ½ days bonfire: 2 Families: 2 helpedDogs: 3 Lizards: 3 Hours in the car: too flippin' much Rewarding Trip:   PRICELESS!"

"I finished up the week at a new job site this morning with the boys. It was nice getting back to pulling nails and preparing for the new accommodations to be made. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting back to Lotts Creek. This area will always have a special place in my heart. It's very easy to see just how lucky I am whenever I come down here. Our group has such a dynamic personality and it seems that we really come together to get things done. This past week I have really realized just how blessed I am to be surrounded by such wonderful people. I always leave feeling relaxed and with a much better connection to a higher power. I don't know if it's the work we do, the beautiful scenery or the amazing people, but I hope to experience all of it all over again next year."

There you have it - a glimpse of what it was like to be at Lotts Creek last week. I think you can tell by looking at us that we are an intergenerational group with a variety of skills. Can you see yourself or someone just like you up here? We have room for others to join. It's not too early to start planning for next year.   July 2010 will be here before you know it!

One last thing - and this is a very important thing: Thank you for all of your support for this mission to Lotts Creek. This year, we collected several hundred pounds of canned foods- mainly meats for the hunger center at Lotts Creek. The woman's breakfast group packed at least 48 personal care kits which will be distributed at Christmas to members of the school community. Many of you purchased greeting cards from the Habitat Card shop located in front of our church library. The proceeds of those cards (this year, it was $500) are sent to Lotts Creek to purchase building materials. Many of you gave generously to the annual Christmas offering, a portion of which is used for Lotts Creek building materials. The Christian Outreach Committee has supported the Lotts Creek mission trip as well. And many of you enjoyed delicious pancakes at the special fundraising breakfast on Father's Day. Thank you so much for your support. The people of Lotts Creek are very blessed to have you behind them.

Following are some pictures in random order - mostly of the "New Construction" site, sights around our dorm building and an evening camp fire. Apparantly there were no photographers among the "Kitten House" and school workers.

2009_0721Lotts0041 House 1 Door Change.JPG

2009_0721Lotts0037 House 1 Window Change.JPG

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