Kentucky Mission Trip 2008!

Hello all! I have been SO bless to travel to KENTUCKY over Spring Break and I wanted to update everyone on how the trip was! So… I am going to enter parts on my journal entries from the trip onto my blog so you can read all about my time in Hazelgreen Kentucky! :)

Thanks! ENJOY!! :)

Sunday, March 16 2008

DAY UNO!

We are FINALLY in BEAUTIFUL Hazelgreen, Kentucky! After waking up at 4:30 a.m. and traveling 15 very long hours to arrive, myself and all the kids are SO anxious to start our work here. Everything I have seen of this state has been beautiful. The grass and water is green and we are surrounded by rolling hills. Not the Oklahoma kinds of “hills”, but the beautiful Kentucky hills. There are animals everywhere and it seems like ever one here must own some kind of farm animal. It’s gorgeous!
For lunch, we at in a town right outside of Hazelgreen, about 30 minutes away. We ate at good ‘ol Dairy Queen and it was delicious! It seems like they have all gone out of business in Oklahoma, so it’s nice to eat at one every once in a while. At the restaurant, we met up with Mike’s (the middle school youth pastor) dad and a man named Jim who put together the whole mission trip for us. They told Mike that the academy that we were supposed to be staying in was not going to be safe for us to reside at. Apparently there was some unsafe mildew caused by the basement that was flooded. But not to worry! God had a different plan for us and Mike’s dad and Jim had us all taken care of. We pulled up to Hazel green’s Day’s Inn, which seemed to have possibly been the only hotel in the whole town. I was shocked that we were going to be staying here and a bit disappointed we weren’t going to “rough it” since we were on a mission trip and all. But God showed me and everyone else that that’s not exactly what a mission trip is all about.
After unloading all of our things, we head over to the gym, where they tell us we will be spending a lot of time this week. It is a small elementary school that is very old and smells kind of funny. Jim tells us that we are about to split up into our team and go meet the families that we will be working with for the week. We load up and soon enough get dropped off at a trailer house. At this point I am pretty much thrown into this project not knowing a thing. The bus drops my group (5 middle schoolers) and I off outside, where I have no idea who the family is, what they want done, and no one to introduce us or tell us what to do. Great.

As we walk up to the house we are greeted at the window by children, and they just keep coming. We go inside and meet this 8 person family, living in a VERY small trailer house. There are SIX kids, in order:

Kaitlin (7)

Austin and Ed (6) who are twin boys

Brandon (6)

Chastity (5)

and Abigail (4). The mom’s name is Ellen and the dad is Jeff.

At first, it is really awkward. I introduced myself and my group and told them that we were here to serve them this whole week and we were really excited about working with their family. Since Jim told us not to work today, I asked the family if they wanted to play outside, since it was kind of nice out and the house was way too small for all of us to stay in. I was curious to see the rest of the house and what we would be doing, but Ellen was sick with the flu/strep thought, so Jeff came outside with us and the kids.

Outside of their house was a disaster. Out front, there was a little shed the man was in the process of building. There was also a large piece of wood covered in glass. Along with that was an old pick-up for sale, and a little dog who the man said had been in his cage for over a year. Also, there were two piles of sticks and trash being burned. In the back, there was trash everywhere. There were old toys, to dishes; even a toilet. Mostly, there was old insulation all over the yard. There were three fires burning in the back as well and an old truck half way in the stream.
We had a TON of fun playing outside with everyone! The kids LOVED us and opened right up for us. That was totally a blessing from God that we could spend that day with them hanging out and building a relationship with them. One of the twins, Austin, was playing down by the creek up me. We were talking about how awesome his cowboy boots were when I heard him say, “Ava, this is for you”. I looked down and he had a folded up dollar bill in his hands. I told him to keep his money and save it. Then he reached back in and said, “here, how about this?”. He had reached back in to pull out a few pennies and dimes he had. I said thank you, but I really want you to save your money so you can buy your mom something nice. He said that was a great idea and put it away. We continued to play with the kids for the rest of the time we were there.
While the kids were playing in the back, I got a chance to sit down and talk with the dad, Jeff. God is amazing and I am so glad that He opened up this door. Jeff really opened up to me and I was excited about what he had to share. First I started to ask him about his family and he could talk forever about it. Just to summarize, he told me that he and his wife had only been married for a year. None of the kids that we were playing with were his and his wife’s kids. They had both previously had kids before their marriage. The three older kids were his; Kaitlin, Austin and Ed. The three younger were his wife’s; Brandon, Chastity and Abigail. That explained why some of the kids were the same age.
He started to talk a little bit about his past with the three older kids. The oldest girl Kaitlin has a different mom then the two boys. She is only with her dad on the weekends and she stays at her mom’s house during the week, but still attends the same school as the other kids. Jeff has joint custody of her. As for the twin boys, their mom is a drug addict. Jeff said that their mom was not taking proper care of the boys and found drugs to be more important to her than her children. He said that one day, he found the boys dropped off outside his house and took them in. A few days later the cops came to arrest him for kid-napping. He was appalled that he could be arrested for taking care of his own children. He said as soon as he was released he tried to fight the mother in court for custody. He spent two months and thousands of dollars to get his children into his home. He ended up winning the case due to the mother never showing up in court. Earlier I had been joking around making fun of one of the boys for being clumsy because he had been stumbling around. Jeff said that the two boys stumbled and fell a lot because they were neglected and malnourished when they lived with their mother. He said they had fragile bones and bad hips. I could defiantly tell before he had even said anything that they were falling all over the place, but I did not realize that was the reason why.
He did not go into much detail about his wife and her previous family. I do not think that either one of them have been married before. At least that is the impression he gave. He said that his children know Ellen as their “momma” and that is who she is to them. He talked about having a great relationship with his mother and how she had died nine years ago. He said that her house used to be where his trailer was and that when she passed, he was so depressed he could not keep up with the house. He ended up lighting it and burning the house to the ground.

Jeff started to ask me what I saw going to school for. I told him that I was majoring in youth ministry and missions. He was surprised by my answer and he asked if my parents were okay with that. Nobody has ever asked me that one before. I have gotten lots of confused looks and people telling me I was sinning because I am a woman, but never has anyone asked me that one. I still don’t really know why he asked that but I thought it was awesome. I told him that I had only became a Christian about 4 years ago and that I was the first in my family. I told him that God helped me lead my family to accept Christ into their lives. He was really shocked but excited at the same time. He said that his wife loves to take the children to church, but he never went with them. He said they spoke in tongues and that he was a bit taken by it. He did not agree with the concept and decided never to go back. We did have a really great conversation about other religions and what it meant to be a “Christian”. I see a lot of potential in Jeff and I will pray for him when I leave here to go to church with his family and to seek God in all he does to become a great leader to his family and a true man of God. I am so blessed to meet him and I am so grateful that God opened so many doors for us to talk about God.While we were outside, I started walking around by myself for a few minutes. I took my camera and started taking pictures of EVERYTHING! I felt so overwhelmed by the beauty God has placed all around me. The trees and the hills and the children and the family we were with. God’s creations are so beautiful. Everything He has created delicately and perfect, the way it is meant to be. This was a great time for me to just sit and praise God for everything; the children, the conversation I was able to have with Jeff, being in Kentucky...

At about 4:00 p.m. the bus rolls around. We gave all the kids hugs goodbye and told them we would see them tomorrow. One of the boys got really upset when we left and started to cry. He was worried that we would not come back the next day. It was sad that he was crying, but awesome that we meant so much to him and his siblings. I am so excited to get to know this family better and so is my team. The middle schoolers did great with every obstacle we were handed today and I am really anxious to see them Grow in God this week. When the bus picked us up, we headed back over to the gym for some pizza. We ate, and then played a few games in the gym. After that, we headed over to the gas station down the road, which Mike has been talking ALL about. He has been SO excited to hang out at “the gas station”. Well, it defiantly was as great as Mike talked it up to be. You can get almost everything you need there! They also have a little bar area where you can sit and eat. In Kentucky, they have this drink called “Ale-8-1”, which is just a pop drink. It is made only in Kentucky and pretty much found only here as well. It’s delicious! I plan to take some home with me to last me a while!
Well, today was amazing. God is going to work through us here and I am pumped to see lives changed. Jim and Mike’s Dad are GREAT people. I have already seen God so much through my students in my group. They did such a great job today playing with the kids and having fun with them. I am excited about how God is going to change their lives this week.

DAY TWO!

We got off to a rough start today. When we were dropped off at our house, none of the supplies were there. I was told we were painting and doing dry wall. I have never done dry wall before and I was nervous about it since I was the only leader there. Jeff had to return to work today, so he wasn’t there to help. I called Mike and Leslie but did not get a response. We waited around for about 45 minutes, when Jim came to bring us paint. He brought the primer so we could start painting all the rooms. He left and we had no tape, tarp or stirring sticks. I looked around, and it was literally impossible to paint the wall without tape and tarp. We would have gotten it everywhere. The mother had not bothered to move anything so we could get to the walls. There was junk everywhere which made it VERY hard to paint.

We started in Kaitlin’s room. The only thing in her room was a bed, along with only a few toys, and lots of junk, that quite frankly was not safe at all to be in her room. She had a small closet with no doors and a small window that was accumulating mold and dirt all around it. Her bed had rat poop in it and so did every other crevice in her room. Below her closet were 4 drawers we were to paint as well. We pulled the drawers out and inside was a tone of rat poop. Below the drawers was even more rat poop, along with a mouse trap, with a dead mouse to be found inside. We moved the bed to where we could paint and found another dead rat.

Down the hall was where the three boys shared a room together. There were two beds with one tiny pull out mattress underneath one. One of the beds was broken and lopsided. There were dirty clothes all over the room. The walls were plywood, but had been painted an ugly green color. Whoever painted it did a terrible job because it was only painted to about 6 inches from the ceiling. I was shocked to find two holes in the ground in there room in two of the corners. I looked into the holes and could see the ground outside, and feel the cold breeze coming in.
Ellen told us if we needed to use the restroom, her toilet doesn’t work. She said there was a bucket in the bathtub if we needed to go. I walked into the bathroom where the mildew and dirt was so thick on the mirror that I couldn’t see myself through it. I looked down at the sink where rust had over taken most of the inside of it. In the shower/bathtub was the bucket we were to use. Thank God it was empty when I found it. There was also a mop in the shower. The toilet was shut and looked decent; I did not bother to open it. When I talked to my parents on the phone tonight, I told them that if these conditions were found anywhere in the area we lived, DHS would not be happy. The house was disgusting.
It seemed like we only worked for an hour or so before the bus came back to pick us up for lunch. We ate at the gym and soon headed back to work. When we returned, we finished the primer on all three of the rooms; the kitchen, Kaitlin’s bedroom, and the three boy’s room. Right when we cleaned our brushes, Jim showed up with the colored paint to go on the walls. Since the primer was not dry yet, and we did not have enough time to start on the paint, we picked up garbage in the backyard until the bus came. Ellen told us to just pick up the insulation and things that could not be burned. We cleaned up about 15 bags of insulation.
We finished about 10 minutes before the bus came to get us for dinner, so we played outside with the kids until it came. I decided to walk across the street to see what was over there and stumbled across a black snake. It REALLY scared me!
The bus came to pick us up and we went to go eat at Pattie’s Place. It was delicious! After dinner, we went to a small shop in town, which sold miscellaneous items, including knives and swords. I bought a Swiss army knife! Then, we went to Dairy Queen, where Mike’s dad treated all of the students to a cold treat! We did not get to go to the gas station tonight, so we went right back to the hotel after Dairy Queen.

There are two girls in my room who I just met on this trip; Madi and Abby. They are 8th graders at Deer Creek Middle School. I am so glad I am getting a chance to room with them and get to know them better. They are SO funny and think I am too. They laugh at everything I say and it’s so funny to be sarcastic with them. They remind me so much of my girls from Journey. They are great girls and I am so excited to invest more time in their lives after this trip.

I am so happy to be here in Kentucky. God has blessed me with the health to be here. I have been feeling great and I have lots of energy to work and be with these students. I pray that it will continue to stay this way. I think today the students in my group really saw how fortunate they are; I know I did. We all live in such nice houses with working bathrooms and floors without holes in them. We are so fortunate to have parents who take care of us. I am glad that this week we will learn how other live with not as much. Myself along with the students need to see that. God is good!

Day Three

Yum yum yum! We started the morning eating at Pattie’s Place! We soon started painting on the three rooms. My attitude was a bit frustrated this morning. I do not think that any student in my group has ever picked up a paintbrush before. Since there are 6 of us, I started everyone out with 2 students in each room. Since I could not mediate the other rooms, the kids were having fun instead of working, which is okay sometimes, but not in this case. I went to the boy’s room where they had been painting it blue. Well, when I walked in, it seemed that there was more paint on the student then there was on the walls. I had to go by every room and teach them how to paint correctly, so we could possibly get away without having to do a second coat, since we did not have enough paint to.
The dad, Jeff was home today since he did not have to work, which was a big help. Kaitlin came back from her mom’s house because she really wanted to play with us again. With the children all at home, it made it very difficult to paint and get things done. Since the rooms are so small, it is hard to move around with all the junk and a lot of people in them. We tried to shew the kids away but they kept coming back.
We only got to work for two hours before the bus came for lunch, but it seemed like we had gotten a lot done. We were on a roll and I was a bit disappointed to leave so soon. When we came back, the kitchen had been completely painted. Turns out, while we were gone, Jeff painted the entire room. That was very nice of him and very helpful to us, even though we didn’t want him to do it.

We started painting again and the student finally got the hang of it. We were off to a great start when Jim pulls up in the truck to take us horseback riding. We had only been working for 20 minutes. Jim says that we need to be having fun as well as working. I think the fun part overweighs the work part on this trip, but that is okay. I need to realize that these are only middle schoolers and that they don’t completely understand the concept of a mission trip yet, and that yes, should be having fun too. Horseback riding was a great idea. The students loved it and it was a lot of fun, except for the fact that I almost got thrown off of my horse. I thank God that it was me and not one of the students. Mike let me take the horse and trot on it myself, since I know how to ride horses. I went around a few times when and I figured the horse had the hang of it. I wanted to go a bit faster and I guess she didn’t. We flew around the corner and the horse didn’t want me on her back anymore. I was literally hanging off the side of the horse before I just jumped off. Mike thought it was pretty funny, I didn’t agree.

We went back to the house and immediately started working. We worked fast and diligently. I felt like I was being bossy the hole time, telling everyone what to do, but it was needed. Brandon, one of the students, and I finished painting Kaitlin’s room so I decided to try to clean it out and organize her things. We cleaned up all the trash on the floors and vacuumed it out, which probably hadn’t been vacuumed in maybe a year or more. We cleaned up all of the rat poop from under the drawers and started to clean out from under her bed. There were three boxes filled with junk under her bed. I looked through them and found two rusty round saws inside of them. I couldn’t imagine a 7 year old girl with a rusty saw under her bed. That is defiantly NOT safe. We organized everything the best we could. In her closet we filled a small box with all of her toys in it. The box was VERY small and had only a few toys inside. Brandon and I were talking about how her toys didn’t even compare to how many toys we had when we were younger.
While Brandon and Carly finished painting the boys room, I tried to move the beds back into their place and organize their toys. They did not have junk in their room like Kaitlin did. We only had about 30 minutes left until the bus came, so I let the students go outside to play with the kids before we left. While they were outside I walked around the house to see what had gotten done today, and what was left to do tomorrow. We only have about an hour or so of work tomorrow, which is great so we can spend the rest of the time hanging out with the kids before we leave. When I went to check out the boy’s room I sat on the bed to take a little rest. I could hear the kids playing outside from the window and I just started to pray over the boys and their room. I prayed that they could find their room to be a safe place and I prayed for their lives in Christ. I was only in there for about ten minutes before the bus came.The bus came and we ate dinner at Pattie’s again. After that, we went back to the gym to play games and do our devotionals. At the gym, we always play gotcha and dodge ball. I love playing dodge ball with the students and find myself to be very competitive, as usual when I play sports. It is a lot of fun. After we finished our devo, we went to the gas station again, which is always a fun time. I bought 2 cases of Ale-8 to take home to my family. When we got back, we went straight to our rooms to get ready for bed. I stayed up WAY to late hanging out with the girls, but I think I got a good work out laughing at them. Today was a great day. We got a lot accomplished and God has really blessed us.

Day Four

I accidentally woke up late today! The girls and I rushed to get ready and go downstairs to load up on the bus. Today is our last day in Kentucky. We headed to Kentucky University to visit the campus and basketball area. We went to the book store (which is about 40 times bigger than our bookstore at OC) and I bought a KU t-shirt. We walked around campus and visited the basketball arena. We got to see where the practice court was, but was not able to see the main gym.

I woke up feeling kind of sick today. I am finally out of energy and needed a pretty big boost this morning. We went to Wal-mart and I bought some fruit and an energy bar, which helped a lot. We ate lunch of the bus on the way back to town. Mike decided to stop at the Ale-8 factory and take a tour, which was a lot of fun. After that, on the bus Mike told us that we were not going to go back to work today, due to the weather and students getting sick. He said it was best that we go back to the hotel and rest for the remainder of the day. I was not happy about that. I really wanted to go back to our site and finish what we started and see the kids for the last time. I had bought them a few toys at Wal-mart and wanted to make sure they got them. I was really upset that we could not say goodbye to them.

Well, even though I was mad, God showed me that He had a different plan than mine. Since I was feeling sick, a nap is really what I needed. I would have ran out of energy if we went back to the site, and as much as I hate it, going back to the hotel is really what everyone needed. Mike was right on his decision. After my nap, Abby, Braden and I went for a hike in the woods behind the hotel. It was a lot of fun.
We went to dinner again at Pattie’s Place tonight. It was delicious as always. We came back to the gym and played a few more games of dodge ball, which was REALLY fun and really intense! After that, we got in a circle and sang a few worship songs. Then, Mike lead into a time where we could share our “God moments” of the week. He asked us to tell how we saw God working this week. I can see that God really worked in the students lives this week. I know that these students will not walk away from this trip unchanged. I have seen them grow closer with God and closer with each other. They have matured a lot this week and have learned things that they could only learn here.

We leave at 5:15 tomorrow morning to head home. I am so thankful for the opportunity to travel to Kentucky this week. I am thankful for the students and the lives changed on this trip, including mine. I have grown so much closer to God, and learned more about leadership, and just being a good friend to these students. I am excited to see what God will do in their lives when we get back. I am excited to see the change that a lot of them will make and to see where God will lead them to serve. They are great kids, and I am blessed to be surrounded by great leaders who put everything together. But most of all, I am so blessed for what God has done. I hope and pray that what we have done in Kentucky will only glorify God and not ourselves. I pray that when our family see’s their new colorful walls, they will remember God and the reason f why we came to help them. I pray that they will not see us, but they will see God at work in our lives. Thank God for that family! Thank God for Kentucky! And thank God for this week to spend with Him! :)
Tomorrow we get to go to a museum in St. Louis called the city art museum! It should be fun!