My first mission trip

When I was a sophomore in high school I went on my first big mission trip to the Appalachian Mountains. There were 14 of us going, spilt into two work crews. We went to a town in Kentucky where we spent a week helping a family with projects they needed done to their home.

I thought I had seen families living in poverty but nothing would prepare me for what I witnessed in Appalachia.

The mission program we went through is called the Appalachia Service Project (ASP) They take applications from families living in the Appalachian Mountains who need work done on their homes but don't have the money to do it themselves. The ASP crew then looks over the applications and decide who needs the most help, during the summer crews just like us come into the towns and go to those peoples homes to help them. Each work crew will spend one week at the home doing whatever work they can and living in either a local community center or sleeping in the gym of a school. Over the course of the summer there will be a work crew at each house until the project gets done.

My work crew went to the home of an elderly couple who had never had an indoor bathroom. That is correct, in there home there has never been a shower or toilet. They did have an outhouse however, the husband who was very frail after breaking his back was unable to walk outside to the toilet. They literally live on a side of a mountain where it is straight up right behind the house and straight down right in front. There is a small flat path but if your not quick on your feet then you would surely slip and fall.

Over the summer ASP work crews built the elderly couple a bathroom. It was very hard work, but being able to talk with them and hearing all their stories really made it worthwhile. The bathroom turned out absolutely beautiful and they were so thankful. They were also using a washer that appeared to be older than they were, so we went into town and purchased the wife a new one. You can't even begin to explain the look on her face when we showed up with it. She is so proud of that washer and has taken such good care of it.

You go on a mission trip expecting to just help people, but you leave realizing that they helped you in so many other ways than you could ever expect. I will never forget about that elderly couple I was able to become so close to, and although this past May the husband passed away from cancer, I know he truly appreciated that bathroom for a good three plus years.

The Appalachia Mountain range is home to some of the worst poverty in America, can you even begin to imagine having to go outside every time you need to use the restroom? ASP is a great mission program, I have gone back two more times since that first trip and every time is as

equally rewarding as the last.

I have included the website for ASP if you would like to check out more information about it.

If you have any questions about the organization, please don't hesitate to ask!

http://www.asphome.org/

*What Can You Do For Others?*