July 1, 2012 | 4:00 p.m.

Reflections from Kentucky Work Camp 2012

Senior Highs Work Camp Participants
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Luke 4:14–21

Two of our leaders on this Work Camp, John Vest and Mark Nelson, remember going on a similar Work Camp to Hazard, Kentucky, five years ago. Keeping quiet on the ride down to Hazard, they admitted when we got there that their last memory of the First Presbyterian Church of Hazard, the facility we stayed at, was of a toilet overflowing directly above the kitchen while Mark was cooking dinner and of the floor underneath the toilet being unable to confine the spill to the bathroom. I’ll spare the rest of the story for your own imagination. They were pleasantly surprised and, I think, sincerely relieved when they found out that a clean, shiny, comfortable, sound new building had been completed just a couple weeks before we arrived.

I, on the other hand, had very little of an idea of what to expect. My whole idea of rural eastern Kentucky at the time we left last Saturday was probably not unlike yours right now. I pictured a hillbilly town, where everyone talks with accents, carries rifles, expresses their conservative beliefs, lives in rundown, small homes, and is friendly to those like them and hostile to those who aren’t—in short, stereotypical Hollywood depictions (which I can hardly be blamed for having, seeing as they’re pretty much all that I’ve been exposed to while growing up in Chicago). And this view has been so profoundly changed that it is hard for me to remember my original expectations one week ago.

The work we did this week was some of the most difficult and intense I’ve experienced. I know it was especially so for those of us not used to such a significant demand of manual labor. Yet we pushed through, eight hours a day, four days in a row—and cooked and cleaned in addition to building homes. For us, the thought of jumping into the pool at the Hazard Pavilion was part of what kept us going, as well as the thought of sleep and relaxation. Yet I think deep down the largest element that kept us working was the idea of helping and connecting with others, which got stronger and stronger as we met more people as the week went on.

Essential to any volunteer opportunity is the ability to connect with those you help, and throughout this week we were able to do just that. On Sunday, we attended the church service at First Presbyterian of Hazard and got to meet and connect with members of the congregation and got to pass the peace to everyone around the room. On Monday, when we visited a nearby museum, I learned more about Hazard and the challenges it faces. Coal is the area’s main industry, and in the words of one of the carpenters, “without it, Hazard is nothing.” My perspectives were widened, and I realized the complexity of the issue of “going green” and how Chicago’s power consumption is directly connected to Hazard’s coaling industry. We met even more locals on Wednesday, when the church hosted a potluck dinner, which they invited us to. We got to meet the around 100 members of the First Pres congregation, including the pastor, and got to learn more about the new building and work crew. On Thursday, we danced at a hoedown hosted by a country music museum about an hour away from Hazard, which was extremely fun and a great experience. Throughout the week, my view on the locals of Hazard developed from the stereotypical views that I came down with to seeing them as admirable, hardworking, resilient, friendly, kind, and appreciative people who were very glad to see us.

One particular story that stuck in the minds of many of us was that of Robyn, the owner of one of the homes we were working on. She and her family were involved in a terrible car accident, where their car was rear-ended on the highway, causing it to compress. Nobody died, but one child, the middle one, suffered damage to her kidney. With the settlement money they were able to buy a new home, since their old one was beyond repair and unsafe. When they visited the site, they helped paint: her three children all chose the colors they wanted for their bedrooms, and their excitement to move back in was huge. My family had recently redone our home as well, and so I know very well the feeling of excitement and anxiety that one gets towards the end of the building process. Seeing her on the first day and hearing her stories that she told to us throughout the week really made me connect with her and made me feel that she and everyone else were so much more than the stereotypical thoughts I had previously carried with me.

And upon hearing the stories of Robyn, and meeting and talking to people at the church’s potluck, and dancing and laughing with locals at the Hoedown Thursday night, it dawned on me: these people aren’t so different from us. Sure, they live in another world: they speak differently, act differently, have different political beliefs and different economic situations. But we are still connected. We all face the same challenges of survival each day. We all live with the same fears of disaster. We all feel the pressures of getting by in the global economic recession we live in. We have the same hopes and dreams of living a decent life, and we all long for security, peace, and happiness. We all feel the same love. We aren’t hillbillies, Yankees, Northerners, Southerners, city kids, mountain men, rich, poor, Chicagoan, Kentuckian—but instead, we are all children of God.

As many of you know, the Gratz Center, an addition of our own to our church, is scheduled to be completed later this year. While this building is forty times the cost and will take twice as long to complete as the addition to First Pres (where we very comfortably stayed, and where there were thankfully no leaks to report for the whole trip), the connections between them and us couldn’t be more powerful. The challenges that First Pres faced with their building, the financial adversity they encountered with it, the joy they felt upon the opening of it, and the love they felt when sharing it are exactly the same as the feelings we will soon have here when our new facility opens. On this Work Camp, I was able to witness firsthand that the connections between us are infinitely stronger than the distance between us. The profound human feelings that we all share overpower our shallow differences, and the connections between us make us aware of who we really are: brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. And for that, thanks be to God.

—Chris Pieper

I first want to say that this was a great trip, and I want to thank John and Kimberlee for making it all possible. Our trip to Kentucky was full of laughs and stories that I’m sure we will all be hearing about for months, and as much as I would like to tell them all to you now, there was something I noticed in this past week.

Hazard, Kentucky, is a very small town compared to Chicago, and it was an environment that I had never been in before. At one point in the week, we were asked what we were expecting when coming to Hazard. I expected a small town with a bunch of people with crazy Southern accents and very little to do in the local area. Hazard is exactly that. Hazard is a small town; there are people with crazy accents; and there isn’t much more to do than to go to a McDonald’s or a pool. So these factors were not what surprised me. The exterior of the town, what you could see without any interactions, was exactly what I expected. But when I experienced the interior of Hazard, the history, the people, and especially within the First Presbyterian congregation, I saw a new side to the community.

The owner of the museum we went to gave us an overview of Hazard. I was surprised when she talked about how many people in Hazard are very lazy and unwilling to work and how citizens get involved with drugs and develop strong addictions. However, in my experiences this week, I saw something a little different.

During Sunday morning worship, I witnessed many similarities and differences to our services here at Fourth Church. We followed a very similar process, but there was also a lot of interaction with the congregation. When a lady jumped up to make an announcement that was even printed in the bulletin, we were all a little surprised. That’s something you would see in a smaller congregation, unlike us here at Fourth Church. I realized how much this one action displayed such a sense of community. Because it is such a small town, everyone knows everyone. People were referred to on a first-name basis. The service became a time where matters of such a small community could be discussed, with everyone there for the purpose of worship and Hazard. They also started the service with getting everyone involved. While it was certainly laughable to us, it also became another moment for me where I sensed the passion for bringing everyone together. A few people got up and taught the congregation different parts to a song, and at the end we all came together to form harmonies and counterpoints. I really appreciated the church getting everyone involved and bringing everyone together to sing and create music.

During the service, they took great pride in speaking about their newly renovated church. They celebrated this on Wednesday night with a potluck, their first official event in the new space. We were invited as guests and had a great time eating, listening to stories, and hearing music. Many people showed up to the event, probably more than were even at church on Sunday, and they all were so happy. Everyone in that room was just so proud of the men who worked on the church, and they couldn’t thank them enough. This event brought many people together, and they all had such a passion for the church and for the community of Hazard.

My final experience of community came from the Housing Development Alliance (HAD). On our last day in Hazard, the director came to speak with us. He explained how helpful volunteers are and how much we contribute to their company. All of the HDA’s efforts are to strengthen the middle class in Hazard; the people they employ with a stable income, the people that are employed in the stores that sell the materials needed for construction, and the fifty extra jobs that volunteers bring into the community annually. These efforts are what will build a strong community for Hazard, Kentucky. My experiences in this community are some I can bring back in attempt to strengthen the smaller communities I am a part of here in Chicago.

—Rachael Cohen

It was Sunday morning, the beginning of our first full day in Hazard. We all put on our bright orange shirts, the very same shirts we are wearing today, and prepared to attend the 11:00 worship service at the First Presbyterian Church in Hazard, Kentucky. I was a little curious to see what the service would be like: Would it be similar to services here? How many people would show up? Would we sing a lot of songs? But I never expected the sermon to be one that would stick with me throughout the entire week.

The main message of the sermon was that we as Christians have to let God drive us in the right path, and we really just have to shut up and keep pedaling. We can’t kick God out of the driver’s seat; we have to stay in the back seat and just follow the path that God guides us on and not look back. The reason this message stuck with me was because throughout the week I kept thinking about how much work could be done all over the world to make the world a better place. I kept asking myself why I wasn’t here, here, here, or here trying to help those communities that may be in worse shape than Hazard, Kentucky. However, I finally realized that God had led me to Kentucky and that was where he wanted me. Even though in Kentucky we were not working with the poorest of the poor, we were still making a difference in the lives of people who truly needed it.

Not only were we helping build and repair four different houses for people and families in need, but by us just being in Kentucky and going out to dinner at a local diner we were supporting the community. On Friday morning, the director of the Housing Development Alliance (HDA for short) came in to talk to us about the mission of the HAD, and he was able to answer any of the questions we had. Something he said that really made me feel good about our work in Kentucky was that the HDA employs twenty-five people a year, but when groups like us come into Kentucky and choose to eat dinner at the local Franceses diner, rather than KFC, and choose to shop for our food at the local Food City rather than Walmart, we are actually helping employ around fifty more people in Hazard each year. And that is huge considering the fact that unemployment in Hazard is a large problem, especially because they only rely on one main industry, the coal mining industry.

By our presence in Hazard, we were able to help the community and learn a great deal about it. I think it is important for people in general to see different communities and learn about those communities and how they might be similar or different to the community that you live in. Hazard, Kentucky, is very different from Chicago, but just seeing how tight-knit the church community was, really made me want to make our church community even closer. Even though we have quite a few more people here in Chicago, I think we can still achieve that tight-knit community feeling.

Overall this trip to Kentucky was amazing because I was able to make new friends, bond with old ones, learn about and help a community in need, and most importantly I was able to follow God on the path he wants me on and let him live through me as I did service.

—Johanna Mintz

As a twenty-year veteran of these trips, I’ve had the good fortune to witness a lot of different types of experiences and approaches to our youth mission trips. The experiences our youth have on these trips are some of the most significant personal growth and faith-building experiences they could have. And that goes beyond the obvious of getting up at 5:30 a.m. every morning, working on a construction site in the hot sun until 3:00 p.m., and living in community with twenty-six people for eight days. This was one of the best organized trips I’ve been on, thanks to John and Kimberlee and the Hazard Housing Development Alliance (HDA). The work was significant and real. On my site, we installed a new roof and siding to a new home.

As parents and members of this congregation, you should know that these trips are about more than just hard work and play. They are about how we make real what we learn about our faith in church and Senior Highs. They provide teaching moments that allow the youth to understand how their faith and this church are connected with others—and, importantly, what they are called to do in response.

We talked a lot this week about charity, justice, and connectionalism—how we are connected as individuals and as a church with our Appalachian brothers and sisters. At first glance, we couldn’t be more different. Big city versus rural, small town America. Three and four G versus slow mobile Internet connections. Extravagance versus simplicity. A diverse economic base versus a reliance on coal and timber. Opportunity and wealth versus poverty. The list goes on.

But both Chicago and Hazard struggle with affordable housing. Hazard is in one of the poorest counties in America, as the poor economy and the decline in the coal industry have negatively affected incomes and job opportunities. Like some of our neighbors in Chicago, many residents in Hazard can’t afford to own their own home or to make home improvements if they do. The Hazard Housing Development Alliance (HAD) works hard to address this need, and our work was more than charity; it was part of an effort for justice. Through grants and volunteer support, HDA is able to help people with incomes as little as $800 a month afford home ownership and make home improvements. Volunteer work is a critical piece of their model. Our volunteer hours count toward government matching requirements at $10 an hour. As a result, government grants can cover a portion of the cost of construction. Volunteer work also means that fewer paid carpenters are required, which further reduces the cost. And the volunteer work has additional benefits. Not only does it keep a staff of twenty-five, including fourteen construction workers, employed year-round, but HDA estimates that the money that groups like ours spend on food, groceries, and other expenses helps employ fifty additional people in a community with an unemployment rate nearly 60 percent higher than the national average and an underemployment rate nearly double the national average.

The connectionalism theme extended to First Presbyterian Church of Hazard, where we stayed. In addition to being a fellow member of the PC(USA), First Pres just completed a complete renovation of their church house for $1 million. It hasn’t been simple. There have been concerns about whether they were taking on too big or too costly of a project and how, or if, the church will grow and change as a result of the remodeling. The renovation is dramatic, and it furthers their mission. It provides extremely comfortable accommodations for groups like ours as well as improved facilities for their other church programs. On Wednesday night, they held a potluck dinner to thank the work crew that completed the renovations. As visitors, we were welcomed with open arms, in part because our group embodied one of the motivating factors for their renovations. It was a moving experience, and I was a bit humbled as I thought about the contrast in size and cost of our addition as well as the similarities of both their motivations and concerns to ours.

So what do we do as a response? How do we truly make this trip about justice? Some of the things we talked about at the end of the week included sharing stories from our experience with friends and Fourth Church members; volunteering; connecting with our Mission Committee on issues of affordable housing in Chicago or elsewhere; thinking about how we spend our money; being grateful for what we have; and responding by giving back some of our time and money. But what struck me most was the story we heard from HDA’s director. He noted that much of the current focus of government affordable housing initiatives is on urban areas. Programs supporting rural areas have been cut back. But recently an important program was saved because 1,000 people spoke up and contacted Congress. One thousand people—out of more than 300 million people in the U.S.—save a government program! Surely, through our network of friends and family and the number of people at this church, we can put our faith into action and motivate 1,000 people to help bring about social justice for all, in the form of affordable housing or something else. After all, we got a great start on it last week.

—Mark Nelson, Adult Leader

Hello! My name is Sarah Bennett and I work here at Fourth Church, normally with the middle school youth. During our week in Hazard, Kentucky, we all learned different things, but what stuck out to me most was that this week was a lesson in patience. It seems almost every day there was something that required patience. We had to be patient in the van during the eight-hour long van ride to Kentucky, with other members of our work camp on and off the work sites, during meal preparation time, and with ourselves while learning new skills at the work sites.

The adult leaders were assigned to the same work site for all four of the work days. I was at the house that was the closest to being completed. When we first arrived to the house on Monday, it still looked very much like a construction zone. The walls were bare, and the floors were just plywood. By the time we left on Thursday, all of the walls had been painted, the flooring was down, the kitchen cabinets were installed, and the interior doors were going up. Although we were not doing anything as major as redoing the roof of a house, our job was still very important, as we helped put the finishing touches on someone’s home.

Alison, the other adult leader at the work site, and I were especially lucky because we were able to get to know the homeowner during our time working on her house. Talking with Robyn reminded me that patience is important. It’s OK with Robyn that her house is taking twice as long to construct because unskilled volunteers are doing a lot of the work alongside the carpenters. The important thing is that her house is being constructed!

Even though our lives only crossed for a short period of time, Robyn’s stories and attitude towards life have deeply impacted me. Almost every day Robyn told us heartbreaking stories of what her young family has already been forced to endure, and yet she said it all with a smile on her face. It was truly a testimony to the strong faith she and her husband share. There is no doubt in her mind or mine that God is present in the construction of their new home. I only hope that I can take Robyn’s enthusiasm and patience and apply it to my own life.

—Sarah Bennett, Young Adult Volunteer working with Youth

Many songs were played and jammed to on our trip to Kentucky this past week, but one song stuck out to me most of all. I introduced the group to “Chic C’est La Vie,” a song by Real Housewife of New York Countess Luann. “Chic C’est La Vie” means “Chic, That’s Life,” and the song preaches about all these objects in life that supposedly make people happy, like jewelry, shoes, makeup, limousines, jets, money, and elegance—many of which I agreed with prior to the trip. But what I learned was that all of these things that Countess Luann “sang” about are all materialistic. Perry County, where Hazard is located, is one of the poorest counties in America, where most of the population is earning just enough to get by. But still they are still happy, and I never encountered one person complaining. We complain about not getting a new pair of shoes or wanting the newest Apple product, things that temporarily make us happy, but the families I got to meet while building their new home were glowing in joy when they had a new door hinged to the wall.

Nothing that is mentioned in the song is important to the citizens of Hazard and shouldn’t be even to those who don’t live there. The wealth in Hazard doesn’t come out of a bank, but it comes out of the heart. Everyone there is supported by a loving community and church system and by each other. Everyone knows each other there, and they all care about one another. They are all so close that an elder woman raised her hand and stopped the church service to announce that their friend and church member was going on a religious retreat to Russia and she wanted to wish her a safe trip, even though it was in the bulletin.

This song opened my eyes to a lot of different things about life I wouldn’t have been exposed to if I hadn’t gone on this trip, things that I thought were so important before that turned out to be so minor. When I complain about getting up early or not being able to go out and see my friends because my mom says no, not tonight, I am now going to stop and just think about the stories of the families I met and just think of how lucky I am that I didn’t have to go through what they did and that no matter how bad my day might be at times, it’s nothing compared to what other people have to go through. Chic is not the life; family, friends, and community is.

I feel very fortunate and honored to have gone on this trip with the all the amazing youth and leaders that worked amongst me in the past week and am glad to have shared this experience with all of you. Thank you.

—Joe Hornberger

On the eight-hour drive to Hazard, Kentucky, my head was filled with all sorts of stereotypes and visions of what this town and community would be like. There were many surprises during this trip to Hazard, many things that I did not expect. When we arrived to the town, I was amazed at the scenery: mountains that had an endless view, visible from everywhere. As we drove through Hazard, we saw many rundown houses with broken windows, damaged decks, and peeling side walls. I knew we were there to help this less-fortunate community, and I was excited to start repairing homes. When coming on the trip, I had no idea that we would be doing so much manual labor. After the first day of roofing for eight hours, my friend Nathan described the feeling perfectly when he said, “Wow, this really is a work camp.” Four straight days of working eight hours on houses that needed lots of repairs made me more thankful than ever that I had a functional home that protects me. Finally, I was grateful for the welcoming citizens of Hazard. Everyone at the Housing Development Alliance, homeowners, and neighbors allowed us to join their community for a short amount of time and made us feel as if we were at home. For example, First Presbyterian Church of Hazard was very recently renovated. The church held a potluck dinner to celebrate the new building. The church encouraged us to participate in this celebration in the community by eating food, mingling with some fellow Presbyterians, and singing songs with them. It was a great night full of delicious food, exciting music, and gratefulness to God. I always felt welcomed in our work trip to Hazard, and it will truly be a week that I will never forget.

—Johnny Buchanan

To be honest, I didn’t want to go to this camp because I wanted to relax. I was forced to go. But I met a lot of new friends, and I actually thought that the trip was outstanding so I’m glad I went on this trip with these guys, and I thank my parents.

One day, on Wednesday at dinner, we had to recognize these special workers for building the church we stayed at, and one lady was praying and recognized us as strangers and being part of the family in Hazard, Kentucky. Strangers being part of the family? I felt welcomed by her prayer.

I learned how to shingle a roof as I had never done it before or heard of it. See, my family owns four ranches and we do the same work as the workers did in Kentucky, but I had never done shingles before.

I actually brought kindness and respect to this trip. I have never been as kind to people as I was in Kentucky. Also, I enjoy being around other people; it doesn’t matter if you’re old, young, or my age, I’m a joyful person. I just like to do things, and I thank my family for making me go on this awesome trip.

—Rush Packham

I believe that the most important part of these work trips is making relationships that one will remember. This does not necessarily mean that one should strive to keep in contact but to know that these relationships have made an impact on his or her life. Making relationships is my favorite part of going on these trips. I make friends while I am there and know that they have affected me for a long time to come. It is not only the work I do that makes me feel like I’m spending my time doing something to further others, but also the relationships I form with those I meet.

I remember on this trip specifically there were three people who really affected my experience there. There were two older women and one of the carpenters at the sites. The strange thing about these experiences is that I never learned the names of these three people. I believe that this makes my interactions even more important—that I spent collectively about one hour with them, didn’t learn their names, but they still had such a large impact on how my trip went.

The first lady who stuck with me is one that I helped on Thursday, after all of the hard work was done and I was heading to my room for a nap. She was on the top floor of the church, and she was looking for someone to help her. I could have easily continued on my way to my sleeping bag, but I chose to help her because it wouldn’t be right to leave her seeking help. So I went up the stairs and asked her how I could help. She wanted to move all of the electronics out of her new office and back into her old office because there was no Internet in the new building yet. These electronics consisted of a printer, two speakers, a printer, an Internet hookup, a phone, and a box of cords. I went to get some of my friends, and we helped her move her stuff. After we were through moving her stuff and reassembling it in the next building, we headed back to church. After this I felt great because she was so thankful for our help. I remember she kept saying “God bless you” and “Thank you so much.” I was not only happy to help, but I was happy I got to meet her because that sort of gratitude is infectious. She taught me to be gracious for any help that I receive and freely ask, because someone will answer.

The next older lady that I encountered was at the Highway Country Museum dance. I walked into the dance with a closed mind. I thought that it would be boring and that I would not enjoy my time, but then I saw that there were a lot of people dancing, especially older people. This encouraged me to open my mind and try to enjoy myself. I turned to Sarah Bennett and said, “How much will you give me to dance with one of the old ladies?” She laughed and said that I would be in first place for the night. Instead of laughing this off, I took it and rolled with it. Later that night I asked the best old lady dancer there to dance. She gladly accepted, and we did the two-step for a whole song. This dance made my night. It changed my whole perspective on that night, and I am glad that she was out there dancing. What I learned from her is that you should open yourself up ane be excited about everything you are doing, because it will inspire people to join you. It will inspire people to step out of their comfort zone and to try new things.

The last person I met was one of the carpenters on the site. Now the statement I made earlier, about not learning any of their names, was a bit untrue. The carpenter’s name was Mikey, but I learned this through other members of our youth group after I asked about him. The reason he caught my eye is that he touched the hearts of every person he worked with. Although I never worked with him myself, the things people say about him, his patience, his care for his volunteers, his mild-mannered actions, stuck with me. If one person could affect all of those who work under him, there must be something special about him. Mikey taught me, albeit indirectly, that compassion for what you are doing and patience for those you work with will make people want to work for you and will inspire them to work harder.

What these people taught me is what I took away from this work camp. It is true that the work itself made me feel like I was spending my time in the right places, but I believe the things I learned from specific people will stick with me longer than that feeling. I am grateful to these three people because they taught me something that will stick with me for a long time to come. I am also grateful to all of my youth group and especially the leaders for creating this opportunity to learn.

—Mac Sinclair