Building Muscles in Muscle Shoals

By lunchtime on Wednesday, the team had nearly completed placing shingles on the volunteer trailer’s roof.  It was great to see the finished product – a roof with neat rows of shingles that will keep relief work volunteers dry and comfortable.

Returning to our earlier conversation about James, it is a significant understatement to say that James has been helpful to us this week.  He is a real pro builder who has taught us a lot of techniques for doing things better and more efficiently.  We have really enjoyed getting to know James and his family, and his knowledge and leadership made our building efforts much more productive.  Talk about an unexpected blessing - a professional builder and his family just happen to live in the trailer park where the volunteer trailer is located – and he winds up giving several hours of free advice and labor to us during the week!  Thank you, Lord!

We wrapped up our work on the relief trailer in the middle of the afternoon and then took a trip to the Tennessee River.  What a welcome and refreshing treat to cool off in the river after a hot day.

Muscle Shoals United Methodist Church, where Eric Bell is pastor, hosted us that evening for a meal of Alabama pork barbeque and special Wednesday Night Fellowship program.  Another humbling and heartfelt moment occurred (we’ve had quite a few on this trip) when Melissa Owens, Northwest Alabama District Volunteer coordinator, read a wonderful poem that she wrote about how much our team’s visit to Alabama meant to the church and the community.

Speaking of barbeque, Dudley wanted us to be mindful about the significance of barbeque in American history.  According to Dudley, one of the first and most influential settlers in colonial America was Lord Barbeque of West Hogshire.  As you celebrate Labor Day this weekend, consider how our culinary heritage would have suffered if Lord Barbeque had not made the trip across the pond so many years ago.

As you can tell from my last paragraph, sleep is calling again.  The last thing I will leave you with is this:  Carpentry and construction is hard, tiring, and vital work.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus made his living as a carpenter.  Doing this type of labor this week gives a hint of the profound humility that Jesus demonstrated in his life as a laborer who served others.

Good night, Hibben.  God Bless You!

Michael and

Your mission team in Alabama

Teamification

Definition:  the process of becoming teamified.

Hibben team building porch on volunteer trailer

Tuesday morning’s plan was to depart Hamilton by 7:15 so that we could be at the volunteer trailer work site in Toscombia by 8 AM.  Under the guidance and direction of Rev. Eric Bell, director of Alabama Northwest District Methodist Relief, we finished work on the trailer’s exterior plumbing and began the task of placing felt and shingles on the roof.

We have made some new friends here at the trailer park.  Judy and her husband James live a short distance from our work site.  She came over to say hello on Monday, and asked us where we were from and why we had come to northwest Alabama.  Another neighbor stopped by, thanked us for coming to help, and shared a watermelon with the team.  In the afternoon, we met Toscombia’s own Energizer Bunny when Judy brought her 4-year old son Benny Ray home from day care.  Benny Ray, who also is called Boo, had so many questions for all of us.  Mostly he asked what we were doing, whether or not he could come with us, and if he could help us.  He was thrilled to receive a toy or two and some coloring books that we had picked up for him on Monday at Hackleburg Methodist’s Relief Center.  We were pleasantly surprised to learn that James happens to be a very experienced and skilled roofer.  We’ll get back to that in the next blog post.

By the end of our third day of the trip, the group had really come together in the work that we are doing and in the way that we relate to each other.  Everyone pitches in to help, whether the task is cleaning up the work site at the end of the day, straightening up the parsonage’s kitchen area, placing shingles on the roof, or reading a story to our new friend Boo.

Which brings us to the title of today’s blog entry.  Building a community where people join together to serve God isn’t something that happens automatically.  God equips and calls us to serve others, but we must accept that invitation and take action that will enable us to be useful in service to God and others.

And we (and our team, especially) have to be able to laugh when some folks make up words like ‘teamification.’  Personally, I’m going with the story that I wasn’t fully awake when I blurted it out in the bus at 7:30.

It is a privilege to be here with such talented and compassionate people.  Thank you, Lord, for bringing us together and allowing us to be part of your service to the people affected by the tornadoes.

Yours in Christ’s service,

Michael and

Your mission team in Alabama

TMI, Part II

(Too much inflammation ...)

As this blog entry title suggests, some of us are feeling sore today due to our previous day’s work.  On Monday morning, we left the Hamilton UMC parsonage and drove to Hackleburg, AL.  As some of you know, Hackleburg is a very small town (population of 1,500) that was devastated by the April 27^th tornadoes.  Virtually every business location in the town was destroyed, and well over 100 homes were leveled to their foundations.  18 people who called Hackleburg home were killed in the violent storm.  Both the elementary and high school buildings are now abandoned.  As the school year begins, students in the town now attend classes in trailers that have been set up a short distance from the gutted school buildings.

When we arrived, we met with George Gravitt, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Hackleburg.  George showed us such warmth and hospitality.  His welcoming us and his joyous spirit set just the right tone for the day.  We had brought Hibben’s donations of school supplies and cleaning supplies, and we unloaded them in First Methodist’s Relief Center (their converted basement).

Monday morning was our first opportunity to see Hackleburg for ourselves.  Some homes have already been rebuilt, but we saw many lots with a driveway that led to a cleared flat cement slab where a house formerly stood.

Everyone we have met here has been so gracious, friendly, and welcoming.  But what truly amazes me is that I have noticed almost no bitterness or sense of despair among those we have met.  It seems that they are placing their faith in God and in each other, and they are doing the best they can to rebuild their towns and their lives.  I am humbled and inspired by their strength and their faith.

Monday’s work effort involved renovating a large trailer that will be used to host mission teams who come to the area for tornado relief work.  The trailer, which can accommodate more than 12 people, was donated by a church in another area of Alabama.  Removing the roof’s shingles and re-fitting the exterior plumbing gave the team plenty to do on Monday.  Our team takes satisfaction in knowing that our work will be helpful to the efforts of future work teams.

At the end of the day we headed back to Hamilton to get ourselves cleaned up and to enjoy a wonderful meal prepared by Carlson Huey (Hooray for Carlson!).  A well-prepared, delicious dinner tastes even better when you’ve been doing construction work in the Alabama heat.  Thanks to Carlson for sharing his gift of hospitality.

The theme of our daily team devotions is, most appropriately for a mission trip, service to others. One of the most striking examples of service is Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17).  It’s not something that you might expect Jesus, who is Lord of all, to do to his followers.  Yet, it is the example and the commandment that he gives to us.  It is a great reminder for us as we go about our work this week.

Time to rest.  Good night, Hibben!  Thanks for your prayers!
Michael and

Your Alabama Mission Team

Alabama Tuesday am

We are on the work site and sweating already!
Feeling the effects of yesterday...TMI has a new meaning for us: Too Much Inflammation!!!
Lots of Aleve on board. We are ready to go!
Love Kathie and the TMI team... See below photos
PS more will be photos posted tonight

Rev Kathryn enjoying hefty piece of watermelon

Volunteer trailer renovation

Sending Out From Hibben to Alabama

Greetings to readers of this Alabama Mission Trip Blog!

Our time of preparation and planning for this trip is ended, and we set out Sunday morning on our journey to Alabama.

We need to recognize and thank many people at Hibben Methodist and Northwest District Alabama Methodist Relief for getting us equipped and ready for this mission opportunity.

‘Thank You’ to the entire church family for supporting and nurturing the vision of ‘equipping the saints for ministry’ (saints with a small  ‘s’).   It is a simple truth that without your prayers, your encouragement, and your financial and material support, this trip would not be possible.  Because of your gracious response to Jesus’ call to serve our neighbors, there are some families in rural Alabama who will be reminded that God indeed loves them and cares for them.  And that’s a great thing.  Worthy of an Amen?  I thought so.

Thanks to all the church staff and volunteers who took care of important details over the past couple of months.  Jennifer Roberts and Candace Dellinger gave vital support to the team since early May when some folks began to pray about putting together a Hibben trip to Alabama.

A special thanks to all mission team members’ families for making it possible to have your loved one away from home for the week.

And we must also say thanks to Sean Kilpatrick for organizing and leading the trip.  Sean has put in a large amount of time and effort to coordinate the trip and keep in constant touch with the missions staff in northwest Alabama.  He has done a great job seeing to the team’s needs and plans (His heart is close to Alabama).

As the team proceeded into Alabama, we had a chance to settle in and talk.  Dudley Patrick gave us the particulars about barbeque restaurants between Charleston and the Georgia state line.  Kathie James led us in some stretching when we reached our first rest stop in Denmark, SC.  Kim Brown shared her delicious homemade chocolate cookies.  Sean Dolan challenged some of us to games of electronic Scrabble.

On a reflective note, I find my thoughts still drifting to the ‘busy-ness’ of the past few weeks, along with some recent worries and concerns.  Sometimes in the midst of all that’s going on, it seems as though the world is just so messed up.  But for me, that usually happens when I am allowing my focus to slip to negative things.  The true picture is that God’s goodness outweighs and easily overcomes whatever messes we humans get ourselves into.  After all, Jesus promises his followers that he will be with us “always, until the end of the age.”

So as we begin our trip in Alabama, we are mindful of the many good things that God has given us.

We’ll have much more to say.  Thanks for reading this, and thanks for your prayers.

Yours in Christ’s service,

Michael and

Your mission team in Alabama

Kathryn
Cheryl
Kathie
Kim
Sean
Shawn
Dudley
Carlson
Michael

Alabama : live from Tuscumbia!

Your Alabama mission team is on the job! After a smooth trip in we were treated to a church service last night a moving video of the destruction from the F-5 tornadoes in April. Today we are removing and replacing the roof of a donated trailer tobe used by future volunteers. Next is cleaning and hooking up plumbing.
More later! Love, Kathie and the team

Hearts and Hands for Haiti

Thank you Sean for your wonderful blogs. I have felt no need to add to his insightful words.
And it is a good thing because everytime I have tried to blog, I have experienced some kind
of computer glitch. (Tom, I hear you snickering!)
This has been an incredible journey. It will take us a while to process all that we have seen and felt.
So if we seem to be incoherent when we return do not worry, we will get better. Although I doubt that we will every be able to adequately describe this place and experience.
God has been present with us in many ways: through the smiles and laughter of incredible Haitians who have opened their hearts and lives to us; through the natural beauty of this land; through faith at work as we serve and have been served.
As American Christians we have so many blessings, but all of our blessings may be stumbling blocks to our spiritual life. Here, our brothers and sisters live everyday totally dependent on the grace of God, with no illusions that they could handle life on their own. What they say is "If you are alive, it is good, it is the grace of God. Everything else is just the situation."
Amen.
Kathryn

Praying for Peace and Patience in Petionville

 Today was one of the most emotionally and physically draining days I have ever had; and this was our day off from working! We "toured" up the coast all the way to Petit Goave, making stops in Leogane and Mellier. We got a great glimpse of the country side here and I must say this place is blessed with a lot of natural beauty. In Petit Goave, we stopped by the Methodist mission and I am proud to say that things are moving in the right direction. We also stopped for a little r&r on the beach. The scenery there was absolutely beautiful; however, a month long beach sweep of just a 1/4 mile area is much needed. Many of the guys here believe a well developed fish camp would be nice! Although I think, instead of doing much fishing for men, we would be doing a lot of fishing for fish.
   Traveling back I wish I could say the same for down town Port au Prince. It is so difficult to describe the scenery. There is much progress and work being done amid chaos. I'm afraid much of the "negative" out weighs what good is going on. Throughout our travels through there I realized that this is where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. That this is where Jesus healed the crippled man. This is where Jesus Christ lives and walks today and although I blessed to be able to see this and be aware of it; it is quite unnerving that one must go to such extremes to see His love and His opportunity for action. There is no way to live here without Jesus in your life. There is no way for any reason to wake up in the morning and face this mess without placing your full trust and faith in our Lord. There is so much to be learned on the personal level that I must leave you at that. These mission trip are truly about building relationships upon the rock of our Lord Jesus Christ. If not, all other ground is sinking sand!
Sean

Praying for Peace and Patience in Petionville

Bonjour amis! The internet connection has been quite patchy for the last couple of days. We are very spoiled having this luxury everywhere we go. We are now approaching the halfway point of our mission here and I must say "what a long, strange trip its been." We have had many small adventures and revelations that will have an impact on our lives forever. Each new day brings a new opportunity to strengthen our relationship with our fellow freres et soeurs (brothers and sisters) here. This trip is teaching many of us to look for and see Jesus in all that we meet. He comes in many forms; boss man, Mama Ruth, the children, Lamiere, etc... It is impossible not to see Him on a daily basis because when you have Jesus in your heart, which many people here do, you take on a personality, characteristics and attitude that resembles Him little by little. Yes it may be hard to realize that you can be slightly compared to Jesus when you have Him in your heart. You cease to be a servant of the Lord, because Jesus now sees you as a brother or sister with Him and in him! It should be a goal of us all, to one day call Jesus my brother. It has been an absolute pleasure to serve (worship) the Lord here in Haiti with this team and these people. I pray that God continues to open the eyes of the blind (at times us) and reveal even further His glory in the light of these people. Thank you all for the support that you all give us. Your prayers are heard and felt.
Sean

Praying for Peace and Patience in Petionville

   What a day! In Ed's words we saw the complete range of "the spectrum" here today. Our morning began with an awesome breakfast prepared by the great staff here at the guest house; oh by the way, the coffee here is amazing! I have finally found my true love. We were able to attend service here on campus. What an amazing worship experience. We could not understand very much of what was said; but the feeling of God's love flowing from everybody was unbelievable. We were introduced to the congregation and asked to speak just a bit. The hymns are quite beautiful. Many are recognizable but obviously they were sang in Creyole. There were many experiences just at the church that we look forward to sharing with you all.
   We were also taken on a tour of the city today and I must say, there is nothing that can prepare you for that. At this moment I can only stop and reflect because words DO NOT DESCRIBE what has happened and continue to happen.
   After swimming in the guest house pool, we were greatly surprised by Jean's three sons, daughter in law, and cousin. Many of you know Jean. If you do not, he has done an incredible job of raising his three boys and the world is a much brighter place with them here! We were blessed to have them with us this afternoon and were even more encouraged by the spontaneous worship inspired by God we took part in together.
  The only hope that this place has is in God. Without Him, and there are those who this is truly evident of, that have neither. We are all greatly inspired by the love of Christ and the pure trust in faith that those who we have met have in God. They have truly turned over everything to Him, and many of their lives are full of joy (and smiles with laughter) that is difficult to understand. The sermon today was about how we on many occasions receive God's blessings and gifts with an ungrateful heart. And this was being given to a Haitian congregation? How then, must we evaluate our own reception of God's gifts? We have all received an undeserved, yet freely given inheritance by Christ's sacrafice. Let us praise God with joyful and grateful hearts! Lift up His name in praise for all that He continues to bless in your life.
Sean

Hearts and Hands for Haiti

I have no idea where to begin. This day in Haiti has been full of contrasts.
We worshiped this morning with the Methodist congregation here in Petionville. They are gracious and loving people. The entire service was in Creole so we did not understand a word - other than Jesus. But we certainly felt the spirit and love of God and the people.
This afternoon we toured Port Au Prince. There are not words to describe the devastion and destruction of the earthquake. It is poverty on top of poverty.
Yet, the joy and faith of our Christian brothers and sisters is a shining light in the darkness.
What a priviledge, and how humbling, it is to work and stand with them.
May God's light shine through us as brightly as it shines in these Haitian Saints.
Peace, Kathryn

Praying for Peace and Patience in Petionville

   WOW!!!! What a day. As it started at about 3 o'clock for everyone this morning, we are just now settling in for the night at the Methodist guest house in Port au Prince. To say that this day has been a bit crazy does not do it justice. We had a 5 hour delay in Miami and somewhere along the way between Miami and Haiti, our luggage decided to part ways with us. We all have our carry on's; however, all of our personal gear and tools/kid supplies are M.I.A.  We will be searching vigorously for them tomorrow. What is important is that we are all safe and here in our destination.
   Words CAN NOT describe this place! The sights, sounds and smells are truly unique and possibly tread on the cusp of disturbing. Although we drove through the city at night, I can not imagine what awaits our eyes once daylight approaches. We are eager and excited to worship with our brothers and sisters tomorrow morning and we are looking forward to spending this time in fellowship with them; with or with our clean underwear. UGH!!!
   The roles have been reversed. We came here to provide comfort and relief to those in this area; yet, it is us receiving the charity today. I thank God for His presence with these people. This experience is truly a blessing to be shared!
   Sean

Praying for Peace and Patience in Petionville

Dear God,
   Thank you so much for the abounding grace and blessings you place in our life! Our packing has been done, our planning is finished and now we ask for your protection in our Haitian mission team's trip in the morning. I lift up my praise in thanks for all of the support given to us by our brothers and sisters in Christ at our church, as well as our friends, family and co-workers. All this we know, can only be given by you.
 Allow for us during this trip, to be the feet and hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us have a rejoicing heart when we use our words, thoughts and actions. Above all, let the love of Christ, our Lord and Blessed Savior flow from us as the living water of the Holy Spirit.
 We now depart from here, in your name, knowing that Haiti is not our end destination; but rather a brief stop, in our life long journey to you. You are the presence that gives me comfort in all situations and I pray to you that our presence may bring a light of hope and love to those who we touch. For it is in the name of Jesus Christ that we love you, praise you and worship you. Amen
Sean

Hearts and Hands for Haiti

Well, we are actully packing up. There were a few weeks in Jan. when it seemed doubtful that we would be able to travel to Hait. But God has opened the doors and I think it is going to happen!
We have just finished packing 5 big bags full of children's toys, books, crafts, soccer balls, water bottles, toothpaste and toothbrushes. Next, come the bags of tools.

Flight leaves at 6:15am tomorrow. And we arrive in Port Au Prince around 11:00am.

Thanks for the prayers!
Kathryn