Patch Blogs: Week of Vision Wrap-Up

Wrap Up:

The last few days of our trip simply flew by. 

On Thursday, we spent our day off canoeing. In the first 100 yards, a canoe got hung up on a fallen tree and Maddie and Sarah, along with Intern Gina, were in the drink. Pastor Matt Brumfield came to their rescue and helped them dump the water out so they could be on their way. Nick, Dakota and Ryan took a detour around an island and came out with a rusty bike in their canoe, doing their civic duty cleaning up the river and enjoying the spectacle of it all. At one point, three canoes were tied together and Joe the Intern was the dolphin in the water pulling with the rope in his teeth as he swam along.

That evening, we went to church under the big tent in Wallace, WV, smelling like the river but no one seemed to mind. 

There’s nothing quite like the tag-team preaching of those Appalachian ministers and the gospel music of the Little Rock Camp church praise band. Four preachers, great music and an altar call with a whole youth group up front. A great night.

Friday was a day of wrapping up the work. The group divided its time between VBS in the park, playing with kids at the work sites and in the park, and finishing the siding project.

To close VBS, we gave gifts and prayed a blessing over each child. One hundred and eighty started this tradition in 2007, and we’ve kept it going every year. To me, it’s one of the most special things about the week. There is power in BLESSING:  speaking a child’s name, declaring that he/she will do great things in His life because of the Power that resides within him/her, and speaking the NAME of JESUS over each one in prayer. Tell a child he can do something and he will believe you and live it out. It's not merely psychological. It’s a spiritual truth. We know these children will transform their world, just as our 180 teens are doing now.

At noon on Friday, we celebrated the week at a picnic at the homes of Junior and Michelle and David and Robin, who are neighbors on Main Street.

Main Street is a misnomer. It’s just  a quiet little street with about eight small houses and a Baptist church that was founded in the early 1900’s by a traveling ministry team on a train car named “Evangel.” The train car parked on a side track and those who came on it ministered to the oil workers (the place where the park is was once a field with oil platforms) for several months until the church was established, then they moved on. The place where the park is now was once an oil field, and the tiny houses on Main Street were the houses of the laborers. I’ve been coming to Wallace for many years now, and this is the first time I’d ever heard the story of the train car “Evangel” and the church it built. 

Receiving this blessing is important on many levels. We were able to spend time with the families, and it was a way they could give back. “Reciprocity” is a value World Vision holds to; these families also have much to give, and a desire to do so. It's important that we receive a blessing from them, too.

We finished the work and said our goodbyes.

Friday night, we had a time of devotion in a cemetery at the top of a hill and at the foot of three crosses.  We talked about our week, about the meaning behind those crosses and savored communion together.

We ended on a high note, and headed to McDonald's for late night sundaes and broke curfew to celebrate our last night together.

Saturday morning,the cafeteria ladies served up our last meal at Lincoln High School. They kindly informed Brummy that two gnomes who were hiding out in the milk cooler, under a sign that said, “Got Gnome?” I’m sure he had no idea who could be responsible for that. ;-)

 After breakfast, we packed up and hit the road for our traditional stop at Cabella’s then arrived at in late afternoon.

The highlight of my evening was a wonderfully warm shower … and a real bed.

Sunday, the kids shared their thoughts on the week in the youth service and we sang “Bind us Together” (complete with crazy hand claps) one last time and even taught it to the parents. The team prayed together in a tight group. No one really wanted the week to end.

Our lives have been transformed by what we have seen and the people we met. Appalachia is, in some ways a different world, but in other ways, we are one people and the same. Those we met and served have big hearts. Hearts that didn’t know what to make of all they’d experienced, and that was how we felt too.  

This afternoon, I said to my son, “It will be strange to play baseball today, don’t you think?” He nodded. To step back into our normal lives. To just go on.

Tears came to my eyes as I thought about the children of Wallace. Many of their parents don’t know where the money will come from for their next meal. They don’t have the means to fix leaks in their roofs and it often rains inside. Travel ball isn’t something these families will ever even think of. 

Though its efforts in Appalachia continue year round, World Vision comes into the Wallace area for one week each summer. Thinking on it now, it doesn’t seem like enough. But it’s a start. What a privilege it was to be a part of that Week of Vision.