Youth Mission Trip to Canonsburg PA! June 26-July 2, 2011

Welcome.

On this page you’ll find a running diary of our adventures in Canonsburg. The newest post will appear at the top, then you can scroll down to see what else we have done, or scroll all the way to the bottom and then scroll up to see it in order.

I’m Matt Holliday, one of the chaperones on this year’s trip, and we’ll also have Lisa McCaffrey (youth pastor), Mark Mengle, Deb Noss and Jon Aronson.

We look forward to a meaningful time as we look forward to seeing how Christ is working in Canonsburg and what He has planned for us there. We’ll be presenting a program of some of our experiences during the Sunday school hour on July 17.

Other Mission Trippers’ photos:

If anyone of the group has photos to share, email me HERE. Thanks.

Lisa McCaffrey: HERE

John Aronson: HERE  (photos coming soon)

Mark Mengle: HERE and HERE

Saturday, July 2, 2011, packing up, traveling, arriving home.

Today we received our CARE CARDS!  We had some fun around the trailer before hitting the road about 8:15 and then arriving home around 1:15 p.m.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Photos HERE.

On Friday, our crew was reassigned to another site with workers in crews 60, 61 and 62, who spent the whole week scraping and painting the outside of a house and building a handicapped ramp. We arrived on Friday, after dropping off a prayer shawl (made by Jess Dayton’s church members) at Norma’s house, at the new site and were assigned a shed that really needed to be covered in a protective layer of paint. It’s amazing how much a fresh coat of paint can cheer up a building, even an old shed.

When we finished, it was already 3:30, so we headed back, reported in, and then had some free time until the evening program that included the residents (who were invited to come, but didn’t have to). Norma was brought by her son, Lawrence, and we sat with her in the gym (she and Lawrence were on chairs, and we surrounded her on the floor) through the evening program. The shot below was taken by Lawrence with my camera after the program. Then we had ice cream and cookies and Lawrence took Norma home. She said that she had already used the back stair railing and was enjoying her freshly painted home.

We had fun watching Candise and Lisa doing the I’m a Little Teapot while waiting for a few of our group to be found somewhere in the school so that we could start youth group devotions.

Almost all of the projects were finished. Barry Lyons’s team finished up their job atl 7:30 p.m. that night.

Later, about 9:45 p.m., our youth group had our own devotions, when we assembled in a new spot, seeking some place less noisy than the other nights when we gathered. A school’s hallways are not the best place to gather 28 people, when there are many other groups also gathering in large groups.

We talked about our experiences and then went around the circle after Lisa invited each of us to say what we learned or felt or whatever about the week. EVERYONE had something: a new understanding, a new perspective, a new appreciation, a changed view, a celebration of what we have as a youth group (closeness) and as a church.It was an outpouring a positive experiences and very uplifting.

Then we headed off to finish up the “care cards” before they were taken down at 11:45 p.m.

See the YOU TUBE video about CareCards HERE>

Thursday, June 30, 2011

We finished our work at Norma’s house today. Here’s a celebration photo we took on the back porch (you can see the new railing on the left ). Our resident is right handed, and the only railing she has is one on the left when she goes down the steps. The old one also changes heights from the stair from the bottom to top. Now she has a safe way of going our her back door.

GUEST BLOGGER: Hey, it’s Geneva Rowader again. I am definitely excited to be blogging again, since it feels like so much has happened since I last wrote.

Work is going swimmingly at Grace’s house. Our crew, under the wonderful guidance of Rich, was able to finish decking her porch. Then, it took nearly a whole day to construct and put the steps in place. Today, the railings went in, and it looks really nice. Grace finally has a back porch that is safe, and the steps aren’t scary to use. While that was going on, the rest of our crew (which included myself), finished painting the house’s foundations, and it looks a whole boatload better now than it did before. We began painting the upper trim yesterday, and we got most of it finished by the end of today. The two sides are completely painted, and they look wonderful. The back is mostly painted, but the front needs the most work. Other than that, we will be done tomorrow. I hope we finish early, but not so early that we have to leave before we have to.

Our group has definitely grown much closer over the course of this week. We have spent so much time in the company of each other that it feels as though we have known each other for much, much longer than a week. Grace is such a marvelous woman, as well. Her prayers are absolutely magnificent; you can tell her relationship with the Lord is something special. She says that we are a blessing to her, but I think that she is the blessing because she is just so full of Christian love and goodness. Our crew believes that if you brought an atheist to speak to Grace, they couldn’t help but become a believer, since she is such a perfect living example of Jesus’s love.

I have gotten to know many more work campers over the course of these past couple of days as well. I have found that if one simply goes up to someone else and says their name and introduces themselves, they can usually make a new friend, or at least fill some time talking about hometowns and churches.

I once jumped into a game of Ninja (If you don’t know what it is, you might be better off.) with a youth group who was playing in the hallway. Since then, everyone I saw there has been rather friendly to me. I am also getting to know a lot of the youth from CCCNJ, the Chinese Christian Church of New Jersey. They said that they had passed through Mechanicsburg on their way to the mission trip. I am spending a lot of time just trying to learn all of their names. In fact, I call one of them “Not Ben,” since his name is not Ben, like I thought it was for a while. I was also taught a little Chinese, though it was difficult because there are many different words that sound so similar to me, it is hard to figure out if you’re saying “Don’t worry,” or “Don’t fry chicken.” If you want that whole story, just ask Mr. Holliday.

Anyway, it’s soon time for the evening program. I’ll see you tomorrow, folks. Same time, same channel. (Except probably not. I just wanted to use that phrase to close.)

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Sorry about the delay in getting this day’s activities here. Wednesday is a half day, so we went to our sites in the morning, then had the afternoon off that we could spend with our church group, returning for the evening program at 7:30.

I went to my site with my crew, and we completed the painting (almost, there are always touch-ups. . . ), and started on the railing outside. Photos from Wednesday are going to have to wait until later today.

We went mini-golfing in the afternoon ,PHOTOS HERE> and then had dinner at Damon’s restaurant, then made a quick trip to Sarris Ice Cream (yum).

The evening program was about enduring things in our life for Christ and staying connected, remaining, with the vine. The message helped me see how I am shifting my focus at our worksite from the homeowner to the work at hand, finding “getting done” to be more important to “being there”. Yes, there is work to be done, but there will always be work to be done. It’s important to BE WITH the people who are with you, yes?

Okay, I need to eat breakfast, go to the morning program and then off to the site with my crew. This “up late, up early, work all day and trying to blog” might be a bit much to do . . .

HERE are the shots from our MINI-golf outing!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

10:30 p.m.

I’m (Matt Holliday) finally getting back to a post, and I don’t have a lot of time left before lights out.

The program tonight, which happened after Paige Snyder’s post was put up (see below), was about seeing how we identify ourselves by the views of others and the confused view that we often have ourselves. Rather than this perspective, we were encouraged to allow Christ to shape that view. To be a follower of Christ and find identity in that. After each youth took time to ponder than by themselves, they were invited to find their youth leader and receive a blessing from him or her. Lisa blessed each one by speaking into them what she sees in them and how she sees Christ moving in their lives, and the other leaders, Deb, Mark, John and me, added our comments as we felt led.

Our youth are some amazing kids. They care for one another like family and rally when needed. We had a short time of devotion after that, and now it’s about time to go to bed.

I’ll post more photos from today tomorrow, if I have time. This blogging and living, and participating is tough business. I have greater respect for those who keep a running tab of their lives, and I wonder what they must sacrifice to carve out the time.

7:15 p.m.

GUEST BLOGGER: Hi everyone!! This is Paige Snyder and I am enjoying my time so far in Canonsburg! It has been a great two work days. As you all know, we met our crews on Sunday night and have been working with them the past two days. I am with the two girls: Katy and Jen and two boys: Mike and Joseph and an adult leader whose name is Geoff. He is the associate pastor for the Canonsburg church right around the corner. I serve as our crews devotion leader. After lunch each day we have devotions with our resident as well. We are working in an elderly ladies home this week! It has been great we are painting the inside (AC!!) of her home.

Yesterday I along with Jen and Mike taped, primed and painted the downstairs bathroom! It took the longest to tape it, but this morning when we ripped the tape off it looked great! Today, I taped and painted the upstairs bathroom with Mike it didn’t need primer. The other crew members finished the bedroom from yesterday and moved on to paint the other bedroom. Tomorrow we are attacking the den and then Thursday and Friday the living room!

I am mastering all of my painting skills and not using power tools (YAY!) Emma Jean our resident is a very sweet lady who just loves our company. Heck I don’t think she would care if we accomplished anything this week. She has provided us snacks and drinks and welcomed us into her home graciously. It has been a joy to sit and talk with her and listen to her stories! Every day we have lunch and devotions on her patio out back with her. It is the cutest little place and I love that part of my day! I can’t wait to finish our projects and see how it all turns out.

As for back at the school that has been going pretty good as well. Lisa and I found secret showers (shhh none of the other girls know ) We have been enjoying our nightly programs and our devotion time as a youth group too. There are some intense games and competitions going on as well. Last night our group went around and talked about our first day with our crews and residents and how they went. Then we discussed the significance of names and the significance of Jesus’ name. Our theme this week is CONNECT so we have been connecting through our crews and our youth group which has been great. I love getting to know new people and today especially our crews connected much more.

All in all, the week is going fabulous! The worst part of the week/day is…wakey wakey workcampers at 6:45 plus an annoying song over the loud speaker! I am not a morning person and Amanda and I usually lay in bed for another good 15-20 minutes. We don’t have to be ready until 8! Other than that I am enjoying every minute of it! See you all on Saturday!!

Monday, June 27, 2011, First Work Day,

see photos at this link

Mark Mengle’s shots form Monday, here.

Last night, at the end of worship, we gathered in our work crews, all of which were 5 to 6 people, usually one or two adults matched with 4 or 5 teens. My group has a 24-year-old teacher from the local area and four others who are either in senior high of just graduated high school. All six, which you can see in today’s photos, HERE, are energetic workers and a joy to be with, I look forward to the week.

Part of the day’s activities includes devotions after lunch, with the homeowner, if that person is interested. You’ll see our homeowner, Norma, in the photos. She’s very sweet, and we’re happy to do this work for her. She participated in our time, sharing her love of Christ and dependence on Him. We echoed many of her sentiments, and Jimbo, our team’s devotion leader, did a good job of asking questions and giving time for each of us to answer. It’s a nice thing to not feel rushed when gathering to talk about how God is working in our lives.

The work we’re doing is mostly inside, and we have gelled as a team. I talked with several others of our church’s group, and each of them seems to be pleased with their work progress for the day, the people they are working with, and the work that they are doing.

Four more days of work should allow us to finish with Norma and possible move on to help another group on Friday. We’ll see.

The food is plentiful and good. Lots of variety, fruit and vegetables are available, and chocolate milk and brownies. I’ve never participated in a Group Work Camp before (I’ve done a different camp program with our church’s youth) and I can see why so many love Group. They put on a good show and have the formula down.

Dinner in 15 minutes, then worship/program again.  then bed. It’s a busy day.

GUEST BLOGGER: My name is Geneva Rowader, and I’m one of the youth participating in work camp this week. My group consists of six people. Our adult leader is Rich Beach, who is a pretty cool guy. He helps us stay organized when we’re on site, and he is positive and encouraging, which is always helpful. He is actually from around here; he lives about ten minutes from the school where we are staying. There are two other girls in our group, Bri and Lauren, who are 19 and 17 respectively. They are interesting people to get to know.  There are also two guys, Chris and Alex, who are 17 and 18. Everyone else in my group is older than me, if only by a little bit, so that makes me the baby of the group.

The camp had to wake up really early this morning (early for me, anyway). Elizabeth, our emcee/camp leader who goes by the name of Elizabill (though I’m not entirely sure why), got on the school’s loudspeaker system and said in her sing-song voice, “Wakey wakey work campers!” I don’t want to say I dislike Elizabill for this, but it’s a little hard to LIKE someone when they are a morning person and you’re not. As Matt says, perhaps “like” isn’t the right word, it’s just a little hard to enjoy her enthusiasm. I do admire her though, for being able to be so positive.

We arrived on site at 9 o’clock this morning, and we met our resident. Her name is Grace Thomas, and she an 80 year old African American woman. She is such a delightful lady with whom our group loves to talk. Grace made a point to tell us, when we got there, that she is so glad we are here and she was so glad the Lord sent us to do His work. When she informed us that she loves Jesus, I let her know that I definitely do too. She has a hard time getting around, since she is older and is definitely not as mobile as she used to be. Her six children do come to visit her sometimes, but they don’t have the kind of time to help her with the projects we will be undertaking this week, so this is definitely a blessing for her.

This week, we will be doing exterior painting and rebuilding Grace’s porch for her. Her house is built on a steep incline, so the porch has to be built rather high. As a result, the existing steps are extremely steep, and much too narrow for anyone to walk on. The plywood that makes up the floor of the deck is going to have to be replaced as well, since the weather has warped it and made it a little unsteady. Since it would be difficult to just replace the floor and not the rails, we are going to replace those as well. We are also going to re-paint the foundations of the house in the back, which is at the bottom of a hill so it is more exposed there than at the front of the house. The already existing paint is peeling, so it will look much nicer once complete.

Today, our group got quite a bit done. We cleaned underneath the porch, where the ground was littered with weeds and broken paraphernalia, such as jars or old toys, probably left over from when Grace’s grandchildren were small. I had a lot of fun with that, since I found quite a few roly-polies of the giant variety, and a HUGE spider. Thank goodness I had my work gloves on when I found it, because I would not have been able to throw it far away without worrying about it biting me. Needless to say, Bri and Lauren did not enjoy all of the bugs we found, though they did have fun putting a worm on Alex’s back when he was bent over picking up a cement block. Once all of that was cleared, we got to work bringing down the porch’s steps and the plywood floor. I believe that tomorrow, we are going to take the rest of it down and begin building the new porch, with a decking floor this time.I think it was pretty difficult to figure out what to do at first, but I’m rather confident that we have more of an idea of how to proceed from now on.

While the men worked on the porch, Bri, Lauren and I began painting the foundation on one side of the house brown. We actually got one whole side done today, since we worked so well together. While we worked, we chatted about school, friends and homework. Bri is going to be a Sophomore in college this coming year. I wish I could remember where she goes to school, but that fact seems to have slipped my mind. But she is an Interior Design major, so this sort of stuff is right up her alley. Sort of. Lauren is going to be a Senior in high school. Alex is studying to be in the military, but he has some time off, so he is enjoying not having to shave. Chris will also be a Senior in high school next year.

I was glad we got the amount of work done that we did today. I think we smoothed over all of our confusion and have an idea of what our tasks will be tomorrow, now that we have a better sense of our tasks. Dinner (spaghetti) was delicious, and I am definitely looking forward to another good night of sleep on the classroom floor.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Our travel here was uneventful, except for a fun shopping experience in a Giant/Eagle when we had a friendly competition of seeing which vehicle could gather the most variety and most items for $14 per vehicle. I guess we did really well, because the winner has yet to be announced.

Evening program and worship!

here’s a receipt from our shopping adventure.

A video of the kids getting down. . . and back up again! (a fast connection may be needed)

See this post for more of pictures from today!

We’ve been assigned to work crews, none of us are on the same 5- or 6- person crews, but some of the crews will be working together, so a few of our people will be with each other. Otherwise, we’ll all be with new people. As far as the work goes, we’re all painting, or at least almost all, a few are tearing off/building a deck and one or two will be doing some roofing. So, the brushes, rollers, scrapers, etc. will be busy.

Since I won’t be at all of the other sites, it might be tough to put up photos of the other kids, but they are taking photos, so someone will combine all of these to make a collection that we can post later.

More later!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The vans were “preloaded” this afternoon, the CBs installed so we can communicate on the road, the trailer loaded and lights checked. Oops. There is a problem!  The lights are not lighting up when hooked up to my truck. So, we had Tom Rowander pull his truck to the trailer and checked the trailer again, and voila! the lights work. So, off I go to Advance Auto, secure new wiring, install it and then when I return to the church and we check the lights again: all works. Wonderful.

We depart in about 12 hours.

Our next posting will be from the road. Pictures of our departure should be posted then, too. This is the first time I’ve tried to do this, and the mission trip and the youth will come before the posts.