We are writing from Hazard, Kentucky, where twenty-six of us from Lord of Life have been dispatched for a week serving with Appalachia Service Project (ASP).

If you haven’t been watching our activity on social media, you might not know that this is been a transformative and powerful week for all of us. We’re here with handful of other churches from around the Midwest hoping to make homes “warmer, safer, and drier” for those who are struggling in an area of our country which is in an endless cycle of poverty and injustice. 

ASP “envisions the eradication of substandard housing in central Appalachia and the transformation of everyone who comes into contact with this ministry."

It’s important to know that we didn’t come here to save the families we are serving from their situations or to deliver Jesus to them. Quite the contrary. Instead, we came to accompany them in their journey and to work alongside them as we share laughter, stories of sorrow and hope, and recognize that there’s so much more that is the same between us. 

Our group is working in four crews and is focusing on several different home projects, including interior work with drywall, painting, flooring, door and window installation and trim, as well as a good bit of exterior work including digging post holes (by hand) for a porch, refurbishing a ramp and deck, and removal of the decaying stairwell. And that’s only through Wednesday!

We could write about the school where we are staying, Cordia School: Lotts Creek Community School and tell you about the unique marriage of public and private funding that makes education in this county possible through settlement schools. Or we could talk for pages about the families who have welcomed us into their homes and shared the dire circumstances of their lives. We could tell you about the leadership team made up of college students who give a summer, or even a year of their lives, to work with this organization and build bridges between people and communities. There are so many tales of beauty and the presence of God in this place and through this ministry.

Tuesday evening, our program included culture night and had several local voices share about what God is doing through them in this place. One of them spoke about her ministry with those in recovery, and how her organization invites people to healing from addiction by teaching them pottery, blacksmithing, and instrument building. She mentioned that one of the people in the program, after creating a piece of metal art for a family member, commented that it was so “moving to create something after spending so many years breaking and destroying things.”

Walter Crouch, President and CEO of ASP, stopped by to greet us as he made the rounds to several ASP counties this week. In his opening words in our carry-along Field Guide, he said, “Our 2019 theme, ‘Be the peace,’ is more than a slogan, it is a way of life. In a world that often seems anything but peaceful, God has called us to be instruments of love and hope, uniting people by building bridges and settling conflict where we can. As you put your hands and hearts to the task this week, may God’s peace give you the confidence to bring wholeness and happiness everywhere you go.”

These are words for all of us, no matter where we work, play, or live. God tells us to “be the peace” (1 Samuel 25:6). May we do so wherever we are and whatever we do.

With buckets of tools and hope, 

Pastor Corey and Pastor Lowell

Don’t miss worship this weekend as we share photos and reflections of our time here. We also invite you to visit Appalachian Service Project website for more information about how you can pray for and support this vital ministry.

What an amazing week of family camp at Camp Luther! Five Lord of Life families attended camp the week of June 30 - July 6 and came away with some amazing stories and memories. Words can’t really explain the magic that happens at camp. The Holy Spirit is present in a way that seems palpable, like you can reach out and touch it.

• You see God in creation: gorgeous sunsets of Lake Erie, bald eagles soaring across the sky, unobstructed views of the sky at night, and gentles breezes blowing through the trees. 
• You see God in mealtimes: meals prepared for you, sharing food around the table with new friends, and cleaning up after one another at the end of the meal. 
• You see God in laughter: silly skits put on by campers, funny musicals put on by the summer staff, and adults making fools of themselves in silly relay games. 
• You see God in fellowship: sitting around the campfire making smores, sharing stories with old and new friends, swimming in the pool, making crafts, and playing sports with one another.
• You see God in worship: daily Bible study that is age-appropriate, nightly worship overlooking Lake Erie, testimonials given by youth and adults, and praising God for all which we have been entrusted. 

Now I might be a little biased since I have camped there every summer since birth and I worked there for fifteen summers, so I thought I would share with you some quotes from the families who attended camp for the first time:

“I have some things to share that were fun at camp: craft cabin, awesome counselors, singing tree, & sunsets on Lake Erie.”

“I didn’t really expect opportunities that would allow my kids to express their faith in their lives during a chapel moment. It was such an empowering & uplifting experience that changed us deeply.”

Lord of Life plans to attend family camp again next summer, the week of June 28 - July 4, 2020. Half-tuition scholarships will be available for the first five families that sign up to attend in 2020. If you are interested in signing up, contact Pastor Corey. If you want to learn more about the camp experience, you can talk to the following families who attended this summer: Mineard, Metzger, Calihan, Hill, Wagonfield. 

For those families that have been around Lord of Life for some time, we even had the opportunity to camp with our former intern, Vicar Bob, and his family!

To view photos from our week at camp, visit: LOL 2019 LOMO Family Camp Photos.

Missing my hammock, but glad to be back with you...

Pastor Corey

"The customer is always right!" That's what I remember hearing and seeing on placards at retailers growing up ... until some time in the 90's. I'm not sure what shifted in our culture, but slowly those placards disappeared. By the time I was working a retail job in college, instead of hearing a manager tell us, "the customer is always right," our trainer was a loss-prevention specialist telling us to be wary of consumers who might be trying to scam the system: who were returning things they hadn't bought there, who were using coupons or discounts that didn't apply to the item they were purchasing, who were hiding one item inside another so they'd only get charged for one, or who were using food stamps to buy something for which food stamps did not apply.

A couple weeks ago I had a new sofa delivered from an online store. It was one of the first design decisions in what I hope is going to be my very first cohesive-looking, "adult" home. The crate arrived damaged, and when Brian unpacked it, there were two quarter-sized dents in the front of the visible wooden frame. I was beside myself because not only had I spent a good deal of money to have a nice-looking sofa, but I was just certain the customer service representative was going to be difficult about fixing it. Instead of facing off against a faceless computer rep, you can imagine my delight when Muriel responded to my email, thanked me for the photos I had submitted which helped her process my claim, and told me that not only would they send me a new sofa, but that I could donate the sofa to the charity of my choice rather than shipping it back to the company. She had turned my expectations upside down. I had assumed that she would be difficult about my return in part because I've had poor customer service experiences in the past, but also because I might have been difficult with her in a similar situation. Instead, I have a new sofa arriving this week, and yesterday, Bob Johnson helped me bring the original sofa to Lord of Life, where we'll use it for additional seating in the library.

We brace ourselves for bad experiences all the time. Outside of our personal bubbles and people we can identify as "like us," we tend to see a world full of "others" whose intentions could be anywhere from stubborn to nefarious. The Gospels are full of stories in which Jesus not only interacts with, but also touches and heals people who would have been considered outsiders. His disciples warn him of the bad experiences he may encounter, but each story ends with a beautiful experience and another believer receiving the promise of salvation. There are no exceptions for migrants, criminals, people of other faiths, or people of other genders. Jesus is setting an example for us not only to share peace with other people, but also to find peace within ourselves in a world of diverse humanity. We can be happier, ourselves, if we start with positive assumptions about people and situations, and we can spread that happiness to others, too.

Yours in Christ,

John Johns

This article was written by Appalachian Service Project (ASP) staffer Jamie Tews and adapted from www.asphome.org/blog.

Staffs throughout Appalachia have spent the past week preparing their counties for volunteers. They have been cleaning their centers, hanging signs, setting up supply rooms, pulling deeds at the courthouse, finding the best local spots, and, most importantly, making initial visits to the families who sent in applications for home repair.

Initial home visits allow staffers to practice driving, measuring, and communicating in order to figure out which projects best fit the scope of an ASP summer. While calculating the amount of materials needed for a project was challenging for me when I was on staff, the most challenging part was, and still is, leaving a home visit knowing we cannot provide them with the repairs they need.

This week, I went on home visits with the Leslie County staff. On our first visit, we met a woman named Natasha. She lives with her husband, daughter, and three sons who are on the Autism spectrum. Not long after our arrival, the daughter pulled me into her bedroom to show me her dolls, her castle-bed, the quote her mother wrote on her wall, and the collection of her dad’s figurines that his mother gave to him. I sat on the ground by her feet, which were dangling from the bed, and listened as she explained how she liked to take off her doll’s hat when new people came so they could see her pretty hair. The oldest boy came in after a few minutes and led me into his room, which he shares with his two brothers. The boys swung around on their bed frames, showed me their Ninja Turtles, and let me try on their dad’s black leather cowboy hat.

When another staffer came into the bedroom, I went to talk to Natasha in her kitchen. She showed me a hand-drawn diagram of their plans for the home. She pointed out the space on the paper allocated for two new bedroom additions and a new bathroom, and said she wants her home to be a place where her kids can be happy and safe.

We spent almost two hours at Natasha’s home, and as we walked up the driveway to our cars, Madeline and Katie, two of the Leslie County staffers, were beaming. They chatted about how happy it felt to know that this family will have the additions they need at the end of the seven-week ASP summer, and I was reminded of the ways this job makes people feel good…

It is easy to imagine what a family feels like when we tell them we can provide them with home repair – we all love making second visits that often end in happy tears. We all love when we can use this job to make people feel good, but it is hard to come to terms with the fact that our job can also cause sorrow.

I wish ASP could work with every person who sends in an application. I wish we could build room additions for every family who needs more space, install new roofs for every soggy floor, and provide plumbing for every unusable toilet … I hope someday we can.
___________________

Jamie Tews is the Advancement Storytelling Intern this summer writing a weekly blog series titled “This Must Be The Place.” Prior to this summer, she was on staff in Breathitt County, Kentucky in 2016, Leslie County, Kentucky in 2017, and roamed around Appalachia as a staff liaison in 2018.

Lord of Life will be sending 26 people to ASP’s Hazard, KY projects July 14 - 20. Please pray for us as we prepare to love and serve, even as we are blessed by those whom we encounter.

I recently had the privilege to see Civil Rights icon and Grammy Award winning vocalist and songwriter Mavis Staples in concert. My family agreed to celebrate my birthday a few days early, so we could witness this legend in action. (Read more here).

After worship several weeks ago, we zipped over to Southeastern Ohio to take in the last day of the four-day music and art festival on the campus of Hocking College. It was a vision of heaven! Thousands of people gathered from all over for a weekend of togetherness, blending cultures and ages in one place to celebrate music, art, food, conversation, and hope. The vibe of the gathering felt much like church. Kindness and generosity were everywhere. Smiles came easily. Truth was spoken and apathy was challenged, but optimism and a shared purpose dominated the day.

Jesus spent much of his ministry trying to describe the Kingdom of God. Many wanted to know what heaven would be like, so he resorted to everyday language and things in an attempt to help both followers and foes make sense of that which was beyond understanding.

Using images and parables, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God was like a mustard seed, leaven in the dough, a hidden treasure, a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, a landowner, and a certain king. Over and over, he helped people imagine how God worked among them now, as God broke into the world, and what they could expect in the future.

God broke into our Vacation Bible School (VBS), this week, as we lived into the theme, “Life is wild. God is good.” We talked about how even when life is unfair, scary, sad, and full of changes, God is faithful. Each day, I witnessed more holy moments than I can recall, but here are a few:

• Little ones held hands as they walked to the next station.
• Teens provided comfort to children with scraped knees.
• Adults took time off from work to love and teach about God’s goodness.
• Several families who have never stepped onto our property before took the initiative to jump into VBS week.
• Teens took a risk and stretched themselves to be part of the Leadership In Training (LIT) program.
• Food and other donations kept showing up day after day.
• Children and adults brought coins and bills to put in the big white bucket for tornado relief.

Over and over, God’s presence was here. But our work isn’t done when VBS is ends.

Mavis Staples will turn 80 in July. In a recent interview posted on her website, she said, “I’m the messenger…That’s my job – it has been for my whole life – and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.”

At the recent Nelsonville concert, Staples’ final song of the evening was “No Time For Crying.” She and her band sang the refrain, “We’ve got work to do. We’ve got work to do,” over and over, while interjecting phrases listing many of their (and our) unfinished business in loving and serving one another. Poverty. Addiction. Rage. Crime. Homelessness. Incarceration. Anxiety. Selfishness. Greed. Nestled there in the Hocking Hills, it was a vision of heaven. A group of strangers recognized that we are bound to one another by something greater than ourselves and that we’ve still got work to do.

Working with you,

Pastor Lowell

Growing in faith can happen in a multitude of ways: worship, Bible study, serving, praying, interaction with others, and one of my favorites, being in God’s creation. I have grown up attending Camp Luther, a Lutheran family camp on Lake Erie, every summer of my life. In fact, our family has now camped there for four generations. Why do we keep going back? Is it because of the s’mores, the staff-led musical, seeing the sun set into Lake Erie, the wind blowing through the trees, seeing a nest of bald eagles take off and land in a nearby tree? Sure, some of it has to do with that, but most of our fondest camp memories and the reason we keep returning is because of the relationships that are built during a week at camp. When you break bread with someone, worship with someone, laugh with someone, cry with someone, and play games with someone, a bond forms that shows you the image of God in that person. Many people come away from their week at camp claiming that is the spiritual high point of their year.

This week, nine youth from Lord of Life are experiencing Lutheran Memorial Camp, in Fulton, Ohio for the very first time. We hope that you have been praying for them and their parents, as many of them left home for the first time for a week of separation, not only from their parents but from electronics as well. They will experience many of the same things I mentioned above in regards to family camp and will hopefully come back with a multitude of stories to share of how their lives are changed through faith, food, fun, and friends. We will share some of those stories with you over the next couple of weeks.

The first five youth registrations from Lord of Life were able to attend for free because of a scholarship from the camp. The other four youth were given a $100 scholarship from Lord of Life to help make camp affordable for them. Thank you to everyone at Lord of Life who has worked diligently to provide funds for youth programming. You may not see an immediate “return on investment” from supporting these kids, but studies show that a week at church camp has a profound, long-lasting impact on the faith of participants. Months after the camp experience, campers self-identified the following long-term changes: Increased self-confidence, More frequent devotional practices, Increased church attendance, Faith conversations/practices in the home, Increased faith relevance in their lives (https://vibrantfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ECRP-Phase-2-Executive-Summary.pdf).

During the week of June 30 - July 6, five families from Lord of Life will be attending Camp Luther in Conneaut, Ohio. Please pray for those families in the same way that you are praying for our youth campers. There is still one FREE all-inclusive registration left for a family that may want to join us, just contact Pastor Corey. Lord of Life will be partnering again with Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio to offer significant discounts to first-time campers next summer, so be sure to make plans now to attend! No matter how you choose to spend your summer, the staff at LOL hopes that you are finding ways to connect with God and grow deeper in faith and loving relationships.

Soon to be swinging in a hammock,

Pastor Corey