McDowell

I had the great opportunity to go on a mission trip with our church to McDowell Co., West Virginia. There was a young lady going & no other women were going so they asked me to go. We left on Sunday morning July 5th at 6am. It's about a 6 hour drive & the 2 youth we had in with us slept most of the way. There were 8 of us going. This is a much smaller group than last year I understand. When we got to the 'Clubhouse' (an old 3 story home) we unloaded the trailer & headed to the grocery store for groceries for the week. That in itself was an experience! We had orientation that evening. The next morning we started roofing a house for a couple. They are both retired teachers. The wife had to have her leg amputated due to diabetes & their 25 yr old son has spinal biffita. What an inspiration the son was! He has a dog, an Irish Sitter, that stays under his wheel chair & very much is his protector. The dog doesn't like adults. I was in the house visiting with the wife & son & Molly (the dog) came up to me & put her paw out for me to shake. The couple was amazed at this.
Amy & I didn't get to do much at that house. We did toss drinks, tools, & sandwiches up to the guys (yes sandwiches! The guys wouldn't come down to even eat). We finished putting a metal roof on that house on Tues. & moved on to the Welch Fire Dept to put siding on their firehouse.
We put vinyl siding over cinder blocks (what a job!). Amy & I got to do quite a bit at this job. I even had time to test drive a pink Wrangler Jeep! LOL!!!
We went to the movies one nite (Ice Age 3) & to the county fair one nite. There isn't a lot of land there for livestock so their county fair was a LOT different than the ones in Oklahoma. There weren't any exhibits either. This is coal mining country & is a poor part of West Virginia, but you couldn't tell it by the spirits of the people living there.
After the movies we stopped by to visit a man that the group worked for last year. Those that were there last year commented on how much change there was in him. He holds several records in football for West Virginia Mountaineers. He also writes a little & I was fortunate to receive a signed poem he'd written.
One of the guys in our group said that he came on the mission trip expecting to be a blessing to those he worked for but found that they were more of a blessing to him than vice versa. I totally agree with that! The week went by way too fast for me. Hope to go again next year.