The Trip

"How beautiful upon the mountains 

Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”"

Isaiah 52:7

We're there!

Comments: Wow!  I don't know where to start!  This week has definitely been a week I will forever remember.  My sister and I are already planning on going back next year.  I so appreciate the prayers...I could feel them the whole week!  I had the privilege of working on a huge deck for an elderly man with a whole crew of people I fell in love with!  I can't explain the unity and love we all experienced that week.  You could definitely feel the Holy Spirit all around us and flowing through us.  What a blessing!  I went to Kentucky hoping to bless someone and I returned blessed- only our God could do that!

The beginning of Day 1

The finished product of Day 1

The finished product of Day 2- the floorboards are down!

 The Work: Now, anyone who knows me closely knows I'm not much of a handy woman, especially when it comes to tools and power equipment.  But I can assure you that at the end of this week I felt that I could effectively drill in a screw in my sleep :).  With the help of my sister and a friend we drilled in at least 2,000 screws into this deck.  My sister even tried to drill my finger but thankfully I was too quick :) (but seriously she did drill just a little bit of my thumb...ow!).  Besides the fact that I was able to assist in filling a need for an old man, I also learned skills that may be useful to me in the future.  Maybe my husband and I will build our first house (FYI, I do not have that husband yet and neither does he appear to be anywhere on the horizon...not that I'm waiting or anything ;)).  Maybe he'll be a construction worker.  Maybe I will be able to assist someone else in need.  Who knows; I look forward to learning more skills next year.

The finished product of Day 3: railings, spindles and steps done!  Unfortnately I don't have a picture of Day 4 but we finished the railings on the stairs and put up half of the rafters for the roof.

The Things I learned:  Every morning or evening we would have a devotion led by someone in our group.  I learned so much from their lessons and the discussions afterwards.  Two things that really stood out to me was to be bold in
proclaiming Christ (as we don't know how much time we have left on this earth) and to always be aware of God's grace in our lives.  Without the knowledge of God's grace in our lives we can easily become prideful.  But God's grace does not just fall on special people- it's for everyone.  Understanding that enables us to be bold in proclaiming to lost people their need for the grace of God in their lives.  Another thing I learned was that I must never allow fear to stop me from doing God's will.  Even though I may not feel like I can do, He gives me the strength in due season.

Group devotions and praise time one night.

The verse at that top of this post was one the Lord impressed upon me as we drove through the mountains on the way there.  I felt like that was my whole mission for the week.  Through God's grace it was accomplished.

The homeowner, Mr. Teague and his girlfriend (apparently A.T.V's and lawn mowers were the cars around there :).

Me and a sister-in-Christ, Amber!

To find out more about the ministry we partnered with (Christian Appalachian Project) and how you can be used there click HERE!

Learning to delight in Jesus,
Hannah