Dear Friends,
Three of us from UPC Flanders, Susie Christensen, Rob Vazzanna and myself joined a larger group of around twenty six volunteers, who went to Shady Valley, Tennessee for a week with the Appalachian Service Project. Three pastors, assorted adult leaders and a collection of youth groups from churches in Chester, Lower Valley and Flemington.
With the experience of the Appalachian Service Project still fresh in our minds, I am keen to share my experience and what we learned on our service adventure.
The aim of the project is to help make homes warmer, safer and drier for those who cannot afford the expense.
For some of you, the mention of ASP will bring back many memories and for others, perhaps it will encourage you to think about going next year or some other time in the future.
Inadequate housing and poor health outcomes are well documented by both the World Health Organization, medical authorities and in medical journals including the British Medical Journal in the UK and the National Library of Medicine in the USA.
Therefore the idea of helping to repair or improve a home of someone to bring the place where they live up to a basic habitable standard is a worthy cause. It is a tragedy that there are still people living in sub-standard housing conditions in the richest country in the world. And although the work of ASP can only scratch the surface of the problem, it means such a lot to those who are helped each year.
Despite the immensity of the challenge, this experience was a wonderful example of how a handful of unskilled volunteers can powerfully impact the lives of people in need using volunteer help and the guidance of a few skilled advisors.
Our teams installed a range of improvements on different homes at various locations from a bath, a deck and siding. Each team comprised some youth and adults from churches from Louisianna, North Carolina and New Jersey. We will be showing some pictures and speaking about our experiences this Sunday.
Pastor Cliff