Grand Finale

Well, sadly, summer is coming to an end. It's week 8, the final week of volunteers. I'm calling this my week of lasts, because it's hard to believe, that after 8 weeks of doing the same thing over and over, that its all ending soon.

Our last group of volunteers are fantastic! They're getting a ton of work done for us and we'll have all of our construction projects good to go. Still, I wish there was more we could do for ALL of our families. 8 weeks still doesn't seem like enough time. But more importantly than the construction, the bonds we've created will last long. That's what truly matters.

"ASP is a Relationship Ministry with some construction on the side."

Above is the view from our parking lot in the morning. I'll miss these foggy mountains, but I definitely will not miss the 5:45am wake up to drive to the hardware store.

Above here is some fun happening in the Wyco Holler. Love those two boys so so so much. Tearful goodbyes are looming ahead. It's so much fun to hang out here and bond with this family. Our goodbye will be more of a "see you later", because I fully plan on seeing them again sometime during the year. And in the meantime, I have plenty of new penpals.

My staff. Love them. I wish everyone in the world back home could have the same mentality we have. Work hard, play hard. Life's too short to not have fun with everything you do. We embrace that.

Faith has been a huge part of my summer. I've grown in my relationship with Jesus Christ and faith that He has a plan for me. This coming year, I'm remembering that. Who knows where life will take me, but no matter what, I'll always know that my life is in good hands.

More pictures to come as closeout approaches. Please keep my staff, our volunteers, and most importantly, our families, in your prayers.

The Little Things

This weekend, my staff, the Summers County staff, and our new staff liaison (JENNY!) all went to a waterfall in Mercer County. Below is a picture of me jumping off it. I kinda look like a dying monkey/whimp. Sorry.

This weekend was very relaxing. While at the falls, I took some time to myself and just relaxed - first time in awhile! I'm starting to get super stressed as the end of the summer approaches. I want to finish all our projects, stay under budget, clean up our center well, and just thinking of saying goodbye to some of our families soon is stressful. I've already had a few tears with one home owner, Cricket, who lives in Wyco. But during my relax time, I had to think about the small things. The falls were BEAUTIFUL - something I never see at home. I've been missing all the little things lately: the stars out at night while I'm doing supply inventory, the goofy face little Trevor makes when I mess around with him on site, and things like the waterfall. It's not just something to jump off of for a thrill. It's nature. And it's really cool :) I'm hoping to make sure I take in these small details before I leave. I know I'll miss West Virginia when I'm home, and remembering the little things will help me better look back on my amazing time here.

I get to see my church this week! Westwood UMC is volunteering in Martin County, KY this week! I wish them the best and I CANNOT wait to see them at their picnic on Thursday. I'll be staying with them Thursday night - Saturday morning. It'll be a good time to catch up with my dad, sister, and other church members. Super excited!

Did I mention that Saturday night I'm going to Bob Evans in a limo?

Well, I am. Waddup?!

Weeeeeeeeekend

Weekend has arrived! Time for a relaxing adventure with some other ASP Staffer friends to a waterfall in Mercer County. Here's a few photos for you, more updates to come! Have a fantastic weekend :)

Continuing to Live the Love

Week 6 is progressing! I seriously feel like it's flown by super fast. Only two weeks left of volunteers? Wow. As much as I'm loving my time here, I cannot wait to see my family and friends back home.

My mom was here early this week! She arrived Sunday night and was able to go with me on my Sunday Night Home Visits with my group leaders for the week. Monday we spent the entire day together going on runs! I showed her 8 of the 10 homes we are currently working on, so she got good feel for what I'm up to this summer! I'm glad she got the chance to see me in my true element here, interacting with my fellow Staffers and our volunteers.

Speaking of volunteers, they're GREAT this week. I seriously am so impressed with how much they are getting done and more importantly, how they get along with us as the staff. It's hard to feel burned out (which is common around week 6) when you're surrounded each day with amazing people!

One of my homes for the week included a brand new roofing project. Frank lives with his wife and two kids in this home that they recently moved in to. It's hard to completely move in when your roof leaks every time it rains! We stripped all the old shingles off this week, and some of the new decking has been replaced in the areas where its rotted. Since tin is more durable and lasts longer than shingles, I ordered tin to give them a brand new, sustainable roof! By the end of next week, it will be completely done! I'm so glad we found this project this late in the summer, and we'll be able to get it done in plenty of time!

Listen to the song "Flight of the Crow" by Passenger

Also, "Swept Away, Sentimental Version" by Avett Brothers

Welcome to Week 6!

Volunteers are due in to Mullens in just a bit! I can't wait to start this week off well. It's going to be a good one. My mom arrives tonight, so we get to hang out and go on run together tomorrow to all my favorite sites! Can't wait to show her our projects and impress her with some construction knowledge. After mom leaves on Tuesday, I get to go on my day off! It's due time for one! I'm headed to Charleston, WV for some quality relaxation. The week will go by quickly and then I'll only have two weeks left of volunteers! Crazy to think about.

Saw Harry Potter last night! It was good, glad I got a chance to do something the rest of the "real world" has been doing. Just Danielle and I from my staff went, but we met up with a bunch of other staffers. We had a great time!

Hope everyone else has a fantastic week. I miss everyone! If you haven't written me a letter or sent a care package yet (hint hint), you probably should. Here's my address again in case you lost it!

Attn: Margie White

ASP General Delivery

Mullens, WV 25882

I'll leave you guys with another song today. It's an ASP classic, so enjoy!

"Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bcnn_old-crow-medicine-show-wagon-wheel_fun

Love All Around

Week 5 has come to an end. I felt the most drained this week compared to all of the others, but I definitely don't have a single complaint about my summer. I cannot believe that we only have 3 weeks left of volunteers...time has flown by! I'll be home in about a month!

Above is family member, Ricky. He's a local community favorite. He lives right in Mullens with his mother, who is struggling with liver problems. He's one of the most faithful people I've ever met in my life. Whenever he sees me, he always asks me to pray with him for his mother. At our Thursday picnics, he always says grace for us and tells the entire group a little about his life. He's disabled, but luckily, he can walk now. There was once a time when we could not walk and he probably wasn't going to live. But his "mother" found him, started taking him to church and praying for him. During that time, he slowly became able to walk again, and now he's healthy and energetic. His still cannot grow and he walks with a limp, but he's inspiring and fun to talk to. So glad we can help out his family by re-doing their bathroom and giving him a safe set of stairs to help him get in and out of his house.
Girls at Barnanaza! Danielle and I along with a youth volunteer and family member, little Lexi. Lexi's father, Herman, lives here along with a few other relatives. Lexi's mother left her when she was a baby and has no part of her nor Herman's life. Herman raises Lexi by himself with the help of neighbors and friends in the Barkers Ridge Holler. Lucky for him, Herman just got a job driving a coal truck! We're thrilled that he now has a more steady form of income to support his family, but we miss seeing him around the worksite all day!
Victoria taking a nap on the roof...our favorite chill spot! We have a window in our office that leads to the roof, which is were we like to relax and get some staff time. We tell our volunteers that they cannot get to the roof - basically so we can have it to ourselves to do things like nap!
Kids of the Wyco Holler! Also the cutest kids ever. I love playing with them. The one on the far right, Raven, has a crush on me. His mom says he always goes for the blondes! Danielle is jealous :)

The families of Appalachia teach me more and more each day. Their ties with their loved ones are so strong. They support one another so much is incredible. Back home I feel as though everyone could learn a lesson from this. Being there for others is important, because you never know when you'll be in a time of need and you'll be looking for someone to turn to. Family ties are amazing, and I love witnessing how much everyone cares about each other here in West Virginia!

MY MOM IS COMING TOMORROW. I cannot WAIT to show her around Wyoming County :)

Mumford & Sons - Winter Winds
http://vimeo.com/9208176

Welcome to the Good Life

I'm back! Sorry for the break, I've honestly been super busy and haven't had much time to really sit down and blog a ton. Well here's an update on what I've been up to!

This is from Formal Friday. As you can see, Danielle and I are dressed very lovely for the morning. These two volunteers got corrupted to be our prom dates for sakes of this photograph. Theme days are fun, but I only really get into a few of them. Formal Friday being one of them. My other favorite is Tat-tuesday. I have a ton of colored sharpies and I give "tattoo" designs to the volunteers. I've done everything from snakes all up and down their arm to an octopus on someone's face. I've got talent, what can I say.

Here's me performing a turtle save. Turtles in Appalachia tend to cross the road a lot - which is DANGEROUS. So we staffers save them. So far I've saved 6 this summer - the most on my staff! We name all the turtles we save. This one is Alvin.

Here's Victoria and I with a work crew at a home in the Wyco Holler. We're standing on the family's new porch! Currently we're working on a roof for this family. All the new rafters have been put in place and we put in the order for the tin today! We're also working on a bedroom for Raven, the little boy who lives here. We re-did his floor, walls, built him a closet, and now we're on to painting the room and laying down laminent flooring. I LOVE THIS FAMILY.

Above is just a picture of me being an awesome staffer of course.

The baby above's name is Halie. She's a 1 year old living in another home we're working on in the Wyco Holler (home's code name is Love Shack). She has the biggest smile ever and whenever I come, she always wants me to pick her up. He's adorable. Her mother is actually my age. I've spent a good amount of time talking and bonding with her, and she's an awesome person. It's hard to imagine that someone my age could be raising a child and living in the conditions she currently is. We're doing our best to make their home a safer place for baby Halie to live.
Here's Danielle and I exemplifying another theme day: Wacky Wednesday. It's pretty fun going around town looking like this.

Summer is officially over halfway over. Time has flown by. I LOVE my staff, we just always have a great time. Our motto is "work hard play hard". We get our work done then just hang out and have a blast with one another. I'll miss them a ton at the end of the summer. Our families are amazing as well. I'll have a harder time leaving them then I did leaving families last summer. It'll be a hard goodbye come August.

I'm already prepping myself for my transition back home. I know it will be hard at first, but I'm looking forward to a lot of things this fall. One being my sister, Annie, being a new member of the Spartan Marching Band! I cannot wait to share the experience with her. It's going to be great having her with me all school year. I miss her a lot. But overall, I think next year will be great. I know I'll miss ASP as I always do, but I think I'll be able to make the transition home even better this year. God's been great to me this summer, I could not ask for more.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6

Rainy Tuesday

Hey mom and dad, can I take this kitten home at the end of the summer? It's super cute and needs a good home! :)

The picture above is from the Wyco Holler. We work on 3 homes back in this neighborhood, and they are all amazing families! We were referred to these homes by someone who works in the school we're staying in. We have a blast hanging out with them. There's Bill and Cricket, who own one home. Bill is dying of Hepatitis, but still spends ALL day out working side by side with the crews making his home a better place to live. Cricket is the NICEST. She's like a mother to us all. She spends all day outside with the crews, talking and helping as she can. Next door is Bill and Cricket's daughter, Carrie, her boyfriend Roger and their 7 year old son, Raven (pictured playing basketball with us above). Raven is the coolest kid ever. He's energetic, smart, and always wants to play sports with us and the volunteers. He lives in substandard conditions, but his love for life is great and I really think us spending time working on his home this summer will impact him. His mom already brags about how he got straight A's in first grade! He's smart and catches on to things really fast. I love watching him interact with the volunteers and us as well.

Down the Holler is Latisha and Roger. They are a young couple and in need of many home repairs. They were very shy at first and felt bad asking for help, but now they've opened up. We told them that we love working for them and want to do everything we can for them.

All families attend our weekly picnic and love talking to the volunteers and especially us. The couples are young and can relate to us college kids and we often stay back on site visits and picnic days bonding and laughing with them. They're hilarious! I know their will be tears come the end of the summer...

Here's the kitten again. Can I PLEASE bring it home?!

Love you all!

Week 3 Already?!

It's week 3! Time is flying this summer, I can't believe we're slowly approaching the half way point with our volunteers. Our projects are most definitely off and running. I'm so excited for all of them, and even more excited to share them all with you! I'll make special updates on certain projects so you can get an inside look at what we're doing.

This past weekend we participated in an ASP Staff tradition of camping at The Breaks Interstate Park, which is located on the boarder of Kentucky and West Virginia. All the staff from all 30 counties meet up and spend the day and night there! We arrived and first when to a swimming hole, where we had a blast cliff jumping, rope swinging, laying around in inner tubes. It was awesome! Having fun, being surrounded by awesome people, and being a little risky made for a perfect afternoon! After we were done swimming, we went for a delicious mexican dinner, then met up to watch the sunset on the side of a mountain overlook (that's a picture of my staff at the overlook). After sunset, we all drove our vans up to a campsite, had a bonfire, and camped in the back of 12 passenger vans. I had a great time!

The drive back to Mullens in the morning was SO rainy. It was a 2 and half hour drive and it seriously monsooned for almost the entire journey. It seriously rains here at least every other day! As pretty as the rain is, it can be frustrating when you're trying to get projects done and its always wet and muddy. But overall, I am so happy and my home here is beautiful. There's nothing more relaxing then driving around, listening to some good music, and just simply enjoying my time here. Hope all is well at home, and if you want to, arrange a skype date with me soooon!

God Bless!

The Perfect Space

I wanna fit in to the perfect space,
feel natural and safe in a volatile place.
And I wanna grow old without the pain,
give my body back to the earth and not complain.

Today was my first day off! I left Mullens last night with my friend Sam who is on staff in Summers County and we met up with our friend Jake who is on staff in Lincoln County. We went for a relaxing dinner out in Logan County and spent the night watching movies and relaxing at another ASP center in Logan. The next morning, we relaxed (slept in for a change!) and hung out in the Logan area. We went to a park and played mini-golf, swang in a park and just chilled. I definitely needed this day off to rejuvenate and get ready to finish this week of volunteers strong! We have a lot of work to do here in Mullens before the weekend arrives.

When Sam and I were driving back to this side of West Virginia (since Wyoming and Summers counties are next to each other), we were listening the to Avett Brothers (of course) and the song "Perfect Space" came on. Both of us immediately agreed that this song represents our life SO much. Basically ASP is my perfect space. Back home, I love everyone, but I always feel like I have to fit some mold that I don't always want to fit into. I struggle with trying to please everyone, but when I'm here, I feel like I can please everyone by just being myself. Also as everyone knows, I am constantly struggling with my path of life. I honestly am not 100% sure of what I want to do with my life. At home, I feel that pressure. I feel like since I'm going to school, spending that money, I need to have a goal. Working with ASP, I get to accomplish my goals here daily. I can make people smile and know I made a difference every single day. I miss that when I am back in Michigan. I know I need to practice feeling happy that same way at home, because it isn't possible for me to always be down here in Appalachia. I have family and friends that care about me, so my new goal is to find my "perfect space" wherever I happen to be.

I'm excited for my staff meeting tonight! I want to hear how projects went today while I was gone! I know I'll also have to go on some IHVs tomorrow, and I'm pumped to find even more projects to start next week. Hopefully we can get all our work done early enough on Saturday to enjoy a relaxing day and night at The Breaks Interstate Park with every other ASP staff! Can't wait to see everyone!

Here is the song, please enjoy :)

http://music.aol.com/video/the-perfect-space-interface/the-avett-brothers/bc:48273803001

Pictures, as promised!

More pictures. Enjoy :)

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34)

Week Two Begins!

Greetings from week 2! We have fantastic volunteers this week! They're super motivated, talented (4 contractors!), and they're already donated $1000 to go directly to our homes here in Wyoming County! Feelin' good.

I got a package from home today too! So glad to get a little taste of home - literally. Mom's famous "brownie cookies" are being eaten by my staff and others. Thanks mom!

Above is a picture from our picnic and I'm with a kid from one of our worksites. His name is Raven, he's an awesome kid. We're working on his home and right next door at his Grandparents home. We were referred to these families by a woman who works in the school we are staying in. They are FANTASTIC and super grateful for all that we are doing. More so than any family I've ever served with ASP. They live in the Wyco holler, so if I ever refer to them as the "wyco families" that's what I'm talking about. I'm sure I'll blog about them a ton, because I love them already. It'll be a hard end-of-summer, I know it already.

Well we're off to get ice cream in Mullens with our Volunteers from North Carolina. I still have lots of pictures I need to post, I am aware. Coming soon!

Love you all!

Photo Summaries

First of all, Happy Father's Day to my dad! I miss him (and the rest of my family) tremendously! They're traveling to Wyoming (the State, not the County sadly haha), they're camping out West for a few weeks. Keep them in your prayers!

Well here's some photo updates! Since I can't use facebook, this is my main source of showing you what I'm up to.



Here's a picture of Jess and I lookin' all good and stuff for our commissioning service before we left training. We're the only two left on staff from Harlan last year (miss Jenny and Adam!). But from the sounds of it...I'll be seeing Jenny during the second half of the summer, and I'm THRILLED.



Mullens Middle School, Home of the Rebels! Aka, my home for the summer. Our center is great...potentially haunted, but we haven't seen any ghosts yet...but it's about as nice of an ASP center as I could ask for. We have a gym for the volunteers to play in, a nice big cafeteria, a staff office complete with FULL kitchen, bathroom, and laundry, and a big room to sleep in. Oh yeah, and AC. YES. Mullens is such a cute little town. I've luckily had some time to go for a few runs around the town, and everyone's very friendly.



So my camera is not nearly as good as the one I used last year (that one broke...) but I still try to get a little artsy. Wyoming County is gorgeous! So many winding mountain roads, its very different than Kentucky. I love just relaxing outside and looking around. Our center is nestled in a small valley, so whenever I feel like it, I can sit outside and just look at the mountains all around me. They look like a movie set backdrop! The other day, Bryson and I just sat outside and watched a storm roll in over the mountain. It was awesome and definitely something you can never do at home.




Week 2 crews arrive this afternoon! Looking forward to this week, and I'll be sure to update on how they're doing! Also...I still want mail! The mail I've received so far has been great! Keep it coming, and I promise to write back :) Miss everyone!

Van Full of Happiness (and lumber of course).

Good morning! Its such a beautiful day here! I got up nice and early (6:30am!) to make a Walmart run to grab some stuff for the center, and now I'm enjoying my coffee, preparing for a long day of runs and some more IHVs! We have to find more homes before next week, since this week we only have 8 crews, and next week we have 11! Can't wait to find some more deserving families to serve.

Yesterday was our first full day with volunteers and it went smoothly! Runs were a blast! I went with Danielle in Duke (our red pick-up) and we jammed out and drove around all day visiting our work sites. Our volunteers are fantastic this week. This church has been coming to ASP for years, so they're all very familiar with how it works, which makes our lives easy. They're energetic and the group leaders (GLs) are flexible. Flexible GLs make it SO much easier to be a staffer. Its super frustrating when they don't agree with you or won't try your way with a project. These guys are understanding and I've already learned a lot from a few of them!

Overall, I am OVERJOYED to be here again. Just like last summer, I cannot say enough good things about being a staffer with ASP. I feel like I can completely be myself here and (no offense) I don't miss home one bit. I miss the people! But not the place. Things I worried about back home seem so petty and insignificant now that I see what daily life is like for some people here. This world's a big place, and my small bubble back in East Lansing just keeps getting smaller and smaller. I wanna continue to make difference for the rest of my life - that's how I fuel myself.

Galatians 5:13 -"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love."

Week One Arrives!

Quick check in! It's Monday morning! That means first full day with volunteers and runs! I had wake up duty this morning, so I blasted some Stevie Wonder in the halls to get everyone up :) Also did my best to make them dance with me, but 7am is too early I guess. All our projects are gonna get off to a great start! All the group leaders are super smart and seem to be cool with their projects. AND there's a GL named Margie this week! I was sooo excited! She's going to adopt me as her faux daughter this week. The church here right now is super fun and I hope their energy keeps up throughout the week!

I'll post more pictures tonight hopefully! Also...MAIL! Send it to me :)

Homes: Singed!

All our homes were signed today! Super exciting! Above are some pictures from our journey of the day. It's been a long one, so I'm off to bed soon. Promise to blog more about the stories I have later!

Also, here's a song that I've been listening to recently. It's a good listen while driving through the mountains :) The Fleet Foxes are great. Enjoy!

http://stereogum.com/628441/fleet-foxes-helplessness-blues-2/mp3s/

Uncharted

Good evening! Today was a fantastic day here in Wyoming County! Want to know why? WE FOUND ALL OF OUR WEEK ONE PROJECTS! That means tomorrow, we're all going together to sign them and get everything set for the Volunteers to start working on them this coming Monday!

This morning we worked on setting up our center more. We made lots of decorations to make it look more like an official ASP center. The classrooms got all cleared out and ready to be sleeping quarters for the volunteers. It's gonna be awesome when they arrive!

Today Danielle and I went to one homeowner's place to ask about her home deed, and ended up staying there for over an hour talking with her! Catch? This lady can't talk. Her name is Cheryl. She has a hole in her throat and can no longer speak without a speaker box (which is still hard to understand, its sounds robotic), but Danielle and I told her we prefer just lip reading. It's sometimes hard to make out what she says, but when we can, she's fascinating! She's sassy and loves talking to us about her family and asking us about our lives. Did I mention that she's also suffered from a severe memory loss-involved stroke and she's also missing a leg? We're building her a new porch and wheelchair ramp this summer so she can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful day, as well as exit her home safely. She's incredibly thankful for us, and I know I'm going to love working on her home this summer.

The picture above is of the Wyoming County ladies! We went on IHVs together yesterday and this is our success picture after we pushed our van out of the mud! We were stuck for quites awhile, and we were about 15 miles from ANY sort of civilization. It was a happy moment when we were able to drive again!

My staff!

Above is my family for the summer! We're already 4 peas in a pod. From left to right, it's Bryson (our Center Director), Victoria (our Volunteer Coordinator), Danielle (our Operations Coordinator), and myself (and I'm our Finance Coordinator)! Bryson is going to be a senior at Salisbury in Maryland, Victoria is going to be a Junior at Messiah studying youth ministry, and Danielle will be a junior at Illinois. We are a bunch of goof balls, but still manage to be somewhat productive!

Welcome to Mullens, West Virginia!

So I have settled in to my new home for the summer! I am currently updating my blog from my desk in our office in Mullens Middle School! Mullens is the cutest town ever. It's tiny and quaint and everyone knows everyone. I love it here! Unlike last summer, its safe to walk around and go for runs through town. I am very thankful for our fantastic ASP center!

We're in full set-up week mode. I've spent the last few days on IHVs (initial home visits), which is when we take applications that we've received for home repair and go see the houses and meet the families for the first time. After viewing the home and the problems the family wants fixed, we have meetings about all the homes we've seen and we choose our projects! Wyoming County is HUGE and we've spent a lot of time driving these BEAUTIFUL roads (and getting lost too!). So far I've seen around 30 homes myself, which makes choosing difficult since we only will work on a total of about 16 homes this entire summer, and with only 8 for the first week. We have a few projects we want to work on FOR SURE! Tomorrow will be our last day of IHVs, then we will start signing the homes! Soon I will give full updates on particular projects we are working on. But I'll give you a slight taste by saying I am THRILLED about some of them. I was brought to tears with excitement/emotion yesterday after seeing a home, meeting the family, and deciding with my staff that we are going to make this family's life this summer. A feeling I sometimes missed last summer in Harlan.

Tonight was a fun night! We got our work done early, then drove 30 minutes into town to meet both the Guyan Valley and Summers County staffs for a classy dinner at Chilis (haha)! It was awesome to hang out with other staffers and share our stories about set-up week thus far.

Hope everyone at home is doing well! I'm praying and thinking about my friends and family. I miss everyone very much! ALSO, please send me mail! A care package or even just a letter!!! I'd LOVE it! My mailing address here is:
Attn: Margie White
ASP Wyoming Center-Mullens
General Delivery
Mullens, WV 25882

Training Continues and a New Adventure Awaits!

Aaaaaaand my journey begins! I recently found out that I will be spending my summer (after training here in Jonesville) in Wyoming County, West Virginia! I will be at a school in Mullens with 3 other fellow staffers: Center Director Bryson, and two other first year staffers, Danielle and Victoria. In 5 days, we will leave training here on The Porch and head there to begin an amazing summer serving families in West Virginia!

We’ve been spending a lot of time in construction sessions and Appalachia history sessions here at training. It’s been great to brush up on what I know and learn a few news things along the way. As much as I love being here with all the other staffers, I am super sleep deprived and I cannot wait to head to Mullens and see my home for the summer!

I am thrilled to see what the summer has in store for me. Being back down here in the mountains and being surrounded by so many people who share this love of ASP is incredible. It’s no secret that I’ve struggled a lot this year at school. All I ever wanted to do what be back down here and that distracted me from fully enjoying and focusing on life at home. Of course I love being here, but this summer I want to learn to accept and enjoy my time no matter where I am, so therefore I won’t feel so lost when I return home. I miss everyone at home now as much as I miss ASP when I’m not here, so instead of focusing on what I’m missing, my goal is to focus on what I’m always gaining.

I plan to update my blog A LOT more than last year, so please keep following! Also, as soon as I learn my mailing address for the summer, I’ll post it here. I LOVE mail and especially care packages ☺

Also: follow pictures that are being posted from my training here in Jonesville! Here's the link via facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150194157339716.309191.50962354715

“Live the life you love, love the life you live” –Bob Marley

Beginning of training on The Porch

First post from Appalachia! I'm currently sitting on what we ASP staffers call "The Porch" listening to the crickets chirp. Here in Jonesville, Virginia is where we train for about 10 days before we set off to our various counties for the summer. I still do not know where I'll be going specifically or who will be on my staff, but I am anxiously awaiting finding out! Right now we are spending a lot of time in construction sessions, brushing up on our knowledge.

I couldn't be happier. I'm in heaven here. I feel relaxed and I'm surrounded by the most amazing people ever. I'll be sure to post more when I have more time and especially when I know my home for the summer!

New Summer, Leading to New Beginnings

A new summer starts.

And I cannot wait to share my adventures as I go through another amazing time working for Appalachia Service Project. Appalachia Service Project is a non-profit organization based out of Johnson City, TN that "provides life changing short-term Christian mission trip opportunities - bringing youth, adult, and college volunteers into rural Central Appalachia to make homes warmer, safer, and drier for families in need". My job? In early June, during my training, I will be placed into one of several counties in either Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, or Kentucky, and I will coordinate the construction projects, evening programming, and more, for all of these weekly volunteer groups. Like a camp counselor - but way better.

My previous summer.

Harlan County, Kentucky, was my home last summer. There, I worked with 3 others all summer long - Jenny, Jess, and Adam. We had an amazing summer, working 8 weeks with different volunteers every week. We worked on a total of 16 different homes around the county and met some amazing locals. Along the way, I made a bond with not only my fellow staff members, but the families we served, the volunteers we worked with, and I strengthened my relationship with Jesus. I loved my summer in Harlan, and I cannot wait to begin a new journey.

My upcoming summer.

It's no surprise to anyone that I've struggled this year. Not only with school and being busy, but with my identity, and constantly questioning what I was doing and why things we occurring. I seem to have strayed from the path that I originally had set for myself, and I feel like part of that was the initial disappointment of NOT being in the mountains, where my life seemed perfect always. I've learned to appreciate my time, no matter where I am, and embrace every moment. I can find love everywhere I look, and that's all that matters. This summer could not come at a more perfect time. I need to reset myself and get back to who I am and be the person I can be proud of. God has great plans for me, and I'm putting a lot of trust in him. I will appreciate and prayers and thoughts from everyone this summer!

Keep in touch.

Please follow my blog this summer! I know everyone loves my pictures, and I will be sure to include many. Also, I will post my address as soon as I find out my home for the summer. In the meantime, I hope to hear from everyone soon, whether here, via facebook, twitter, or a phone call. I will miss my friends and family much, but I know another summer serving in the mountains is just what I need.