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