KY-5: You Don't Have To Suffer To Serve (Maybe A Little) But We Are Still Afloat.

Five am comes quickly when you’re tired from travel and a power outage. The small kitchen is not equipped for what we are doing. Our first project is to build 90 sandwiches. The campers will build their lunches on the way out the door after breakfast. For some reason no matter the geographic location, the first breakfast doesn’t go smoothly. In the past, when everyone is in the same building, they wander in for breakfast over the hour we serve. Since they are bused in, they all arrive at the same time. On top of the small area this makes for the need for additional organization. Our hours are a little longer since we only have a small sink to wash our cooking items. We are on top of each other. We break down the various duties between the five of us. Mary handles the tables with lunch items. Mollie and Mary build the sandwiches Pat sets up and assists with the cereal, drinks and fruit on the breakfast buffet. Quintin and Carl run the griddle building egg, sausage and cheese on English muffins. Plus I have to make a daily morning run to the IGA for supplies while the others clean up. Mary organizes our storage room.

We decide to build tomorrow’s sandwiches today. We prep the chicken for dinner. Our morning is longer than normal. It takes until eleven o’clock. Our goal is to finish by 9:30 am. The church has an outdoor pavilion with a gas barbeque. The size of the pavilion makes for an easier operation. We precook the chicken. Dinner includes a salad bar with soup. Our Country Tomato, (Campbell tomato soup with chunky spaghetti sauce) is a hit. The chicken on rice with gravy along with carrots fills the bill. Earlier, Mary baked four sheet cakes.

We are back on time, we are out by seven tonight.
Things are looking up.

Check back for news sometime next week

KY-4: Getting Settled With Much Help

Ok, let’s a least try to get settled in the B&B. There is no one at the building and there is no phone number to call. We knew the B&B had changed hands and has a new owner. The IGA is open, and it is just 11 am. The customer service counter girl is very helpful. The new owner does not have a listed phone number but she knows his father. We leave a message on his answering machine. But since my cell doesn’t work here in the hills I ask him to call the IGA with any response. I will check with her later. Her suggestion since the First Baptist is about to let out is that I wait outside and ask for Brenda. “She knows everyone. Maybe she can get you some action.”

So here I am, standing in the driveway in front of the First Baptist Church as their members slowly exit the front doors. “I’m looking for Brenda”. “You want Brenda Allen, she’s over there.” Small world. On one of our earlier trips we met with her husband and arranged for paper goods from his business. I also knew she was the president of the Kiwanis Club. She got on her cell phone and started to track people down.

My best efforts were setting up the kitchen at Burning Forks and we proceeded to do so. Within ninety minutes Brenda arrived with her husband. If necessary, we could spend the night with them. The more we talked the more she got indignant over the situation. Back on the phone. The Lions club has a person they call the “tail twister.” She should have been a Lion. Success. We could meet someone at the local newspaper office and they would give us the key. We are in. Around six o’clock Mollie and Mary arrive. I attended the leaders meeting and outlined our menu which included the 3^rd Annual Dori Gillstrom Memorial Ice Cream festival at ten.

Let’s go out for dinner. A severe thunderstorm is pouring cats and dogs. Pizza seems the best option. However after placing the order, another employee approachs us and says our waitress has just quit and walked out. Is this Flag number four? When we return to the B&B the electricity is off. The emergency lighting has long used up their batteries. It is dark inside. Being an old house the floors and steps creek with every step. Mollie has a reading light that clips onto her books. Mary has a key flashlight with a blue tint which makes the house even more eerie. We all go to our rooms and wait.

At ten o’clock Quintin and I go to the Methodist Church and dish out vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream with various toppings. The power is still out when we return. I go to the neighbor and borrow some matches. There are candles everywhere in the building as decorations. We take the two on the edge of the tub, place them in the tub and light them so we have light in the bathroom. I find a pedestal and globe that hold potpourri. Dumping the contents, a candle fits down inside and lights the hall. We are putting it together. The power comes on around midnight.

KY-3: God Looks Out For Fools and Sinners

We emailed the B&B to ask how we were to get the keys. No reply. But we headed for Saylersville anyway. On the eve of leaving, received a call from the executive director of PACE to say “The Nail Benders” were now using the kitchen in the old church and we were being bumped to The Burning Forks church. They had a new kitchen, rebuilt due to a flood a couple of years ago. He went on to say how much we were going to like it. Flag number one.

We met him and some of his staff for breakfast on Sunday in a nearby town. Now because of “The Nail Benders” the boys would be housed in the “new church”, the girls down the street in the Methodist Church, but the meals would be in the Forks church about three miles down the road. Everyone will have to drive to meals. Flag number two. However my food order that was delivered the previous Thursday was partially in the new church, partially in the Forks church with the balance in the IGA store freezer because there is not enough refrigerator or freezer space. Flag number three.

KY-2: Prelude To Service

Last year when it became obvious Pennsylvania Christian Endeavor (PACE) would not be returning to West Virginia for the 2007 summer, Pat & Carl chose Salyersville, KY as the place to serve.

As most at Covenant know, our service group known as Covenant Adult Mission Team (CAMT) has cooked and served meals for the teenagers from throughout Pennsylvania who perform Community Service for a week through PACE. CAMT has served two weeks each year.

To lay the groundwork, Pat and Carl drove to Salyersville (about six hundred miles) between Christmas and New Year’s week to get the lay of the land. PACE was to use the First Baptist Church in Salyersville for its base of operation. The only problem was that the “New” church, a complex designed to service groups like PACE, was still under construction. More importantly the kitchen was bare with nothing installed. The only good find was the Bed & Breakfast within walking distance of the church. We immediately nailed down reservations for our CAMT members.

The first trip left too many questions. So on Palm Sunday week Carl & Pat returned to Salyersville. This time we met with Pastor Matt. We looked over the kitchen in the nearby “Old” church. We could make it happen. Matt indicated he had been informed that a Baptist group from Mississippi known as “The Nail Benders,” a group which commits to a five-week stint and travels to work on Baptist Churches in the South, would be arriving in May to help finish the church. Matt was sure the kitchen in the new church would be ready for us.

That was before Matt had to cut the grass at the manse. No one is really sure just what happened but somehow the mower actually cut a natural gas line leading into his house and then the second time around caused an explosion that threw him almost a hundred feet and burned the manse. Matt sustained severe burns and is still recuperating. As a result the “The Nail Benders” are working on the Church and the manse. Still no kitchen. But wait—it gets worse.

KY-1: CAMT Mission Team: Trials and Tribulations

We’re pleased to report that the KY Mission Team (Team Leader Carl, his wife Pat and grandson Quintin, plus Mary and Molly) arrived safely in Salyersville, KY Saturday, June 23. From there, however, it was all downhill. In fact, when you read this, you’ll know why there was no time for Carl to write a blog entry until the end of the week. You’ll laugh and cry at the same time. It’s a long story, but too good to condense.