jsumcy! (and a few other things)

half way!
SO crazy!
this week was excellent, among others, and i was definitely challenged in many aspects, making it not only an awesome week with an awesome group, but also a week for me to personally grow and experience some new things.

i'll start off with the first experience of my week before the group even got there.
over the summer, we've been going to churches all across the area to spread ARM's name as well as to worship in different types of settings. we have definitely seen our fair share of interesting services, such as speaking in tongues and being blessed to the point of falling on the floor, but we were beginning to start going to the church that was going to feed us on family dinner night.
so, this week we went to a united methodist church in the town over. of course we all thought nothing of it, as it seemed like your average small town methodist church.
but, things began to get a bit controversial right away.
the pastor began reading scripture, of course i don't remember the verse, where paul writes about how all those who are sexually immoral, greedy, lustful, what have you, and homosexual, will not 'inherit the kingdom of god'.
i'm sure at this point, i don't quite have to go into details. honestly, just think of the most hate filled, stereotypical, and judgmental sermon against homosexuality and that was what this man was preaching.
now, i understand that we all come from different backgrounds, and this issue is kind of a new thing many people thought they would never have to deal with.
but to preach a sermon about it and claim that all those who fall under this category will be condemned to hell no matter what? i wish i was exaggerating, but this sermon fell no short of saying just that.
and then, just to make it even better (please excuse my bitterness that i feel is being conveyed through my typing), he went on to talk about how new york just recently passed to allow for gay marriage and how he felt disgraced to be from that state. and that if we weren't going to put up a fight against it, it will happen in alabama and in the other states. that we all must fight against it in order to make things right.

we must fight against our own people?

i never would have pictured myself being in a place like this. a place of worship preaching all about hate.
i was literally brought to tears when we all finally got back to the car because i couldn't believe how much hate was being given off at this one place.
as i said before, i can understand how we all have differing opinions on issues like this and it's okay, i respect that, but to preach an entire sermon on how we must fight and basically hate others?
are we not called as christians to love and accept others, no matter who they are or what they may do?

and he just completely ignored that little part in the bible that mentions grace.

i was just so astounded that a man who is supposed to represent open hearts, open minds, open doors would say such hateful things about a group of people.
i guess i was just so shocked that this actually happened. i mean, you hear about it all the time, but me actually sitting through it? i never would have guessed it.

again, this issue is definitely new, and we are all raised to believe certain things, or may all have differing opinions. and that's totally okay, it's how we all grow as individuals and as a society.
i had just hoped that as a christian community and as a body of christ, our main goal would always be to love.
would always be to show to agape love god has for us to others.
to reach out with our hearts, not our minds, and to always embody the nature christ was able to show.

in the end, i think the experience had to have made me grow. i was shown that i am confident in the beliefs i have, and i know what i find most important to my faith.
i just pray that as christians we can all walk in a faith full of love, not hate. and show how we want to live with this love and live with an attitude of acceptance like jesus did.

anyways, after church, we all went out to lunch and kind of "debriefed" everything a little, and got back on track onto preparing for our next team.

this week i had my own site for the first time, and i was so incredibly nervous. you have no idea. haha
i kind of loose a bit of confidence when i know i'm going to be under pressure, and i wanted to make a good impression for arm as well as our staff; that we knew what we were doing and everything would run smoothly.
so, i planned out of project on saturday, without too much help i might add. haha. and got ready for everything i could!

so, the week commenced.
and it went better than i ever could have imagined.
i loved my group! we had a good balance of work and fun, and i loved being able to be on site with them everyday and get to know them better and better throughout the week.

for me, that's what i love the most about having different teams coming in every week. i technically don't have to stay on site with them everyday, or even work with them everyday, but i feel it makes the experience so much better for me and even the group. this week i especially realized how much i love that interaction, and hope other people can see the importance in it as well.

for the week we had one big project plan, accompanied with two smaller projects if the week went as planned. and, because my group was so awesome (i believe i have the right to brag) everything went right on schedule and we were able to complete all three!

there were only a few minor bumps in the road, such as the blue truck breaking down on me AGAIN. our running score is currently

old blue: 3, ashley: 0.

i told everyone  after the first time it broke down i would never drive it again. but then i did, and it broke down once more. so  i continued to say i have the worst luck and shouldn't drive it, but ended up with it again, to only break down in the middle of an intersection. i think by now everyone has finally gotten the hint that i should never step foot in that darn truck. haha

anyways, minus the truck incident, my group was able to build a porch, fix two doors and a window, and paint the outside of a house, a bathroom, and make and install shutters!
it was such a successful week, and this group truly stuck out to me.

another thing in week made me think about what being on staff for arm another summer.
i mean, i definitely need to make it through july first, but this experience has been nothing short of amazing so far. all the little stresses aside, i have learned so much and been able to meet so many different beautiful people, that i feel wouldn't happen in your typical summer job.
i have been able to do what i love, which is basically missions, all summer long, and have found a place where i feel i could be sustainable and return.

my group was able to go back to the house they worked on last summer, to see everything that was finished and visit the family again.
when i saw this happen, i had to hold myself together a bit because i was just so amazed to see them be able to go back a year later and visit with their family like nothing had ever changed.
this is what it's all about! a change that's sustainable, something that never ends. something that you can return to every summer. a place where you can reconnect with people and continue to further your mission.

it has been my developing goal for college and for my life to be a part of something sustainable. something long term. a mission that i don't go to just once, or just for a week.

after my second trip to guatemala, i knew i wanted to continually go back.
i knew there would be a way for me to figure out how to go back every year and continue the connections with the people i have there.

and now, i'm spending my summer at arm and i want to be able to continue the connections i'm making.
whether it's with the families, or the youth groups who are coming back next summer, or just even knowing the area, i want to be able to come back and have the second experience. or even third, or fourth. who knows.

i just remember how amazing it was being able to return to guatemala,
and i want to be able to spread that to arm.

i know i have had a lot of things planned for my summers, and i haven't made any definite decisions yet, but it has been a huge thing to think about and a big thing for me to try and sort out.

we are all called somewhere.
and maybe i am being called to this certain somewhere.
for more than just one summer.

but, i know god will lead me to that answer i'm searching for, and i will figure it out soon enough.

and now for the fun part! pictures :)

the finished porch!

our wonderful team :)

jsumcy!

the best construction team you'll ever meet:

of course, john got pied again.

and, the funnest yet most frustrating pool game known to man: skittles

4 weeks down, 3 weeks to go.

and so we continue :)

beulah missionary church and jasper umc

it's crazy to think week three is already over, and we have one more week until have the summer is over! everything has definitely gone by so fast.
i wish i was able to update this more, but i'm sure you can understand how busy everything gets. and never having internet at the lodge doesn't quite help. haha
anyways, this week's team was incredible. we had definitely a different dynamic, with more adults than youth, and one of our teams being just adults. this definitely allotted for some changes in our programming, but it worked out in the end! and it was kind of refreshing to hang out with older people all week. in college, you're always surrounded by people your own age, and at home you only hang out with people your own age, so every once and a while it's so nice to hang out with those older than you to change the atmosphere a bit.

this week, we worked on ms. allie's house, the one we will be at all summer long. she has the sweetest family, and is such a strong woman, and it was amazing getting to tell her we were starting on her house this week.
i think i wrote about it before, but ms. allie had been looking for help for over seven years, and arm was the first agency to finally help her out. a lot of her damage was from hurricane katrina, and it is just now getting taken care of.
this summer we will be working on her porches, roof, bathroom, and bedroom.
originally, all we had planned for this week was her back porch and starting on her bathroom.
this group seriously went above and beyond, and finished her back porch, demoed and redid her front porch, completely finished her bathroom, fixed the insulation underneath the house, and even painted the exterior. they had so much service to give to her, and it was amazing to see.

also, one thing to know about ms. allie, is that she has been living off of a generator since december. the electric company charged her almost triple for her bill one month, and she called to tell them about the wrong numbers, but they told her there was nothing they can do and that was what she owed them. so, she wasn't able to pay it, and they shut her power off. then, the next month, she got another bill from the electric company for a payment on the month she didn't even have power. so, she called again, but they told her that was still her outstanding payment to them, plus the added month's worth of power she didn't even have.
basically, she had to pay an enormous bill to get her power turned back on, that wasn't even the power she used, on top of another fee to turn it back on, to ever get her power back.
beulah, after already going above and beyond with their work, contacted their church and district and came up with the money to turn on ms. allie's power.
when the church told her that, she just began to cry. i wish there was a way to describe the moment, but it was definitely one of those step back kind of things. i even started crying and it wasn't even my power getting turned back on.
but the look on her face, and how first she looked up to the sky, and thanked God for bringing this group to her.
it was a moment i will never forget, and the moment that will keep me going through this summer and many stresses seem to pile up everyday.
this is what it's all about. this is what we are meant to do on this earth. love and serve others; give to others what we have and what they need. go above and beyond in everything we do. and have moments like this, all the time.
like i said before, this group just went above and beyond. and on the last day, i was talking to ms. allie and she was telling me how she was on the phone with one of her sons telling him all about what our group was doing. she told me that he said 'i hope that one day i will be blessed enough to meet the people that made my mother so happy'
and that was just such an awesome thing to here, and i hope beulah knows what a huge impact they made on ms. allie and her family, and that they should not take their work as something small.
their work was the start of bigger things. the start of love and hope in this family, and love in hope in the community.

also, one thing i forgot to mention was her family. she has three grandkids and one daughter who usually stay with her at her house.
these kids were so much help this week, always willing to do whatever jobs needed to be done, and so much fun to hang out with.
they are such great kids, with good manners, smiles, hugs, everything. and i know they can go far in life, and i will always keep them in my prayers.
john was telling me how he was talking to one of the kids, kevin, as they rode to the hardware store together. kevin is just 11 years old. john was just talking to him about what he likes to do, and what he wants to do when he's older. he was talking about how he likes baseball, but there's not really places to play around their town. and how when he gets older, he wants to do what we do, what arm does. and i was just thinking how amazing it would be for kevin to be the one we served, and then to one day serve others. God's power is limitless, and i know kevin is meant to exceed the limits he may have been born into.

finally, one more thing about ms. allie, is that she makes these incredible handcrafted ships. she uses matchsticks, each one which she lights individually to make a pattern, and creates the bottom of the ship. and then uses cloth to make the sails. her art is absolutely beautiful, and takes so much skill and time, and we are all working on finding a way to advertise for her ships so she can sell them like she hopes to.

overall, this work we was incredible, and will be one i need to remember to remind myself what it is i'm doing here in alabama and the purpose of my time here.

and finally, here are the pictures for the week :)

before bathroom:

before front porch:

before back porch:

after back porch:

starting some front porch demo:

ms. allie's beautiful ships:

front porch after (we're adding on the roof part with another team):

bathroom after:

also, john said girl could paint his nails for $20 in his pie jar. little did he know, they only put in $12... haha

the group:

finally, we said if the group raised a certain amount of money they could pie us all. and of course, they did. haha

hazelgreen umc and greystone umc

week 2 has come to a very quick end!
this week was a little more stressful than the last, with many quirks here and there, but we definitely pulled through and made it work!
the two teams we had this week were disaster relief teams, so their projects were coordinated through another church who is in charge of disaster relief for areas in alabama hit by the tornados.
our construction team worked with one of the churches to reshingle a roof, and the other team was on their own during the day doing clean up and removal of damage from the storm.
for the roof project, our construction staff was a little blindsided with information, and didn't have a chance to meet the family we were working for before the team got there because we had such a short amount of time to prepare (the team and project was added thursday of last week)
so our first day was a little different than most, trying to figure out more specifics of the project while the team was already there.
but, nonetheless, we got working on the roof and started reshingling it all!
at first, hazelgreen (the church we were working with on the roof) was a bit shy, and didn't talk to our staff that much. haha. but as the week went on, they definitely opened up and were very funny and entertaining. we played all kinds of silly games on the roof to keep us entertained, and talked a lot about random things. they definitely taught me some games i'm going to take home!
we did go through a lot of struggles this week with "behind the scenes" things, that of course aren't important right now, but i think it was definitely a lesson to learn with our staff!
and although we weren't able to work with greystone during the day, they were an awesome group and so fun to hang out with at night!

at first, this week was nothing like the amazing team we had last week, because saraland set the bar so high! but it all definitely came around and worked itself out for the better :)

so now for some pictures!

here is our whole team:

hazelgreen on our finished roof:

construction team JAC:

and finally, the week ended with john getting pied in the face :)

saraland umc

so, we had our first group this week. and seriously, i don't think we could have asked for a better group. it was awesome! the group was great, they were such hard workers, and the staff had such a great time getting to know everyone. it was a perfect group to ask for for our first week.

saraland was made up of a group of nine, 7 youth and 2 adults. their youth pastor had only been with them for four days before the trip, but you couldn't even tell because they had already grown so close. and our other adult, charlie, was so much help on the work site and definitely taught us some cool things.

our project for this week was to build a front and back porch for a woman named ms. spates. her back steps had fallen, so she had no access to the back of her house, and her front steps were just rotting away. so, we set this team to complete both by the end of the week.

honestly, we were a little worried about the time frame and having just one group working on both porches, but they totally blew us away and finished on thursday. they worked so hard to get both of them done, and they look awesome! i am so proud to have finished our first project with such a motivated group!

here are the porches!:

i'm so proud of our team for them!
we were definitely still working out a few loose ends as construction coordinators, but this group definitely helped us get ready for the bigger groups to come.

aside from the work aspect, there were a lot of kids we interacted with at our site. they weren't like the kids we are all used to playing with, and it definitely taught me a lot about patience and how these kids just need someone to show them love and guide them in life. sometimes, the kids weren't so nice, and would say things that some of us were astounded to hear a little kid say. but we all had to realize in the end it wasn't really their fault. they were raised in a much different situation than a lot of us are, and we can't blame them for that. we can only hope and help them to better their futures.
but, aside from that, the kids at our site were so happy with the little that they did have. and given their circumstances, could have acted a lot worse.
i don't want it to sound like the kids were terrible at all. because our team did have a fun time playing and interacting with them. it just definitely showed all of us another side of things.

anyways,
since we finished early we were able to start demolition on ms. allie brown's house in order to prepare for teams to get started on all of her projects. i am so excited to be able to get things started with her, because she is just the sweetest woman and has the sweetest family, and she has been waiting seven years for someone to help her fix her house. i am honored to be able to work with her and give her the things she definitely deserves.

after we did that, we were able to go to day camp swim day, which was a lot of fun (even though we all got some sick sunburns. haha)

but, it was definitely a good last day for the group!

all week the programming went awesome as well! i think the group got a lot from our discussions about poverty and our experiences this week, and i have all the confidence in the world that this group will continue their service once they get back home.

i was joking around with the group telling them that they've been the best so far. but, honestly, i think the other groups already have a big competition :)

oh, technology.

sorry i haven't been posting a lot lately! our internet has been pretty horrible, but supposedly it's supposed to be fixed soon.

but! our first team is coming is sunday! so hopefully i can post about that soon!

welp...

this was supposed to be yesterday's post, but the internet wasn't working all day, so just pretend like it's yesterday :)

first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN! :)
we started off the morning with a delicious breakfast and birthday hats. definitely the start to a good day. haha

then we went on our first home visit, which was awesome! we went to ms. allie and ms. maria’s home, where they were hit really bad from hurricane katrina. they have been trying to get someone to come and help fix up their home for years, and have tried over six different agencies, and ARM was the first one who finally came to help them. we got to the house and began looking at all the repairs that needed to be done. their house will have to be re-roofed, the front and back porches will have to be completely taken up and replaced, on of their bathroom floors needs to be torn up and fully replaced, two windows need to be replaced, and the bedroom ceiling needs to be replaced as well as the floor. this project will definitely be a full summer one, but i am so excited to get started on it. when we were done surveying the house, we told ms. allie that we would be able to work on it this summer, and she just began to cry. she look at us, put her hands over her face, and just bent over and cried. she told us how thankful she was and how she has been waiting and praying so much for someone to come and help out her and her family, which consists of her daughter, and her daughter’s three children.
after we told her, we gathered with the family and prayed together. and then we went to our car, and i turned around and the family was all on the porch, with ms. allie in the middle, and all just hugging each other and loving on each other, and ms. allie was still crying.
i don’t know if there’s any way i can sum up this moment in just these words, but i am so so happy to be working on her house this summer. it’s so sad to me how their family has been ignored for so long with so much damage, and treated with such ignorance from from so many different agencies. but, nonetheless, this project is going to be awesome and i can already tell this family has so much love, and they deserve this.

we tried to go on a few other home visits, but some of the families weren’t home, so we came back to the lodge and did a few things here and there.

but, the best part of my day was definitely this first home visit, and i think it’s clearly started off the summer in the right path.

hospitals, trucks, and lifeboats.

so, today was an extremely eventful thursday, to say the least. haha
we were busy doing inventory on all of the construction supplies, when one of the staff members jessica got stung by a wasp. unbeknown to us, she is deathly allergic to anything that stings. like, for real deathly. and, she didn't have an epipen, which also was not good. but, if you knew jessica, she was trying to tell us she was perfectly fine, even though the last time she got stung she completely swelled up in about 20 minutes. so, we all went into crisis mode, a very controlled one, and all caravaned to the hospital, which was of course about 25 minutes away. but, we got there in time and she got treated!
it was a little bit crazy there for a second, i have to say. thinking about it, which is kind of scary, if we hadn't gone to the hospital and tried to treat it ourselves, she literally could have died. it's so crazy to think something so small could affect your life! but, off of a very sad note!
after that, we all finally got back and tried to continue with our inventory, and decided to have a little driving lesson with one of the old trucks. everything was good, until we broke down right as we got to the main road, of course. so, we were a little stuck for a while because none of us had phones or anything, of course. but, some very nice people pulled over and helped us, and went to their house to go get their truck, came back, and towed us all the way back to the lodge. and, they were about to leave for a family reunion, so it was even more nice of them to do that for us! it did get me thinking about how i don't think anyone in orlando would do that. it's sad to say that, but our lives are so caught up in the important things we have to do, like get to a family reunion for instance, that we forget the importance of everyone else.
which brings me to a final thing i wanted to share.
i've been reading the book searching for god knows what by donald miller, and the chapter i read yesterday really stood out to me. hopefully i will explain the premise right, but it's basically about the concept of a lifeboat. think of a scenario in which you are stuck on a lifeboat, and you have to choose one person to take off the lifeboat in order to survive. your mindset would automatically turn into how you can make yourself the best person in comparison to everyone else. and basically, that mindset is how a majority of our lives, whether we realize it or not; we live by comparison. we try to be the best as society would define the best, we try to be the most beautiful as society defines beauty, or success, or anything. we live by comparison instead of embracing the beautiful and amazing people God created us to be.
there was a particular passage i liked from this chapter, and i felt the words themselves would get the point across much better than i could:

"But what we really need is God. What we really need is somebody who loves us so much we don't worry about death, about our hair thinning, about other drivers pulling in front of us on the road, about whether people are poor or rich, good-looking or ugly, about whether we feel lonely, or about whether or not we are wearing clothes. We need this; we need this so we can love other people purely and not for selfish gain, we need this so we can see everybody as equals, we need this so our relationships can be sincere, we need this so we can stop kicking ourselves around, we need this so we can lose all self-awareness and find ourselves for the first time, not by realizing some dream, but by being told who we are by the only Being who has the authority to know, and by that I mean the Creator."

just thought it was a little something we could all ponder on for a second.

& whether it was a trip to the hospital, being towed by complete strangers, or reading about the concept of a lifeboat, today definitely had it's ups and downs.