This last week of spring has been most pleasant. The days have been comfortably warm and the nights cool. I wish it would last all summer.
Oh, before I get started, yesterday was Mom and Dad’s 50th anniversary.
PAULINE IS HOME! Pauline’s doctor ordered a scope of her stomach which revealed a hiatal hernia and numerous ulcers due to years of arthritis medication. The ulcers appear to be the source of her bleeding. We were all happy to hear this since it is treatable. With this news the Jones family headed for home last Sunday morning. Pauline stayed in the hospital until Wednesday, however, because she had a touch of pneumonia.
While the Jones family was here it fell to Darice and me to keep the kids. We all had a great time visiting with each other. The kids played over at our house most of the time. We also took the kids to see Pauline several times as well as taking them swimming over at Kenny and Lori’s. Darice and the kids went to Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in Springfield last Saturday evening and we tagged along. Darice and I got a good laugh at ourselves later. Here we were, a man, a woman, and six kids stair stepped in ages walking into church looking pretty much like a good Catholic family.
CLUB 180. So, have you done your 180 yet? What I saw this week makes me wonder if I take my walk with Christ seriously enough. A group from Mt. Carmel went on a mission trip to the Club 180 Ministry in Cumberland, Kentucky. Cumberland is on the southeastern edge of Kentucky, almost in Virginia, very near the headwaters of the Cumberland River. It’s about a five hour drive from Cross Plains. We were all planning to leave on Tuesday, but with Pauline in the hospital Vicki and the boys stayed home. Jenna and I left on Wednesday and came back late Friday night.
The cities of Benham, Cumberland, and Lynch were once home to a large coal mining operation and boasted a population of over 24,000 representing 24 different countries. The coal mines are now closed and the area has about 4000 people. Cumberland is well off the beaten path, you don’t find yourself there by accident. As a result, the area has few economic opportunities these days. The town is a lot like what Gatlinburg, Tennessee, looked like before tourism exploded there.
The Club 180 Ministry is operated by Terry and Angie Burkeen. Their focus is to give the kids of Cumberland a place to hang out, getting them off the street and in a Christian environment. A year or so ago they bought an old furniture store building and the building next door. Both buildings were owned by the same man who had them listed for sale for over $300,000. The owner, who had been unable to sell the buildings and who believed in what the Burkeens are doing, sold them the property for $50,000. The bottom floor of the furniture store has been converted to a recreation center complete with a stage for music, a snack bar, pool tables, ping pong, air hockey, and video games (Jenna got pretty good at Guitar Hero on Play Station 2). The second floor is being renovated into offices and an after school tutoring center, and the building next door is slated to become a gym for tumbling classes and Upward Basketball. The ministry maintains the Rotary Club Park behind the building as well.
The kids I met there are something special. They have a lot to overcome. These are the kids, with their choice of hair style, clothing, body piercings, and tattoos, that most of us would watch wearily out of the corner of our eye. They are the people the Burkeens are reaching for Christ. You can see by talking with them how the Holy Spirit is truly changing the direction of their lives by 180°.
The Burkeens, who are about my age, are special people themselves. Meeting them makes me reevaluate my own faith. Three years ago they lived just a few miles from us in White House. They went with their church on a mission trip to the area and felt God calling them to do His work there. In October 2005 Terry quit his job. He moved to Cumberland in January 2006, and Angie and their daughters followed in June. They live completely on faith and prayer. They do not receive a salary for what they do, nor does their ministry receive regular support from any denomination or group of churches. Everything, I mean EVERYTHING, comes from donations. They have never had a need to go unmet, and feel completely at peace with what they do and how they do it.
I lost count of all the people from our church who went up there. There must have been 40 or more of us total, but it was hard to keep up as folks came and went to fit their schedules. The amazing thing was how much was accomplished. One team painted the back wall of the old furniture store building (about 2000 sq. ft. of a tall wall). The next team built a 12’ x 50’ deck off the rear wall overlooking the park. This deck is stout enough to hold a lot of kids without fear of failure. We had planned for this project to take all week. It was done Wednesday afternoon. We put in a drop tile ceiling, worked in the local clothes closet ministry, cleaned a house for one family going through a hard time, gutted the kitchen and scraped paint at the house the Burkeens recently purchased, readied a computer lab of donated equipment for the future after school tutoring program, and offered a medical clinic for mothers and babies. Mary Alice Yates will probably post pictures at mtcarmelbaptist.shutterfly.com some time this week.
I was really proud of Jenna. We did not work together on any of the various projects that were going on so we weren’t around each other much during the day. All the adults she worked with each day complimented her to me saying what a hard worker and pleasant girl she is. Talk about making Dad feel good.
SIGHTSEEING. We did get some time to do a little sightseeing around Cumberland. The view from Kingdom Come State Park (official site -- more information) is breathtaking. Coming down from the 2680 foot overlook we got an up close look at a black bear (about 25 feet away). We also went to the Portal 31 Mine (official site -- more information) where we met former miner Robert Lunsford who is quite a character (see a video interview -- QuickTime needed). We also went to Black Mountain (4145 feet) which is the highest point in Kentucky and right on the Virginia border.
THE ADVENTURE COMING HOME. Jenna and I stayed upstairs at the Club 180 building this week. We hadn’t planned to leave Cumberland until yesterday morning, but the septic line got clogged up so we decided to leave after supper Friday night. We were about an hour or so from Bowling Green on the Louie Nunn Parkway when we came upon a deer carcass. It was laying crossways to the road and by the time my headlights revealed it I didn’t have enough time to miss it without losing control of the truck. We bounced pretty good (I was surprised Jenna didn’t wake up), but I couldn’t see any damage so I kept on. To make a long story short we later discovered the deer ruptured either the gas tank or fuel line (and with gas at $4 per gallon too!). We ran out of gas at the Orlinda exit, just 17 miles from home. Fortunately, Bro. Bill and Cindy were about 20 minutes behind us and I had their cell phone number. We rolled in at midnight.
Jeff Garst towed my truck home this afternoon. As we were unloading the truck from his trailer we had plenty of room to inspect the gas tank. It turns out the front, bottom corner of the tank was rusting. Hitting the deer was probably a good thing in that it accelerated the problem so that I would notice the leak sooner and it wouldn’t be a long term fire hazard. However you look at it I think it is evident that God was watching over us since I never lost control of the truck and the leaking gas never came in contact with a spark for about two hours of driving.
Joe
