d Methodist Church

CAMP HOPE: “SURVIVOR” IN ACTION

The Pasadena and Hall United Methodist Churches have completed another week of service in Western Maryland as part of CAMP HOPE (Christian Appalachian Mountain Project Helping Other People Enthusiastically). During this week two things were made clear to me:

1. I am no longer as young as I think I am, and ...

2. God doesn’t give you more than he thinks you can handle.

The team working at Mr. Gary’s and Ms. Janet’s house were Rev. Harry Smith, Darius Thomas, Dorothy Hood, Samantha Leo, Nathan Cabral, Julia Calvert, Amy Blanch, and myself. Although the weather was oppressively hot and humid, the youth kept working (while drinking lots and lots of water). Their efforts provided Ms. Janet with a 13- foot ramp made from cement pavers allowing her to leave her house without needing to walk through her neighbor’s yard. We also painted the foundation of the house, power washed the front and back decks, weather proofed the front deck, and put new treads on the steps from the back deck.

The theme for this week came from the TV show “Survivor.” The daily topics were helping others, patience, perseverance, trust in God, and being victorious. The team working on Ms. Janet’s home experienced each of these topics over the week.

This team demonstrated patience with me as there were numerous plans for building the ramp before we settled on Plan Y (or as Darius called it plan WHY?). Perseverance, each new plan of course meant more digging out dirt. Due to the heat and humidity we began to lose some of the initial enthusiasm on Thursday. However, we continued our trust in God and were blessed that day in the form of Amy to re-invigorate the team and allowed us to complete the job on Friday. We knew we were victorious when we saw the smile on Ms. Janet’s face as she used the ramp for the first time. The youth on this team are survivors and true missionaries of God’s work. -Ken Rabenstein