Apple at Cha

I had every intention to write before I left for spring break. The movie from the last blog was Simon Birch. Great movie that looks into are place in life and why we are here, what is our purpose. Any ways I'm back from spring break. It was an awesome trip and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for someplace to go to have some fun and meet some really neat people. www.asphome.org. If I didn't tell ya where I was going....I went to Chavies in Kentucky for a week with 23 others from school and met there about 30 or more high schoolers from Rhode Island and one man named Jim from Wisconsin. We got there on Sunday and realized we already didn't like the one lane roads which was like every road in the county and they wrapped around the mountains, I personally didn't like the rumble lines on the inside line and on the ouside line of the road. We took 2, 15 passenger vans there. We all squeezed in nicely together. We were divided into small teams or work groups for the week. about 5 people in each one. We were then given a job for the week some were building retaining walls, others working in someone's bathroom, or putting on wooden siding. My group got to work on a floor and build a safer railing on a deck. Everyday we went to are job site about 30mins away from Chavies to work, then came back to the center for dinner and to shower (very important seeing as how we wore the same clothes for the most of the week.) we all had chores in the center to do whether it be dishes, cleaning bathrooms, or sweeping. Then we would play games or hang out. The last night we had a giant bonfire with the scraps that had built up for the week from our work sites. The week went by great just a few minor accidents, but nothing to stop us. I really got to know the people in my group and in the van, which was great. I loved being able to not only go into someone's home to help them, but to interact with them. I didn't have a lot of fun the first 2 days at our work site because the family wasn't really there. Wednesday when it snowed the little girl was home and we had so much fun together. We didn't accomplish very much work wise, but yet we accomplished why we were there and that was to give love, to share our gift of love, and receive love in return. this family or the 2 that we met had so much love to give.

1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tongues[a]
of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a
clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but have not
love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and
surrender my body
to the flames,[b]
but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient,
love
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is
not rude,
it is not selfseeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no
record of wrongs.
6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth. 7It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies,
they will cease; where there are
tongues, they will be stilled; where there
is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For
we know in part and we prophesy in
part, 10but when perfection comes, the
imperfect disappears. 11When I was a
child, I talked like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a
child. When I became a man, I put childish ways
behind me. 12Now we see but
a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see
face to face. Now I know
in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully
known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.

I know that what gifts or talents I had at that point where not the only thing that was important. What they could give to us was so great and was an eye opener to say the least. I know that I could have spent break in Florida or stayed home and done nothing but work. This was by far the best experience I have ever had and I'm glad I spent my break there. There are so many stories that go along with this trip. (inside joke but had to through it out there- "the trip was alligator" ) Oh and I always thought Pastor O was saying the name wrong for Appalachia, but now I know that he is right or for at least where we were it was called (apple at cha)

Well that is all I have for now. May God Bless you all and may we learn from and love one another.
sorry for the errors, it has been a week since I've touched a keyboard.
~Kris