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A small glimpse of the wildlife we encountered in Jackson! There were also dogs, cockroaches, cats, elk, and ber (“grizzly” ber - in our best Eastern Kentucky accent)!
Our Final Day in Jackson!
We all woke up on Monday realizing that our campaign was almost over. We packed up early and headed over to the church building for some flood damage supply sorting. The girls worked on sorting over 25 bags of donated clothing. Several of the boys finished door-knocking about 150 homes and the others cleaned the baptistry at the church buidling.
We had a pleasant surprise with the delivery of 100 beds from Disaster Relief, Inc. This finally gave us a chance to use our “work” muscles! I’m proud to say that we had the truck unloaded in under 15 minutes!
At the end of our workday, we traveled to Elkhorn for some great views and a “last supper” in Jackson. I wish I could say that ended our day…but the fun was just beginning.
We began our trek home with the first of several stops along the way in Lexington! It’s Sam’s 13th birthday today…so we had to celebrate. In what is becoming a campaign tradition, we ate dinner at BD’s Mongolian BBQ! (If you haven’t tried it…check out the nearest one!)
We then dropped Audie off with the rest of his FFA compatriots in downtown Lexington and headed to Bowling Green. Tomorrow we’re going to Mammoth Cave and then a Minor League ball game before heading home!
The trip has been amazing…I’m just perplexed by how fast it came and went! Hopefully, our activities tomorrow and trip home will go well! A few final posts will be made in the next few days including some more pictures and the powerpoint presentation I show the congregation on Sunday night.
Sunday in Jackson
The first day of the week served as a day of rest (at least from work) for our group here in Jackson.
We finally got the opportunity to meet with the majority of the congregation. Needless to say they were all very hospitable and thankful for the work we were doing.
Our morning schedule was still packed full. The congregation had a potluck and early afternoon service. Everyone enjoyed the much needed home-cooked meal.
That evening we went and checked out the National Bridge State Park. We rode a sky lift up the mountain (much to some people’s fear) and then hiked down the mountain, the entire 1.25 miles of Rock Garden trail.
Late that night we got in a little more soccer and wiffle ball before the sun finally went down.
We are recharged and ready for our last day of work in Jackson.
Saturday in Jackson
Today we continued our door knocking with more success it seems! Our quest to knock on every door in Jackson is quite exciting. We knocked around 450 more homes, bringing our 2 day total to almost 800 homes!
After our day of work we went and played soccer, ultimate frisbee, and wiffle ball at one of the local parks and grilled some burgers. While we were playing we met several teens from the community who came and played sports with us.
Overall our trip is going great…the teens are staying busy and we’re learning a lot about the community and ourselves.
Our First Day in Jackson!
After our travel day was over…we settled down and prepared for work. However, we were quickly surprised by our new job description.
The preacher here in Jackson told us that the flood damage we were supposed to help clean up wasn’t going to need our assistance. It seems like there was a mix-up.
That development left most of us a little perplexed…since we thought that was all we were going to do! Pushing through the confusion…we began a doorknocking campaign.
Our initial goal was to knock the majority of the town of Jackson (population 2000). Today we knocked on a little over 300 homes.
It is definitely eye-opening to see some of the conditions of the homes in this area. It’s obvious that the conditions are well below our accustomed expectations. The teens seem to be stepping out of their comfort zones to reach out to the community.
I’m proud of the work we accomplished today and look forward to the opportunities the rest of the trip will provide.
When we return home, pictures of the community and our door-knocking will be available.
We Made It!
After 6 hours of uneventful travel our group finally made it to Eastern Kentucky. Upon arrival we soon discovered that we weren’t in “Kansas” anymore!
In Jackson we found out that our hotel wasn’t “The Hilton” and a pizza place with good service and great food!
Our internet service is a little spotty, so the blog posts will not be as planned. However, with the help of Adam Burke we will get the posts up tomorrow about our first two days of work!
