Finishing a Week of Missionary Work

October 19, 2007

Today Millie and I finished a week of Missionary Work at the Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Ky. This camp is owned by the Methodist Church and has been serving the Appalachian community since 1925. Parson Frakes came to the hills to serve and preach and eventually set up this camp for year round missionary work through volunteer work projects. The camp houses volunteers in a beautiful modern dormitory building with a large dorm of 80 beds for men and 80 more for women. The fulltime staff organizes work projects that are paid for and accomplished by the volunteer groups. We attended with combined groups from the Cokesbury Methodist Church and the St. Luke Methodist Church both of Pensacola, Florida. The Cokesbury group has been making a yearly trip for eight years each lead by Owen and Janet Sharp. Our group finished the drywall and flooring project on a mountain family home, changed out the “fall surface” in the toddlers playground at the Frakes Day Care Center by removing 5 yards of mulch (recently found to be a risk of spontaneous combustion!) and replacing with 10 tons (yes, 20,000 pounds) of pea size gravel. It’s surprise to me that pea gravel is an approved fall surface in Kentucky. We also applied vinyl siding to the Buffalo Church some 15 miles from Frakes and across the border into Tennessee meeting five church members from the Parton family who allowed us to ring the bell on the 75 year old 25 member church. We also met several Hatfields. Millie led a group who wall papered several rooms in one of the private dormitories with some preparing and folding clothes in the Opportunity (Thrift) Store. Others made doilies and dolls for the log cabin craft shop. Our group ranged in age from 23 to 92, and all did productive work for the Henderson Settlement. It was a great week for Millie and me and we were happy to meet 29 wonderful Methodists. Check out the work of the settlement and send them some money if you can, or better yet, join a work group even if you are not a Methodist. It’s a wonderful place doing marvelous work and making a lot of Appalachian folks happy. www.hendersonsettlement.com/
Millie and the other missionaries left at 5 Am on the Cokesbury bus driven by associate pastor Stewart. Cimarron arrived as scheduled at 4 PM and he and I will head out for the bike ride.