Points and Ponderings of Mission 2009

43 volunteers traveled by vans from Northern Massachusetts to Cherryfield, ME and Halifax, Nova. Living in harsh, cramped conditions, we repaired, window replacement, kitchen renovation, painting and more. These are excerpts from the journal entries of our mission trip:

6/27/09   It is our first full day here and after a good two hour sleep, filled with shivering, tossing & turning, and the clock keeping perfect rhythm, we are ready to go! We are headed to, “the island” which is said to bring more shivering and I just can’t wait! We’ll wait to see what this island brings? 

6/27/09     We haven’t done much yet, but we HAVE driven about 1,000 miles. Plus, we learned how to make a moose and a birthday cake out of people. We are on our way to an island!   ~ Maria

6/27/09     It’s our first day onsite…we’re doing roofing at a house, but I’m not really sure how far away from the church we are since I slept in the car. It’s actually kind of surreal since we’re totally surrounded by fog. Anyway, I’m excited to ROOF for the first time ever…     ~ Emma

6/27/09     Dear Mother Nature,
I got out of school on June 23rd and here I am four days later, during summer vacation and it’s freezing! Something ain’t right – . Our first night was cool and a fun way to sleep. Or, for most of us, an attempt to close eyes and sleep because of exhaustion, but never really sleep! We are doing a roof for a lobsterman . . .  ~  Justin

6/28/09     So it’s day two, the fog is so thick you can’t even see five feet in front of you, but hey, it’s not raining so we are in good shape!  . . . lobster traps are sitting behind me and I wish I wore jeans today cuz it’s chilly and I’m in shorts. Bummer!  ~ Ana

6/28/09   Well, it’s day three of working and it feels good to see that we have already got a very large part of this family’s roof done. Honestly, I like to do the hammering, which I find fun to do with my new hammer. . .  ~ Nick

6/28/09     I just looked through the journal and my group hasn’t written anything yet. Hmmm….we are at Ms. Donna’s house with all the farm animals and the two dogs, Angel and Molly…We installed eight windows and painted her house red. The wood on all the window frames [were rotten and we replaced]. The past two days we have been at the ‘Edge’ blazing trails, painting windows. Not much there but we found things to do. The ‘Gator’ is the best tool that we found riding around in that blazin’ trail was definitely my highlight so far. I think we’ve all driven it at least once and the stumps on the trails leave bruises on our butt. Oh, also at Ms. Donna’s it was a good experience working with Bob and I re-sided some of the rotten house panels.   ~ Jess

6/29/09     My group finished our roof. They were really grateful and it felt good cause it was finished and they were great people. I took a nap on the roof, it’s a great place to nap BTW. We went out for ice cream.   ~ Justin

6/30/09     Today we went back to Donna’s farm and finished all of the painting and put up a fence….Hillary and Dan were real champs and were up on the ladder basically all day. Oh and I almost forgot about Audrey’s clothesline. A dog just chased our van. Good times. Today it was also the first day it was sunny. It was a beautiful day and we finished up some beautiful things.  ~ Kim

7/1/09     Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee . . . .

7/1/09     Our reflections this year brought a lot of questions up. Made my mind spin with stuff I was trying not to thing about anymore. Out of my love for people in need of help, I will do my best, not out of my faith though . . . Or label it faith if it makes more sense, but I know my faith is in the trust that people will do the right thing . . .     ~ Meg

7/3/09     Once again I have memories that have made a clear imprint in my mind and the imprint will never fade. These trips are what keep me humble and not ungrateful for what I have. Over the years I have come to appreciate everything that I have more and more. Maine has taught me to open my eyes to the poverty within New England . . . I wish I was able to do more, not for my ‘warm fuzzy feeling’ but for theirs. The people we helped will get theirs by actually being warm this winter [because of the work we did]. This trip, I think has been the first time I have really realized how much these trips mean to the people we help. Whatever I do is for them and to improve their lives, not mine!  ~ Ana

7/3/09     An amazing week. These are the times that make me feel so lucky to be me. What did I do to end up doing such amazing things? I know that I just had one of the best times of my life. This is one of them. I can’t call it anything but lucky or fortunate to have a chance to grow so much as a person and have so much fun in such a small amount of time is a priceless experience. This is truly a unique program and special group of people. I wish I could write this out a little bit better but I need to pay attention to the wonderful people in this car in our last hours of these super, fun car rides. Much love until next year . . .  ~ Dan

7/3/09     Dear Journal,
The week has come to an end and all it well. The mission has been accomplished in my mind; no one got hurt, friends were made, stress was handled, faith in good winning over evil was restored, and hope was spread to people who needed help.  ~ Cindy

Testimonials: An Evening of Reflection

Reflections from Kim:    Okay, it’s time to reflect. Over the span of this trip many people and experiences have touched me and have been quite influential. First and foremost I have to mention Donna. Donna was the owner of the house that we attempted to fix. We started by replacing the windows. However, this problems was the least of her worries. Almost every piece of wood in the house was rotted. Being in her house/barn I tried to imagine myself living there and it was basically impossible. Despite the fact that I felt her living space to be almost uninhabitable, this place was her home, where she makes her livelihood. She loves all her animals and in her own words, she would never want to live anywhere else. This made me realize every comes from different places and has different versions of happiness. 

Reflections of Justin:    Dear End, I always look for a sign to send me a message [about each mission trip]. The people this year were Sean and Raymond. Raymond is a lobster man and Sean is a classy ‘Saint of Canada’ who was building his first house with Habitat. I have gone on three mission trips and this by far was the most helpful to the people we worked for. I met new people and strengthened my connections with previous comrades. As I turn the pivotal age of 18 I look at events that have made me the man I am today. Mission trips have done that significantly.

Emily’s Reflection:    This has been my first mission trip, so it didn’t really take a lot to touch/surprise me. there were tons of things, from the generosity of the homeowners whose house we were roofing (they fed us baked goods and/or crabmeat salad every day) to the complete gratitude of the owners of the Phoenix House. What struck me most though, was the genuine contentment that I observed in the owners of the Cherryfield site, Raymond & Terry. There house was small and broken down but were always smiling. I have never met two people more good-natured in my life. I’ve been called naive for saying that it is possible to achieve happiness without significant wealth – or even adequate wealth – but working with Raymond & Terri was the piece of evidence I needed to win my case.

Reflections from Maria:    Another year has passed. This has been a truly slendilicious week. I am so happy that I could take a week off from work and that week could be spent doing productive work. . . I look forward every year to this week when I can get a grip on reality every year and I know that I need this week to ‘reflect’. I am looking forward to next year already. Not only are we rehabilitating the homes of people in need, we are rehabilitating ourselves.

Reflections from Jess:    The most memorable part of this mission trip was Canada and the Phoenix House work site. When I went to this site it amazed me to see the teenagers who lived there [who were homeless]. Jacob was a life-changing experience because we had a normal conversation and I wasn’t freaked out that I was talking to a homeless guy my age. It was very interesting to hear his thoughts about traveling the world, movies that we liked. In the beginning he was a little awkward but after a while he warmed up to me and it was a lot of fun!

Reflections from Shannon:    The most meaningful day for me was the day when we re-did the kitchen in the church in Cherryfield. It was the first project that my group actually started and completed. It felt good knowing that we were able to help out the church which definitely needed our help. Our group worked well together and managed to complete a large task in a short amount of time. I really realized how important hard work and cooperation are. I feel good about the fact that the members of the church have a new, beautiful kitchen to work in, and I know they will really appreciate what we did!

Reflections from Abigail:    What really touched me this week was working at Raymond’s & Terry’s house. While learning the art of ‘roofing’ I chose to take over a portion of the roof which soon became know as the Abi’gable’. Completing this section of roof gave me a huge sense of accomplishment and by the end I felt like a pro-roofer. Watching how this new, beautiful roof made such a huge difference was really moving. I felt like I truly helped out to make someone’s life better and to me, that’s what this trip is all about!

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~ by youthtakingaction on September 11, 2009.