Mission Trip 2019 — Final Thoughts

When you commit to a mission trip, you have to know that things may not go quite as initially planned.  But choosing to go on a mission trip is not usually just a whim.  It is usually because you feel a call to help others.  So in truth, maybe it just didn’t go quite as YOU planned.

God showed us over and over this week that our presence was needed here.  We started with no real idea how we would fill the week, and ended feeling like we had really gotten something done.  Perhaps we might have been happier if we had worked 8 hour days or if we saw completed projects, but we were told before we came that we should not expect that. Just as others before us had begun the projects, others after us will finish them. But we were a necessary piece of the completed whole and proud to have done our part.

If we arrived here with a printed schedule for the week, today’s view of that same schedule would be difficult to read with all of the changes, red lines and redirections along the way.  But with an understanding of who we are and why we are here, we were unfazed.  The “why we came” was never dictated by the what we do – but by who we do it for.  There may have been considerably more down time than any of us expected – and than many of us would have preferred.  But without that down time, there would have been far less time to truly appreciate the magnificence of the beauty around us that was put there by the one who directed us here.  And maybe that, too, was part of the plan.

There were so many more than just the 14 of us involved this week.  With no showers here in the church, there were families in the community who every night opened their homes to us to shower – some even offering appetizers and sharing their lives with us.  One couple in the church graciously paid for us all to enjoy dinner at a restaurant.  Steve, JP and Steve from UMCOR and the people from Habitat all worked patiently with our skill levels and tirelessly to give us what we wanted, a full week of work.  One church member, Chris, coordinated all that we needed for our living arrangements and she, and a small army of her friends, prepared a delicious dinner for us and spent that mealtime getting to know us just a bit.

We came here as a group held together by our love of God and desire to serve Him. As we got to know each other, we could tell when a team member needed some help – and someone jumped right in. We learned of our strengths and weaknesses – some cook, some write, some are great with a hammer – and accepted and valued each equally.  We recognized who may need a little extra care and when someone just needed to be left alone. We learned who liked raucous laughter as evening entertainment, and who preferred a quiet card game. We shared laughter, tears, sweat and prayers and we leave here as friends. 

So perhaps this trip went just exactly how it was planned.  So many times this week people have expressed their gratitude; from the homeowners, to the Habitat workers, to the people from the church.  But truly it is we who are grateful for the opportunity to answer God’s call to serve – we know that we are blessed to have been able to do so – and for this chance to fulfill our church’s mission to Make God’s Love Real.

Key West – Habitat Style

We have been so fortunate with the weather this week. Everywhere we go they tell us of how beastly hot it was here last week so we have been immensely grateful that, even as the sun may be intense at times, the temperatures have been in the 80s and not at all unbearable. This morning, however, we woke up to a bleak looking rainy sky and cool temperatures. That didn’t deter us as we headed out earlier than the days prior, armed with rain gear in case the precipitation continued. Today we were to be on our worksites prior to 8 a.m.

For half of us, we would be volunteering with Habitat for Humanity of Collier County. A division of the international organization, it has been around for 42 years ago and has built more than 2200 homes. Their vision is “..a world where everyone has a decent place to live.” And their mission is “Seeking to put God’s love into action…bringing people together to build homes, community and hope.” I can’t help seeing shades of our own church’s mission here – to Make God’s Love Real. This is one place where you can see that in action.

The beneficiaries of this project, the new homeowners, must meet certain qualifications and they must agree to partner with Habitat to make the house a reality. Besides a minimal down payment, they must also contribute 500 hours of “sweat equity” – working alongside volunteers like us – to have the opportunity to carry the low monthly payment, no-interest mortgage required to make the dream of home ownership a reality.

While Habitat usually builds individual homes, today we would be working in a new townhome development called Dockside. As we approached and saw the units that have already been completed, the simple architecture with pastel colored siding  gave off a definite Key West vibe – which was apparently just what they were trying to achieve. We divided ourselves into three groups – each tackling a different part of the process, either framing, siding or painting. Our choices had nothing to do with skill level for it is our willingness to work and not our particular aptitude on the job that qualified us to participate.

The three painters were assigned to apply a second coat of paint to the trim on the back porch area of the six units of one building. With careful application we followed the instructions we were given by Marco – ”Paint here, don’t paint here, hardware should not be painted over, and please don’t drip paint on the grey deck floor that I have already painted.” (That was the hardest part!) We were handy with the brushes, and handier with the wipe-up-our-mistakes cloths, and even discovered that a crumpled up piece of tape comes in handy as a make-shift scrubber to clean the bigger drips off the floor. (Shhh! Don’t tell Marco!)

Siding was the choice of three others of our group, and in short order they appeared to be old hands at it. The first rule of siding application that they learned is that you don’t “nail” siding, you “hang” siding. Translated, you do not drive the nails all the way in, giving the siding pieces the ability to flex a bit if necessary. Being one of the painters myself, I only had the opportunity to observe, never having realized that each strip of siding is nailed – excuse me…hung – individually. And I was impressed at what an amazing job they were doing keeping them all straight and parallel. Of course I just had to ask, “How do you keep them so level?” To which I got the answer, “We use a level!?!” (Silly me!)

The most experienced among us chose to do framing. While I understand the general concept of “framing”, explaining what they did while not having seen it proved to be beyond my abilities.  But I do know that they spent the day surrounded by a tangle of cords to a number of power tools and put in hundreds of nails apiece.

The remaining members of our team continued work on Rebecca’s kitchen. While it is not completed, our part of the work is done. What remains to be done is above our pay grade. But the cabinets are installed, the walls are painted, and Rebecca is delighted with the mint green!

Tonight’s dinner was prepared for us by the ladies in the church. While certainly not necessary, we appreciated their gratitude for our willingness to spend our week here serving where we are needed. It was generous enough to give over their social hall for a week to a bunch of strangers – but then who doesn’t appreciate one more good meal that you didn’t have to prepare yourself! We were overwhelmed by their attempt to honor our individual food choices and limitations in both food and desserts. And it was all delicious!

In a final unexpected twist, most of us ended the night at the theater! The pastor’s wife told us at dinner that she had to leave by a certain time because she had a rehearsal for a play she would be performing in next week. Someone asked if we could come and watch and she arranged it. While it was not in it’s final form, it was very funny and certainly the most unique experience I have ever had on a mission trip.

Oh, and the rain stopped even before we began any work leaving behind cool temperatures and partly cloudy skies!

Mission Trip 2019 – Marco Island and the Everglades

No two mission trips are the same. Starting from the people with whom you work, to the places where you serve, each has its own character. This one, however, is distinctly different from many of the Hyde Park United Methodist’s past adult mission trips. This one is not international in some tropical country – no passport or plane ticket required. It is right here in our own state taking to our host church in Marco Island to continue assisting through United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in hurricane relief recovery from the damage of Hurricane Irma in 2017. This church would be our base for the week as we traveled to our job sites.

As we arrived in staggered groups of carpools, we set up our temporary home, unpacking linens and making up our cots. We will be responsible for our own transportation to and from the job site and for preparing all of our own food. Last night was a welcome treat as one generous family in the church paid for us all to have dinner at the local Mexican restaurant. It was a great way for us to begin to bond as a group, getting to know each other and the people we will be working with this week.

One of the first things I ever learned about doing mission trips is that you need to be flexible – and in our first meeting with Steve – who coordinates the UMCOR disaster recovery work in this area – we found out just how flexible we were going to have to be. We are a group of 15 people eager to answer the call to serve, so we required either one large, or a few small projects to keep us busy all week. Unfortunately, the large project that Steve had planned for us fell though at the last minute.  Apparently it turned out that the recipient of the work did not pass the vetting process, so Steve will be scrambling to find work to fill the week. We have assured him that we will do whatever is needed and travel wherever is necessary – we are here to serve, so use us.

There were two small jobs that Steve had successfully lined up for us and we attacked our first this morning. Our task was to paint the ceilings of a trailer. It had actually been painted once already (and new carpeting had been laid down), but there were inconsistencies and the homeowner requested that it be redone. Once this job was completed, this house, after two years, would be almost ready again for habitation. With 14 missioners plus Steve, and the onsite construction supervisors, JP and Steve, we had 19 able bodied individuals prepared to tackle the task. Though we pondered whether that many bodies would be tripping over each other in such a confined environment, and whether, indeed, there could possibly be enough work for all of us, we willingly loaded up and headed to Plantation Island.  Amazingly, there was enough work and enough supplies to divide the work. After taping down plastic to protect the new carpeting, we divided ourselves among the tasks – edging, trimming and rolling. And for those who felt painting-challenged, there was a stack of outlet and light switch covers that needed to be matched up in the appropriate place and screwed back on. With so many hands working, laughing and singing, our work was completed just in time for lunch.

Having carried a sack lunch with us, we drove a bit up the road to Chocoloskee, FL to the Smallwood Store. This store/museum in Everglades National Park, which has been run by the same family since 1906, sits right on the water, is raised up on stilts, and had two just-the-right-size-for-our-group picnic tables underneath where we broke bread together.  

With our only planned activity for the day completed, a number of us headed off to take an airboat ride. I’m a roller coaster fan, but rarely have I ever had so much fun in an amusement park. No doubt we were enveloped in amazing scenery, but in addition we had informative and entertaining captains (one of whom regaled us afterwards with tales of growing up here in the swamps). The ride was first quiet – there is that pesky Coast Guard ruled no-wake zone – and then exhilarating! Spitting up spray behind us we sped thru the mangrove tunnels making sharp turns that had us within inches of the vegetation. Oh, yes – there were also animal sightings along the way. We saw three different alligators (the largest of which was about 12 feet long, and all of which we got a bit too close to for my comfort!) and one raccoon who didn’t seem the least bit bothered when one of our boats pulled right up to the branch on which he was resting. Once we were back on shore we chatted for quite some time with Captain Brian who told us that he had no fear of the alligators in these waters – that he would more greatly fear a bull shark. We were a bit surprised that sharks would be in these waters. It was just moments later that he let out a holler – “Holy Cow!  What was THAT!” We had our backs to the water so all we got to see was the splash – but behind us a bull shark had jumped up out of the water and flopped onto his back.  We weren’t sure if maybe the shark heard our doubts and took umbrage with it (“I’ll show you!”), or perhaps he was after some prey. We did notice that the alligator who had been trolling around in that section of water seemed to have disappeared!

We made one final stop before heading back to the church for dinner. Included with the airboat ride was admission to The Boardwalk. Like any good Disney ride, it led you through a gift shop, but once on the other side there was a rustic boardwalk through the mangroves, at the end of which was the Gator Man who offered us an up-close-and-personal visit with a trio of alligators. The smallest was about 14 inches long while the largest was over 100 pounds. We (well MOST of us) held the smaller two and petted the larger one – something I thought I would NEVER do! Then we watched as he fed some larger, caged alligators their dinners (the ones he did not offer, nor did we request, to touch!). There were vultures in the cage with them scavenging for food as well so the Gator Man threw them a thigh. It was interesting to watch as one alligator held his food hanging out of his mouth – and one brave vulture tried to grab it right out of his jaws. Final score – Alligator 1, Vulture 0!

We have surely seen God all around us today – in the skies, in the parks, in the water, in the animals, and in each other. We are not sure what the rest of the week holds for us although we do know that Steve is working hard with his contacts in the area to use us while we are here. And we trust that, having followed God’s call to be here, he will find a way for us to serve.