Hi!  I'm Allen Bridgman and I was a part of The Hazard Mission Group.   I've written a summary of what The Hazard Mission Group did for the week in the form of a letter to you, our church, as if we are still in Hazard working. 

A Letter From Hazard

by Allen Bridgman

8/14/11

Dear Friends and Family,

We're having a great time in Hazard, KY, having been here a week now!  The scenery is breathtaking.  We keep pinching ourselves asking, “Are we really in Kentucky?”  The mist in the mornings often hangs below the mountain ridges.  As the day moves on, the mist lifts up, revealing God's lovely creation here, in Hazard!  As we walk up and down the town streets, often there are unique views of the mountains in between the houses. 

“Well, what have you been doing?” you might be asking already.  Our group came here to assist Hazard's Housing Development Alliance with construction projects for people in need.  They call it “Hammerin' in the Hills.”  They have two construction work sites for us to go to, so our group splits in two each day to work on the sites. 

My group is focusing on constructing a house for a senior gentleman.  He came out to meet us and said that he is so thankful to hear all the sounds of hammering!  He appreciated our work because he's been in need of a home since “his wife went to meet the Good Lord” a year or two ago.  Our two very patient and kind head carpenters, named Steve and Josh, have lead us through laying a floor on a cement foundation and constructing two walls of the house during this week. Another mission group from North Carolina joined us for constructing the walls of the house.  They were very impressed, by the way, with how hard our girls were working. They explained that they had to leave their teenage girls at home as they tended to “play more than work.”  When it came time to raise the walls together, I could not believe how light the wall felt as we raised it together!  However, raising the walls also allowed us to see our mistakes and successes of learning to hammer.  Our lead carpenters joked slightly that  they would only have to redo 50% of our work after we left.  I can't believe how much our little group accomplished on this house as novice construction workers.  I think we are feeling God's love and grace on this work site each day, which keeps us going, despite the heat and little to no shade.

Our other group has been assisting with repairing a roof and finishing deck on a cottage.  Our host church had just recently purchased this cottage to house incoming volunteers.  The “stud men” of our group actually reside in this cottage now!  We know this group is working hard...we've had a hard time recognizing Perry because he is covered in coal dust most days.  His nick-name is “coal-man.”  This group is talking about their wonderful lead carpenters and all the new construction skills they are learning such as drilling, cutting and climbing up on roofs or in tight spaces. 

On Wednesday, our 'break day', we took off to meet a man named McKinley and his friend Truman.   We visited a mountain top removal site with these two men and then traveled to McKinley's property and house up on a mountain top.  We listened to McKinley's story about how a coal mining company trespassed on his property to get to the coal underneath it... and then all the ensuing issues after McKinley took action against the coal mining company.  After visiting these two places,  I think we all felt the horror and sadness of mountain top removal issues because of how deeply they affect communities.

Well, our late afternoons and evenings are spent going swimming (i.e. watching Luiz and Vince be swarmed by middle schoolers in the pool), getting meal time chores done, participating in devotionals, discussing Hazard's social and economic issues and playing games together. 

To summarize what I am learning from my experiences in Hazard is this:  the more our group gets to know each other, work, talk and play together, the more motivated, self-confident and energetic we become to reach out to people in need via listening and learning from them as well as serving them and being served by them. 

Thank you for supporting our mission to Hazard!  We hope God's love is touching you there is much as it is touching us here.  We look forward to coming home and sharing more with you!

Sincerely, 

Allen Bridgman

CHPC Hazard Mission Group