Reflections on Mission Trips to Appalachia

Patti Marcum

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church

July 29, 2007

Ever since we returned from eastern Kentucky, I can’t seem to get porch sitting out of my mind.  I was astonished by the number of people I saw sitting on porches as we hurried past their modest homes in our van.  These porch sitters were young and old, women and men, alone and in couples—sitting in a porch swing or on a chair or on a stair step.  And the sight of them stirred something deep within me.

Clifford Cornett is the grandson of the man who donated Lilley Cornett Woods, one of the largest protected tracts of old-growth forest in Kentucky.  Clifford told us that mountain folk sit on their porches and look out at the gifts of God—the mountains and the creeks—and are grateful just to be where they are—surrounded by all the beauty.  I am humbled by their intentionality—to look (really look) at what God created and called good—and to give thanks for it daily.

Too often I hurry through my days—checking off the “things to do”—too busy to slow down and see the beauty right where I am that is a gift from God and give thanks for it.  Oh, I could say that I am busy with important things.  But, God knows, this busy-ness is a way of living that I have chosen.  And I can’t help but wonder if my yearning for a few minutes of sitting on a porch swing each day isn’t maybe God’s nudging me about what mountain folk porch sitters know—what really is important to God.