You are welcome to use parts of this sermon, but if you do, please attribute them properly!
INTRODUCTION
What makes our
mission trip different than those of many other churches who spend a week at
Maine Seacoast Mission is that I as pastor build in both a morning and evening
reflection, a chance to talk about our experiences in a focused way. In
addition, we share our meals together and say grace at dinnertime.
This year,
during our morning reflection, we read the story of the Good Samaritan – a
different translation daily but with each of us reading the same verse each day. We did that because sometimes a different
word or turn of phrase can inject a deeper meaning into such a well-known Biblical story.
Every evening, our reflection centered on a
word that had been generated by the letter that everyone had been assigned
prior to the week. The word each of us
chose to correspond to our given letter was to somehow reflect our experience
on this mission trip.
Each one of us
also keeps a journal of our week – thoughts, questions, whatever we want to
write about. Some write lots and some
write just a little. As pastor, I have
no expectations.
But everyone on
the trip knows that I will be sharing excerpts from these journals with all of
you. So – our journal entries that I will read will set the scene for the trip
and our leave-taking and then will be grouped under the words we chose.
THE SETTING
Washington County: You hear the statistics; poorest county
in Maine, one of the poorest in the Nation, etc., but there is no substitute for
experiencing the reality. The county is
empty. Not vast open spaces empty like
Aroostook County; rather, depleted, depopulated, defeated - a rural equivalent
of a once-great city fallen on hard times; empty buildings, empty, decaying
houses and barns, empty lots where people's businesses once stood, and then the
ubiquitous single-wide trailers, some new, most ancient and decrepit, that seem
to house the vast majority of the county's remaining people. Prosperity ends at Ellsworth. Just thirty miles east of there the objective
reality is that people still live in the Great Depression...
“Anticipation
already. This week will “rock!” “
“Good trip up after a wonderful send off from the
church. The camaraderie of this group is
always so strong. It’s great to be part
of this group again.”
“Such a wonderful send-off.
When we sang, ‘Here I Am, Lord,’
- the women singing the first verse and everyone joining in for the
refrain, the music just soared. It
brought both tears and goose bumps – not only to me but also, I noticed, to
some sitting in the pews. We rocked the
rafters. “
“Here I Am, Lord” sung as we were ready to leave church has
always brought tears. I’m not usually an
emotional person, but that music…touches my deepest parts about the Christ message
and example.”
Here’s what we have been assigned to do this week. We won’t all be at one site as we have been
in the past but will split ourselves into three teams working on three separate
trailers in diverse levels of need and disrepair:
Trailer #1 –
put up bead board paneling on all the walls
Trailer #2 –
some demolition work, then painting the interior
Trailer #3 -
painting a couple of small decks, ramp, and exterior stairs
Now for our
own 2105 Maine Seacoast Mission Alphabet of Grace which hopefully will give you
an idea of our week. And thanks to
Frederick Buechner for this wonderful turn of phrase.
A is for ABUNDANT
We have such abundance, and we are going to an area known
for its lack of abundance. We have
financial abundance, and there is little of that in Washington County. Closely linked to our financial abundance
seems to be our abundance of hope – hope for the future, hope that we can make
a difference, hope that we can change lives –
and so we travel to an area of our State where an abundance
of hope is not often found. Maine
Seacoast Mission is trying to change that perspective, however, and, through
their programs, are committed to bringing forth a hope for the future and a
hope that lives can indeed be changed.
“Hard but good to see where some of the local families live
and how they live – reminds me of the range of our blessings – material and personal.”
“I felt like a voyeur driving through Grantville and St.
George and having poverty pointed out to me.
Seems we each, in any circumstances, is owed privacy from prying. “
“Our group certainly has abundance here with the fellowship
and our teamwork.”
I lay awake for a long time that first night. When I looked outside the window, there were fireflies
in abundance.”
We had an abundance of food at the monthly public supper
Wednesday night at the Congregational Church in Cherryfield (U.C.C.) – ham,
peas, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, and homemade pie.
“On the church sign, they say they are the ‘small church
with the big Yankee heart.’ What about the Red Sox fans? Our dear departed friend, Muriel Yeager,
would never let us put that on our sign! All kidding aside, it was nice to be
part of the community and really support them also.”
B is for BREATH
The breath of the Spirit flowing in and amongst us as we
work. The breath of life. The breath of hope. A breath of fresh air for people whose lives have
gone stale.
The first breath of a newborn baby. The breath of newness.
Besides those metaphorical breaths, there is the breath of
sea-sent breezes (so welcome in the heat of the day, a steady, sunny heat that
caused many of us that first day to wilt around 2:00 P.M.:
Went looking for my sunscreen. Who would have guessed that I would have
chosen two empty tubes from the 15 options available. Ah well….).
Breath: the song of a
bird on a wire, Tom’s huffs as he painted beneath the deck.
Breath: Laughter –
“Lots of work today, but lots of fun too.
It’s been a long time since I laughed so hard. Slightly punchy at the end of the day.” “Jeff is inspiring the group with his witty
wisdom.” “Martha started laughing at
dinner over something silly that was said.
I’m not sure she could even stop for a while!”
C is for COMFORT
Giving comfort to those we seek to serve but also being able
to receive comfort from them: “We have never received outside help
before but our health challenges and age limit us.” This couple (Anita and Hollis), who are in
their 70’s and active, will be celebrating their 60th wedding
anniversary this August (She got married when she was 14). They checked on us regularly and were eager
to provide iced pink lemonade and general good will.”
“Painting
was all ‘in the sun’ today and it was HOT but we knew we were doing good stuff
and kept our spirits high while the home owners encouraged us constantly.
“
Comfort – as in what we hope to give back to our families up
here – comfort in the place they live and share with families and friends –
protection against the weather and hopefully a place of some peace.”
“The messages that you, our congregation, sent have been
amazing. Thank you for all your
heartfelt notes. We read a few each
morning and each evening. “
“The notes from the congregation are a real nice part of this
trip. They provide a nice piece of
inspiration and help us connect with members of our congregation who are not
here. So far they have been read at just
the right moment.”
“We spoke about providing comfort in the form of safety (that is, a safe place to live) as well as
the comfort our group received in the form of the hospitality” we received from
Anita and , the elderly couple whose decks we stained..”
Comfort: lunch
together, shade found for lunch, the easy relationships among us – no whiners
or snobs.
Comfort: cool breezes
on a hot and humid day. How pleasant to
sit outside the chapel in the shade with a breeze after my shower – just what I
needed! I’m just basking in God’s beauty
on earth and a few moments of quiet….looking at the sky through the leaves – an
endlessly changing view.
D is for DELIVER
“The conditions” of the project look more manageable this
year. The outline of the family position
painted a picture of challenging circumstances but not hopelessness like last
year. So, as a “D” word person, I am
more DETERMINED not to get DEPRESSED.
Delivering on our promises of a job well done and done to a
certain standard of excellence – certainly not perfection, but of a relatively
high quality. But thanks for molding, which I am told covers a multitude of
sins!
A lot of care taken in the way we deliver on our promises. –
panels nailed and walls painted with love and hope as well as nails and paint?
Cutting,
measuring, making progress all morning long
“Worked hard today and got a lot done. Our team working on the trailer #1 really
learned how to work like a well-oiled machine today.”
“God bless a more modern trailer – reasonably square and
with standardized measurements.”
“We will lose the leadership we receive from Joe this
morning as he must leave (for a business trip).
I suspect his story will be like that of others who have had to leave
early and will be one of regret.
But we have a well-oiled machine and will persevere. Thank you, Joe. We will miss you.”
Incredible the measuring, re-cutting, back and forth for
tools – sort of like God and all his people needing nudges, rescuing, and
love.
Wow! How could it be
Thursday already? We have accomplished
so much – painting at Anita and Hollis’ trailer. Painting at Trailer #3, lots of bead board and
a closet and stairs and painting at Trailer #1. It feels good!
E is for ENLIGHTEN
“Gaining insight from the work effort. “
The age-old question:
Who is deserving and who is not?
How do you decide? Are there
standards or guidelines? Should there
be? What might they be? Those are questions our team raised in an
evening reflection and about which some of us talked the following day with
Wendy Harrington, Director of Service Programs.
The Mission too is struggling with how to best use and leverage its
financial base – who and how to serve this community.
Where is the difference between serving the client and
pandering to them? How do you help but
not enable? How do you make that
transition from giving a man a fish to teaching him to fish on his own in a
sustaining and sustainable way?
We went from Anita and Hollis’ well-kempt and obviously
well-loved trailer and home to Trailer #2.
How does Maine Seacoast Mission decide if a trailer is even
salvageable? This one looks to be in
terrible shape – both inside and out.
Someone enlighten us please!
Some of those we serve lack the ability to do their own
home maintenance, whether due to illness or aging. Others live lives of astonishing ill
fortune. Still others seem to be
defeated by circumstance, to have given up under the burdens of trying to make
a living in a place where earning a living can be so difficult. Still others - the most troubling ones - seem
perfectly capable of bearing their own weight and making their own way, yet do
not. “
F is for FAIN
Willing – but eagerly and with joy, gladly.
This group as a whole wants to work and does not complain,
is generally willing to do what is assigned, aims to work and pull
together. What a treat!
We have come a long way since that first trip when I felt I
had not much in the way of skills to offer, when Martha relegated herself to
picking up nails and fetching tools, when Marie and Judy were in much the same
place. Now – three years later, we have
the Chop Saw Queen (Marie), the Co-Nailgun Queens (Marie and Nancy), the Power
Drill Princesses (Nancy and Judy). And
Martha is measuring and cutting foam insulation with the best of them. So many thanks to Joe, Chuck, and Jeff for
their patience and willingness to not only teach but also on occasion to even
give up their circular saws and multi-purpose hole cutting tools.
These trips have
had an unintended benefit in that they have more and more effectively broken
down gender stereotypes, with the men more and more willing to share what they
know and share the more skilled work, and the women more and more willing to
step up and take a chance, learning as a consequence that they CAN run a
chopsaw, use a screwgun, wield a nailgun, measure and and accurately cut a hole
for an electrical outlet. Given where
gender roles have been for literally thousands of years, these outcomes are
positively subversive!
“I learned how to use a nail gun to complete the S-closets.”
Fain: “A day with a
paint brush in my hand, paint all over my staining decks and a ramp – complete
with smile and chuckle lines active.”
“Tom and I were under the deck painting…It is calming to
brush stain over wood in various yoga positions but not in a spiritual sense –
in satisfaction of an appreciated job. “
“There have been many ‘be still and know that I am God’
times when rustling leaves and bird song accompany the slosh of brush against
wood….I had an opportunity to share (these) with my paint partner who commented
that sometimes just being with God helps the head.”
“A day of variety:
S-closet in the A.M., pizza lunch at the Maine Seacoast Mission offices,
packing ‘backpacks’ of food for the kids, chatting with Wendy Harrington about
the evolution of the mission and the needs of the people, back to cut closet
foam board, supper out. My spiritual
awareness was tuned on low today.
Nothing seems to turn my mind Godward.
There was no ‘be still and know that I am God’ among 8 other people!”
“I think we have a very tired group tonight. The aches, pains, and sunburned faces were
well-earned today.”
G is for GALVANIC
“Sudden and dramatic.”
Paradigm shifts – or at least being part of the beginnings
of attitude changes for the people we work with.
“Galvanic describes our twice daily reflections of readings,
letters, and singing. This gathering
time should be emulated by every group.”
Galvanic “really fits me today and last night. To go from
the cleanliness and neatness of the trailer (where we painted the deck) and end
up amidst the mess in the new place (where I will be working) caused me to
wonder if we are truly making a difference.”
As we pull
into the location I immediately have a flash-back from last year. The yard is in rough shape with a lot of
debris, the trailer itself is older, with no skirting and insulation hanging from
underneath and just gives off a ‘down and out’ aura. Upon entering and walking through the inside
it’s apparent this single parent and pre-teen child need our assistance. It’s drab, depressing, and smells. A team of three, we tackle removing cabinet doors
and covering the items indicated to not be painted.
We move
appliances to the middle of the room (though we have to leave them plugged in)
and begin the task of priming. It’s
overwhelming. I’m feeling not only depressed but tired, hot, and just a bit out
of sorts. I leave the site feel dirty, depressed, and in general
‘troubled’.
Such an emotional
downturn. Aged cat urine pooled under
the refrigerator. I was not offended by
the smell, but it was just very defeating.
We went and got some baking soda and spread it around for tomorrow. My hope is that some of the cat smell is
dissipated…..
By Day 4, the ceiling (of this old trailer) is painted and
all the walls have been primed. Some of
the pink passion fruit paint for the 12 year-old daughter’s room has been
started. It definitely looked a lot
better than before.”
We met the very young mother (Tara) and her daughter
(Michaela) who have been living in this dilapidated and smelly trailer we are
helping to rehab. I better understand
the choice of pink passion fruit paint as both her hair and her mother’s are
streaked with pink – must be a favorite color.
To put faces to the clients we are serving can be a galvanic experience
all by itself. Perhaps that will teach
us to not judge them quite so quickly or to label their trailer as the “ghetto”
trailer with quite such condescension.
“Hope for children who live in poverty and know only that as
an example of life.”
“Maybe we can’t change the adults but perhaps we can help
the kids out of poverty.”
“Hope (and hopeful) is what we brought with us, what we
become through our work, what we hope to bring to those we serve.”
The Maine Seacoast Mission program is evolving into one that
is trying to take a more coordinated approach yet is flexible enough to deal
with crises and emergencies. “I think
that should make the mission more effective in getting long term results.”
I had
highs, lows, and so much diversity thrown my way. I’ve got aches, bruises, an a bit of a
sunburn but I came through the door at home with a sense that I’d in a small
way done something good. If we could all
remain hopeful and strive to move forward it would keep us in the mindset of
the glass half full.
I is for INSIGHTFUL
“Great insights often come from the most unexpected
places. During a discussion with Chuck
and Martha on applied mathematics and Fibonacci numbers, I picked up this
factoid from Chuck: You only sneeze in
prime numbers…..The next sneezes I hear, I will be counting….”
Morning and evening reflections: Seeking to better understand and learn to do
the Lord’s work.
What do I learn from the Lord and Anita this week? Anita is
always there to notice and encourage, wanting to chat, to listen, and be
listened to. It’s not so different from
our relationship with God: I believe he
always puts things in our path – hopes we’ll listen, hopes we’ll see the needs
and opportunities and imagine our way into addressing those. But how to stay attuned and nurture this
relationship? Maybe by taking time to
read the messages from his Word and from our daily experiences. Oh why do I overthink this? Maybe just try to continue to be as we were
like this week when I get home – serving, engaging, hoping.
“I have never kept a journal before, and I’m not the best
writer. I was going to write down what I
did every day, but you can see the pictures for that. I did learn something new every day from
everybody on the mission. I will tell
you some things I learned about life:
Never underestimate people or be too quick to judge them until you know
them. Don’t think that everybody works
or thinks the same way that I do.
Everybody is different. Any job is
as hard as you make it.”
J is for JUMPSTART
I came here hoping that we could not only jumpstart the lives
of the people we touch but also jumpstart new relationships and friendships
amongst ourselves. And I see that that
hashappened: Chuck, Martha, and Judy made such a wonderful team as they proudly
completed the new dividing wall and closets they constructed in the now
separate bedrooms and private spaces these sisters at Trailer #1 will
enjoy.
New relationships: “Worked
with people I had not worked with much until this trip. Had fun.”
Jumpstart: How do we
use this experience we have had to jumpstart and engage the RVCC congregation
in meaningful local service experiences – to offer them an opportunity to get
some of the benefit and connection (comfort, hope enlightenment, etc.) that we
have gotten this week?
And what of us? Is
forty workdays out of a given year sufficient?
Is it even necessary? What else
can/should we do as a Church to support this Mission? What can/should we do as a Church to address
exactly the same situations that we know exist right in Raymond? I have no good answers. But I do know that NOT answering such
questions, and then acting on the outcomes, is morally unacceptable.
My fondest wish would be that we could double the size of
our crew in the years to come so that more of the members of the Church can
experience what it feels like to be part of The Team.
SOME OF THE THINGS I LEARNED:
Under certain
circumstances, Martha “giggles” (sometimes uncontrollably)
Nancy and
Marie are nail gun queens
Judy sticks
with Chuck (formerly an actuary) to check his math on fractions
Jeff works
without complaining and without asking for help – and he is a very funny guy
Tom paints
with abandon
Sue is the
person to have on hand when first aid is needed and seems also to know when
good conversation is the best medicine
Chuck can
figure “all the angles”
CONCLUSION
The other letters in our alphabet of grace perhaps are yours
to find words for. For now, it is “hard
to believe our week is almost over. We
have worked hard, had a lot of laughs, worked well as a group, and really clicked
as a group at many levels. The need here
is great, but I truly feel we have done all that w could have in a week. There will be other groups coming in to
finish what we started on two out of our three jobs.”
“Didn’t find a religious symbol on the ground as I have in
past years but saw hanging from a hemlock a colorful chain of circles making
infinity symbols: That’s God in time and
distance!
I mentioned at
the start of this sermon of sorts that we shared a grace together at each
evening meal. We did that by forming a
pile of stones, each stone representing a blessing or something we were
thankful for each day of our week together.
Those are the stones you find on the altar. We watched that pile grow bigger and bigger
as the week progressed – but knew it could never contain all the blessings and
learnings God had bestowed upon us and we had bestowed upon each other.
And so it was most appropriate that we ended our grace each
day with a song, which we wanted all of us to sing. The tune is to Amazing Grace, and the words
are on the screen.
by our 2015 Maine Seacoast Mission Team
