Appalachian Service Project known as ASP is an organization involving high school youth in a housing project in the Appalachia. The ministry takes groups of high school youth and adult leaders and places them in an area of low income housing. The youth and leaders then help to repair the houses of the families in the area under the strict supervision of the ASP staff. The entire program runs eight weeks throughout the summer. Throughout those weeks, there are groups from all over the east coast volunteering one week. There may be up to one hundred people staying at the same center for the week.
The youth will spend the nights of the week sleeping and dining in a local high school interacting with the other teams from anywhere on the north east coast. The days begin around six thirty with breakfast at seven and then morning devotions with the entire group. We then split into our teams and head for the worksite with busy agendas. Each team has up to five youth and two leaders. Their days will be spent building, fixing, repairing, and talking with the home owners. Some projects that our teams have completed include roofing, digging trenches, insulation, building retaining walls, replacing bathrooms, fixing plumbing, and making bridges across creeks. As the teams work together rebuilding homes they are also repairing the lives of the homeowners. The youth spend much time talking and visiting with the homeowners showing them the love and hope of true Christians.
Hurdtown United Methodist church has been sending teams to ASP for several years now. Those teams work together throughout the year to raise enough money to pay their way down to Appalachia. The funds raised help relieve the costs of both application fees and transportation. This is planned as a trip meant to serve those less fortunate but after meeting people and lending a helping hand, talking and praying with our fellow Christians we find that we are the ones that come home blessed from the experience. This is a service project where every little bit enriches all of the lives involved.
