Running with Raindrops

I went running last Thursday afternoon. Not special enough for you? (and, yes, I've gone running multiple times since then.)

Ok, I went running in the rain last Thursday afternoon. Still not cutting it?

Then I'll throw my last card on to the table : I went running in the rain in Jonesville, Virginia's Cumberland Bowl Park (aka The Bowl) last Thursday afternoon. Besides the fact that I find running in the rain extremely liberating (as strange as you think it may sound) my big news to share in this post is that I'll be blogging live this year from Jonesville, Virginia , more specifically, from the Appalachia Service Project site in Jonesville. I'm working as a Office & Volunteer Coordinator for ASP and with our first group of volunteers on site already this week, bustling is a pretty accurate term to reflect the tenor of our lives on the hill.

Since you've probably never heard of Appalachia Service Project before, I'll start with what you might find on a FAQ page. ASP was founded in 1969 by Methodist Reverend Glenn "Tex" Evans. Originally, from Texas, he was a bit of an unconventional man who moved to Appalachia and, after 13 years at the Henderson Settlement in Kentucky, started recruiting youth to work alongside him to complete much needed home repairs throughout impoverished Appalachia. Now in its 44th year, ASP is still driven by that same mission, making homes Warmer. Safer. and Drier. and creating transformative experiences for all who come into contact with ASP: families who receive assistance, communities where we work, and volunteers who are still responding to the call to help others in need.

My position this year as a Lilly endowed fellow places me among a team of: one other Office & Volunteer fellow (from Lima, Ohio), two Construction fellows (from Greeneville, TN and Damascus, MD) and our Center Supervisor and his family (from Akron, OH). All the fellows arrived here in Jonesville for training just two and a half weeks ago and we welcomed our first group of volunteers (from Decatur, MS) into Jonesville's center already this week. Needless to say that our first week of training was full of session, after session, after session of finance, volunteer number tracking, community relations, evening gathering planning, etc. Week two was more "training" of a very hands-on, go-out-into-Lee-county, and preparatory nature. ASP Jonesville is a busy place, and our volunteer center/quarters can house nearly 100 volunteers if I'm not mistaken! Thus, you can be sure to expect many a fantastic tale to reach my blog pages this year.

And so I've laid the framework for this next year of professional, personal and spiritual growth, soon to be followed by entries of a more specific and critical nature. If you know me and have ever read this blog in the past, you know that I'd rather not write this entry's type of detail-oriented account; I'm ready to jump in with an anecdote and provide some analysis on what I think it has revealed to me about the culture where I'm living. With that, I hope I leave you, dear reader, with a desire to follow along on my journey with ASP this year!