ASP Trip 2025

ASP Trip 2025 by John Zelman

Day 1

Day one of our mission trip began with loading up our vans at First United Methodist. It’s always interesting to try to wedge all of our tools, personal gear, snacks, and bodies into the vans. A fifteen passenger van looks huge, until you try to fill it with all of our gear.

The trip to Covington, KY, our stop for the night was uneventful, the best kind of drive.

We met our longtime hosts at Trinity Episcopal Church and moved into their youth room for the night. It’s quite a facility, including a piano, stage, projection TV, and even a professional espresso machine. We’re very fortunate to have such willing hosts each year.

There is a small family owned pizza place where we have our dinner each year. Walking into a small restaurant with 18 people can be a little intimidating for some of the patrons, so we do our best to keep low key. One patron, who was dining alone, asked one of our adult leaders who we were, and he explained our mission trip. She said that what we were doing was wonderful. After she left, some of us moved to her table while we waited for our pizzas.

When our waitress came out with our food, she told us that the woman had paid for our entire dinner bill because she was so happy about the work that we were doing. One of us dashed out to thank her. Give thanks for Juanita, who paid our bill. She was truly an angel on our trip.

After dinner we walked across to Cincinnati to play in a park, then some ice cream.

Church tomorrow features the bishop and confirmation. The music will be a Mozart Mass, not sure which one.

Day 2

Morning started with breakfast in the youth room at Trinity. We had purchased some groceries the day before, so we chowed down on cereal, bagels, and muffins.

The church service was a bit of a surprise. Today was Trinity Sunday, and we attended a church called Trinity Episcopal, so it’s a big day that included the bishop and confirmation. The music was incredible. The choir sang Mozarts’s missa breva in D minor. Most of the kids were a bit glazed over by the time we got to the Sanctus, but I appreciated how well the service parts fit so beautifully. Irma and I were able to greet the bishop afterwards.

After church we got on the road to Booneville, stopping for lunch along the way. Our center is at an elementary school. The week started with us meeting the crews from other places, including West Virginia, Minnesota, and Morris, IL.

We visited our homesites this evening and met our families, and we’re looking forward to starting work on Monday morning.

Day 3

Today was our first work day. We’re very fortunate that it’s not too hot yet, but we’ve been having short cloud bursts that send drenching rain for 10 minutes and then blow away. Temperatures have been in the upper 80’s with tropical humidity.

I’ve included pictures of our morning devotional, which was led by a couple of our youth, our typical breakfast (I supplement with hot sauce from home and homemade apricot and strawberry jams.) and evening gathering.

We have three crews here. One crew is working at a home where some roof repair is needed along with some porch and flooring work.

Two other crews are working together on the same site. That’s the crew I’m on. We are doing what’s called a “hug” project. That means installing house wrap, foam insulation, and then vinyl siding. The remarkable thing about our worksite is that the homeowner is outside working alongside us. The homeowner, Michelle, suffered through the terrible floods of 2022. She had five feet of water in her house, which left behind 18 inches of mud in the home after the flood receded. Doing the work herself, she cleaned it out, replaced the drywall, in installed new ceramic tile. She’s pretty remarkable.

To get an understanding of the need here, take this into consideration. In Breathitt County, where we are working, there were 189 homeowners who applied for help from ASP. Only eight homes were chosen for this summer because there simply aren’t enough funds or volunteers to work on all of those homes. We’re making a big difference for the families we serve, but the need here is enormous.

Our daily evening gathering was about understanding what it means to be a servant leader. This year’s theme is “Be The Light.” So we are learning what it means to be that light.

We got some ice cream tonight. The kids earned it. This was one of the best first days I’ve ever had on an ASP trip.

Day 4

It was cooler today, but it’s so humid, that nothing really stays dry here. We walk out to the shower trailer after a work day, carrying a towel that had been sitting in the air conditioned school, and as soon as we step outside, water condenses on the towel and on the clean, dry clothes we plan on wearing after the shower.

We’re all pretty muddy. With the daily cloudbursts, there’s slippery mud at our worksites, whether we’re crawling under a porch to install lattice or setting a ladder on a muddy incline to install insulation on a gable.

If you think about it, there’s not much point in putting on clean pants to go out to our worksites. They’re just going to get muddy, so we just put yesterday’s muddy pants back on and go to work. It sounds a little disgusting, but it makes sense.

Today our teams made great progress on our work assignments. Our evening gathering was all about community building within our own group.

To call cell service spotty would be an overstatement. To get these blog entries and pictures out to Wes who publishes them, I need to stand in a particular place in the parking lot. I get a good signal there, and pretty much nowhere else at our center.

I’ve included a couple of worksite pictures, along with my daily breakfast picture. We are so very grateful to you all for your support in making our trip possible.

Day 5

I’ve included some pictures of daily life on an ASP trip.

We all sleep in a gymnasium, males on one side, females on the other. We sleep on cots or air mattresses. The gym is air conditioned, so it’s pretty comfortable, but it is a little packed.

We shower in a trailer which is especially built as a shower facility with six shower stalls. The water is heated, but only enough so that it’s not cold, which is ideal in our climate.

Today was our picnic, which was combined with culture night. We had a bluegrass trio who performed for us. What a joy that was.

We’re on target for finishing our projects by the end of the day on Friday. However, construction like this is like peeling an onion. You never really know what’s underneath until you look below the surface. For example, one crew needed to remove vinyl tile to replace the floor, but found a deteriorating and mold encrusted subfloor. The source of the problem was an active plumbing leak in a supply line that may have been leaking for years. Replacing the subfloor is no longer the only project. Three joists need to be replaced along with fixing the plumbing. That would need to be done by crews next week or later this summer.

Day 6

Day six began a little drizzly, but on our side of the mountain, it stayed cloudy and relatively cool at about 85 degrees. Our other crew had a couple of downpours on their side of the mountain.

My crew is almost finished with our assigned task of installing foam insulation and the siding trim called J channel. We are hoping that the siding will be delivered tomorrow so that we can leave one wall fully sided.

The other crew will finish their assigned project, but because of the leak they found, the entire project is now expanded. There will be a lot to do for the crew who takes over there on Monday.

We leave transition notes for the crews who arrives on next week because one week is usually not enough time to complete a project.

I am very fortunate to have a crew filled with youth who are motivated, self-disciplined, and quick to learn. All the training I did earlier this week paid off.

Today we started signing our family Bible. We all sign a Bible, sometimes highlighting our favorite passages. This is done each week, and the families receive a Bible at the end of the summer, filled with messages from the people who worked on their home that season.

Day 7

It was the last day at our worksites, and we completed our tasks. My crews finished preparing the home for siding, and the other crew removed mold and reinforced the flooring support system in their home.

It’s always an emotional farewell to our families when we depart in Friday. This year was no exception. We spend a week working in someone’s home, working and eating with them. When we leave their homes it’s always a powerful moment.

It has been a wonderful week, and we are very grateful for all of the support we received from everyone.