Dear Friends,
Sometimes it’s good just to walk away from your life for a few days – to get out of your head, see something different. So it has been with me since last Sunday evening, when I drove to Barnes Mountain (near Irvine, KY, and the Cathedral Domain), where St. Timothy’s Episcopal Outreach Center ministers to Appalachian mountain families.
Much about this place and reminds me of my childhood in Southeast Ohio – rutted gravel roads canopied with summer-lush trees, little family cemeteries just off to the side. It is quiet here, except for nature sounds. I am with a small mission group from another St. Timothy – an Episcopal Church in Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo, whose rector was once my boss at St. Anne (West Chester, Ohio).
Our crew of six spent Monday and Tuesday at Ella Dunn’s home cutting out pieces of water-ruined ceiling, locating leaks in the roof, and replacing insulation and drywall. Tomorrow the team will split, half returning to Ella’s home to mud the drywall, and half to help construct simple wood coffins used to bury local people unable to pay mortuary fees – these jobs and others are labors of love.
We talk to the folks who live here, hearing their stories, looking at their family pictures. Ella makes and sells exquisite quilts, and fashions bags from coiled and sewn clothes line rope. In my article for July’s Crucifer, I’ll share more about our this mission. It is holy time.
Wishing you every blessing,
Mtr. TJ