Mission Trip Journal
Huntington, WV, 1997
Wednesday, June 25, 1997
This morning we all gathered
at the church at approximately 8 o'clock. After loading the trailer
and vans, we had a reading of some scripture and a short prayer
to prepare us for our journey. Our drive wasn't too bad, we only
had to travel a little over three hours to reach Indianapolis.
Once there, we were let loose to find ourselves something to
eat before our tour of the Disciples Center. At the Center it
was interesting to see how our church denomination was run, but
seeing cubicles after cubicles on countless floors did become
tiresome. After that exhilarating tour we went on to The Children's
Museum of Indianapolis. There was a lot of interesting exhibits
there but I went through it with too large of a group. This is
because most exhibits were only made for like four people max
and so a group of six usually just passed by those, plus our
interests were diverse among the group. We pulled out of the
museum's parking lot about 5 and began our journey to Cincinnati,
OH. On the way we stopped to eat dinner at a Shoney's. The food
wasn't too bad but my table had to wait a really ;long time for
our food because one of their cook's had walked off the job.
Oh well, we ended up arriving at the Fairfield we were staying
at in Cincinnati sometime after 9. The rooms weren't too bad.
Thursday June 26, 1997
Today was a totally fun day. 
While
we were eating breakfast at the hotel we saw an old friend from
church camp there. That was really freaky! We got to King's Island
Amusement Park when it opened. The group I was with started the
day off with several exhilarating roller coaster rides then moved
on to some wet rides. after we were already wet we decided to
enter the water park section. We stayed there till our check
in time before lunch. After lunch we decide to hit the roller
coasters again. This one, which was totally indoors, took you
form zero to sixty mph in just a mere four seconds. It was pretty
cool but we had to wait close to an hour and and half in line.
Also I had a headache afterwards.. When it came time for the
park to close they shot off some fireworks. They weren't too
great though.
Friday June 27, 1997
Today we left the hotel. they let us keep the phone book because they were putting out new ones. We traveled to Cane Ridge to learn about some of our church's history. It was an interesting place. We ended up arriving in Huntington,WV at around five. It is a decent town. I was surprised at how well developed there downtown was. I went grocery shopping with Betty Scott, Andy Fulk, and a handful of other youth. It was at a Krogers. When we arrived back at the church we cooked some frozen pizzas and rented the movie Ransom. It was an excellent action movie, but probably inappropriate for a church group.
Saturday June 28, 1997
Today was our first day on
the job. It wasn't as organized here as it was in South Carolina
last year. I mainly worked on putting some tar paper onto the
roof. The weather wasn't too bad for that because the temperatures
weren't too hot. The showers at the "Y" weren't too
bad considering they were community showers. Chris had to stop
at a fire house here to get a patch for his collection. After
dinner I played some cards with Mike Bryant and Alicia Brooks.
At about eight we went to see a pops concert and fire works by
the river front.
Sunday June,29 1997
Today we had to wake up early
to get all of our stuff put away before the people arrived for
church. The church service wasn't too bad. Since the congregation
was rather small it had a different atmosphere to it. After church
we went to Billy Bob's which used to be ShowBiz. It was sort
of neat because none of us had been to a place like that since
they closed in Decatur. After that we went to the Huntington
Mall. From there we went on to a state park. Justin Reed and
I went paddle boating before dinner time and we saw some deer
near the lake. After supper we went on a short trail before we
left the park.. On our way back to the church we rented Tommy
Boy from Blockbuster. It was pretty good.
Monday June 30, 1997
Today it was raining in the morning so we ended up not working at the Habitat House. We went to a glass shop but the glass blowers were on vacation so we couldn't see a demonstration. We went back to the "Y" for our showers and then went to the church for an orientation of Habitat. After that was over some of us went to see a movie called Face Off. It was an excellent action film, but it was a little gory. When we were leaving a discovered that I had sat in some gum. When we got back to the church there was some lady there looking for the minister and I asked her what I should use to get the gum off my shorts and she told me to use hair spray. I later found out that she was homeless and thought it was a homeless shelter because we all were sleeping there. After dinner all of us went a night club for teen night. It was pretty neat but we got bored after a couple of hours and went to a restaurant to eat a snack.
Tuesday July 1,1997
Today was my birthday. I was
tired though. We worked on starting the siding today but it was
hard in some parts because the foundation was crooked. While
I was eating lunch a bird pooped on me, but it wiped off pretty
easily. I then went up to the roof to help then finishing laying
the ply wood. After dinner everyone sang Happy Birthday and we
had some cake that Betty Scott made. After we cleaned up our
dishes we went to a putt-putt golf and go cart place. It wasn't
too bad. When we got back to the church I played Hearts with
Mike, Bob, and Kevin.
Wednesday July 2,1997
Today was our final day of working on the house.
I started off by working on
the roof finishing up the tar paper. I was working with Alicia
and two local people, Dee-dee and Debbie. They ended up taking
us out to eat at Burger King and showing us their church building.
In the afternoon we worked on putting some siding up. Near the
site they were building a bridge and it collapsed and two people
died and several were injured. That night after dinner Mike had
planned a card tournament but it ended up just being a card game
because most people didn't participate.
Thursday July 3,1997
Today we woke up early to load the van and get an early start. We left the church at about 7:45. During our travels we spent most of the time arguing with Kevin because he insisted that bigger is always better. We stopped for lunch at Top's Big Boy. It was all right but the service could have been faster. We ended up stopping to buy some fireworks on the way home too.
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