Laurel Ridge 2008
Theme: “Using Our Gifts”
God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it; everyone benefits. 1 Corinthians 12: 4-10 (The Message)
Recently, a group of "missionaries" from Lititz Moravian participated in a mission trip to Camp Laurel Ridge. The participants, shown below in the front row (left to right) were, Mason Eshelman, Jordan Breland (almost totally hidden,) Morgan Eshelman, Kendall Nuss, Landon Nuss, Jim Nuss, Pastor Mark Breland, Karen Erb, Bethany Han, Danielle Shelley, Alex Shelley, and Hannah Jackson.
While there, they were tasked with helping to improve the home of "Elva," a nearby resident. (At the bottom of this article are some photos from the mission.) On July 13, two of the participants told their story at the ten o'clock service.
From Bethany Han
Ninety percent of our mission is to work – the other ten percent is to make a connection with our host. I am glad Dave Merritt, the chaplain at Laurel Ridge told us this because we could have worked and worked and worked but never have gotten to know our wonderful host, Elva.
When we first met Elva, I could tell she was anxious to meet us but because of her quiet demeanor she was still very reserved. That was actually one of my favorite traits she possessed. When we would be taking a break, we could be comfortable in her presence, there never was awkward silence. So as the week progressed we were able to break out of our quiet selves and really open up.
I found out that the very house we were fixing up was the house she grew up in with her nine other siblings. She was actually even happy when we were loud, bringing life back into the house. Knowing that we were restoring the place where she had many childhood memories made our mission way more rewarding.
One of my favorite memories with Elva was when we were in her kitchen watching Jim and others working on the pantry. She was telling me some of the things that she has done when she looked at me and, I think, truly opened up. I found out that when Elva was driving taxi she was crossing a bridge and drove right off! No one was hurt but that was something that must have been a tragic event in her life. So, for her to just tell me that made me know for sure that she cared about us.
Elva was also really forgiving. You see, doing our work, we were not exactly the neatest people. We really made a mess! We cleaned most of it up but there were some places like her porch steps that had drops of paint on them. Elva had no problem with the mess. She was just glad that the work got done – mess or no mess.
Finally toward the end of the week the work got less and less and soon enough we were going to her house for the very last time. Most of the work was complete by Thursday but we had to finish the pantry. This gave us a lot of time to spend with Elva. We could tell that she was so thankful we came to her house bringing her people she could talk to, people to eat her delicious peanut butter cookies, and lots more people she can love.
From Morgan Eshelman
We did a lot of work to improve Elva and Jerry’s house. We scraped paint from the front porch railing and support columns and then repainted the porch. We also scraped peeling paint from their bathroom ceiling and repainted this as well. We power washed the siding on the house and the wooden ramp to the front porch. The ramp was then coated with a protective water seal. We measured, sawed, and hammered to make a pantry in Elva’s kitchen. We cleaned up the sawdust and stray drops of paint and said good bye.
Not only did we learn a lot about Elva but we learned that with the help of one another we can all be missionaries. I know that we are all very thankful that we got to share this experience together.
