It's Not the End, It's Just the Beginning!

As we prepared to disembark for our last day of work on this brisk morning, we all ran out to the front of the Lacey United Methodist Church to take a picture with their sign that they personalized for our group. It read “Welcome Virginia Tech Recovery Team, Lacey Thanks You“ and as we took the picture with some of the people we had been working with all week, we felt nothing but their warmth and hospitality. We all piled into our vehicles and left for our work sites; some of us to Bill’s home and others to Peter’s ready to start the day.

At Bill’s the group finished dry walling the initial room and began the front room. Bill’s diligence and hard work is inspiring to all of us; he is always working next to us and we feel so blessed to be able to work next to him. He is an incredible person and we feel honored to be able to help him out in this time of need.

The group at Peter’s home spent the morning installing drywall into the closets and enjoyed using the all-encompassing multitool. For lunch, the team from Bill’s house came over to Peter’s and ate on the floors we had just laid down yesterday. It was great to have everybody together again and laughter filled the air as we all shared stories. We finished up the drywall at Peter’s and prepared to leave. We went up to the house and told Peter we were headed out and he stated he wanted to see the work we had accomplished before we left. His reaction was priceless. He stated there were not enough words in the largest dictionary that could possibly describe the way that he felt. He looked around in awe and it was apparent that we had not only given him his house back, but that we had begun to give him back his home and sense of hope. He asked us to all write our names on the walls we had spent all day building so that he could pray for us after we left. It was an incredible feeling to be able to know that we were going to be a permanent fixture on this man’s wall and that we had made such a large impact on his life.



On the way back to the church, we stopped at a local store named A’s Hardware and bought “Restore the Shore” apparel. Part of the proceeds from the merchandise go towards rebuilding the shore and relief efforts for those who need it. We returned to the church and stole a few precious minutes of hardcore snuggling time. We went to the community room for dinner and laughter and a sense of community filled the air as we prepared to eat. After praying, we were all so excited that the cooks had made us pizza and that one of the pizza especially made by Eric had orange and red peppers in the shape of a VT. We are constantly blown away by LUMC’s hospitality and support; they never cease to reach out to us in every way possible. After finishing the dishes and playing a very impressive game of limbo in which our 6’ 2” future seminarian, Chris, blew everyone out of the water.

During our reflection we began by starting off describing the trip day by day. As soon as Mike, one of the community members who helped us the entire week, started talking, plans were altered. He shared his incredible testimony about his experience during hurricane Sandy and how it impacted him directly. He has such determination and perseverance that we were all amazed by his story. We are constantly inspired by those who were affected by the storm, but continue to work hard to help those who are also struggling. We discussed why we feel called to be here and how our experiences this week have transformed our hearts and spirits. We have all grown immensely in our spiritual journey and our personal relationships with each other and the community here. Afterwards, we all wrote individual affirmations to each other in which we encouraged each other for their strengths and for simply being present. It was incredible to think about the people in our group and how our individual strengths have given us such a complementary group dynamic. We are in awe of how God has worked through each one of us throughout this week!

With the vehicles filled to the brim with gas and ready to embark on our journey back to Blacksburg, we know that we will be leaving a piece of our hearts in Lacey, New Jersey, but also taking with us the blessings and prayers of a new family. We may not be ready to go back to class on Monday, but we are ready to use our renewed faith in action in our community back at Virginia Tech. In the words of Sandy Serio, “I don’t want to go to bed because I know that when we wake up we will have to leave”. We may not have painted the whole state of New Jersey Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange, but we have left our mark on Lacey and Lacey has left its permanent mark on all of us. 


Peace and love from Ashley Adkins, Kelsey Oesmann, Craig Gorsuch, and the rest of the NJ Team