We're Back!

We returned Saturday afternoon around 1 PM and soon scattered in 30-some different directions. There are more picutres to post and stories to tell - which will take us a couple days - so stay tuned!

More pictures

We're getting more pictures uploaded to Picasa for all to see - check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/byg.coap. If you have pictures you want uploaded to the site then leave a comment here and we'll get back to you on uploading them.

Dancing the Virginia Reel

On Thursday night COAP threw a Blugrass Concert for all of the week's participants. The band Kentucky Rain played, and Jessica from COAP organized a huge Virginia Reel dance. Here's a video of the Bellarmine Youth Group portion of the reel:

An afternoon off!

We worked half a day Wednesday and took a much-needed break at a little lake high up in the hills. After getting lost on our first attempt, our COAP Carpenter & friend Carroll led us up the right roads - we would have never found it if not for his help!

The lake was rustic, but had a dock and good water for swimming which was what we were looking for. After swimming for a while we had a cookout, followed by prayer time near sunset. It was a great break, and a good time that we all enjoyed.

The foam under part of the dock had come out somehow, so it sank in the water when we walked out on it - and that made for a lot of fun.


Hamburgers & hot dogs from the grill - yum! As you can see, this place was rustic - not picnic tables or grills, not even port-a-lets; but we had a great time.


And as we always do - ending the day with group prayer time:

More painting!

The painting crew got another job after finishing Janice's house - we painted a porch and out-building, and cleaned up the area. Around this point, we were getting a bit tired of painting, but guess what? We went to another house to stain a deck! We got our fill of painting this week.

Here's our picture of the porch we prep'd and painted - we got there Tuesday afternoon and finished Wednesday morning.


And then on Thursday morning we stained this deck. The back side of the deck was a good 20-30 ft off the ground, so we had fun with ladders on this one.


And here's the whole group there:

Finishing a church

We've pretty much been split into two groups down here this week. One of the groups has been fixing up an old church in the area. They finished a vinyl siding job started by a different group last week, and stained a new wood entrance to the church. Here's picture of the whole group that worked on the church:

The siding was about 3/4 of the way up when we started, so this crew got to work up high Monday & Tuesday. They finished the siding and soffits - that's a lot of work!




We're doing soffits!

A painted house

We finished painting Janice's house Tuesday morning - here's the crew (minus Beth & Steve - who were taking pictures). The house turned out really nice - and we were glad to get it done! We painted the aluminum siding, foundation wall, shutters and concrete porch.

Prayer night on Knobby Rock

Part of the routine for COAP trips is daily prayer as a group at the end of each day. Last night we had prayer at Holy Trinity church (we're staying in their school during the trip), but today we got out and took a mile-or-so hike to our prayer spot. A hike through ancient Appalachian forest, up and around the mountains, to a place called Knobby Rock. It's at the top of one of the mountains, with a spectacular view.


The picture is a little deceiving - just out of the frame to the right is a sheer drop-off of a hundred feet or so. I can't say for sure because I didn't want to lean over too long to find out - but someone else did so here's their picture. The view is more majestic than a camera can capture.


We had our prayer service right up there on the rock. We reflected on a psalm 104 in silence, and then in a few small groups we wrote about those reflections. Here's a picture of our gathering, with the prayer quilt Beth Roesling made for us:


The reflections our COAP teens had were also very nice - here are a few:

There seems to be no point
To climbing this steep hill
I don't think this makes much sense
I'm sure it never will

We have to climb higher and higher
It's getting much harder to breathe
The hill gets steeper and steeper
My mind's beginning to seethe

And the we see an opening
Higher than any pine
Breathtaking beauty surrounds us
And all this beauty is mine



Knobby Rock -
Stark
Overwhelming
Boundless
High
Exhilarating danger
Incredible
Perfection due to imperfection
Layers of paint on canvas
Life and death



A place where you feel release is
a place where you find peace

As the sun starts to set down
We'll all gather around
As we stare into color green
There is nothing more beautiful than this scene

As we sit on Knobby Rock
We call to God and he starts to knock

As a place where there is no sound, not even from cars
We wish we could wait here, till we see the stars

Painting a house for Janice

We had three jobs today, but so far I have pictures for only one. One crew was putting vinyl siding on an old church, another was painting the inside of a house, and the third was painting the exterior of a house. I can tell you about the exterior painting, and show you some pictures.

We painted the exterior of Janice's house. It was quite an effort - we started out with 14 teens and three adults. That's a lot of paintbrushes, and a lot of paint went up really fast. It went up so fast that our crew split up - the other half going to another site to paint inside. As the day wore on and the heat and humidity rose, I think they got a pretty good deal! We didn't quite get the whole house painted, but should have it done by the end of the day Tuesday. Here's a picture of Matt, Nick, Sarah, Ben and Max painting the house.



At the end of the day it rained - and it rained hard. We're crossing our fingers and saying prayers that the paint was dry enough before the downpour; but if not, we'll just paint some more on Tuesday!

Here We Go!

We left for Harlan after the 9 AM Mass and posed for this picture before leaving. It was a good trip - a bit over 4 hours of driving time, plus some time for lunch. The Harlan area is just beautiful! So here's the gang -

Happy Anniversary!

Sunday was a big day for two reasons - first, we all left for Harlan after the 9:00 AM Mass and second, it John and Beth Roesling's 40th anniversary! John and Beth are two of the adult members of the COAP team this year. After dinner Sunday night we had anniversary cake and sang - what else? - Happy Anniversary to you....

It's a small world

From Steve Bogner

I can put blogs together, and I can write - but I'm not much of an artistic person. I was searching the web for pictures that I could use for the blog, and not having much luck at all. I'd search for various things via Google Images, but nothing ever hit the spot. Eventually my searching led to Alan Creech.

Alan has a blog, and after a quick look at it I could see he was a great photographer. And, he was born and raised in Harlan! I sent him a quick email telling him about our COAP trip and asked if he had any photos of the Harlan area or Holy Trinity that I could use. His response was enthusiastic, and in addition to sending some pictures he even put together the image for the header of this blog - the spire from Holy Trinity, the hills of Harlan, and the Jesuit seal from Bellarmine Chapel. Thanks Alan - it looks great!

I also learned from Alan that the Jesuits - Fr Lou Lipps, he said - used to serve at Holy Trinity parish in Harlan. Fr. Lou is at the Claver Jesuit Community now, and he has also led retreats at the Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford. I'm getting the feeling now that there is a deep, rich history there in Harlan, and I'm looking forward to learning more.

Last Year's Blog

Last year's blog was at CiN Weekly: Appalachian Experience. Looks like they all had a great time - check out the entries and all the pictures. We'll soon be updating this year's blog with more entries.