Marina's Post

Marina Sachs- Grade 12

Well…we arrived! After seven long hours and four bathroom breaks, the North Madison Congregational Church Senior Youth Group arrived at Blue Knob Resort in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This was no easy feat, let me tell you, for this resort is conveniently situated atop a 3,145 foot mountain that can only be reached on a long and winding road.  And boy did it certainly live up to its reputation of being a “resort”. The seventies-esque architecture complete with mustard carpets, leaking showers, and moldy wallpaper reassured us that we would definitely be stepping out of our “Madison comfort zone” this trip. As the night approached, we found ourselves traveling to the tippity top of the mountain for chapel.  Fifteen songs, four bible verses, and two hours later our group was free to roam around the resort until our 10:30 PM bedtime. Well, by the time we got out of chapel it was 10:25 so we had just enough time to get back to our rooms and collapse in our beds, preparing ourselves for our 7:00 AM wake-up call.

Groggy and delirious, we dragged ourselves out of bed to eat breakfast 7:45 AM. Two mini sausages, breakfast biscuits, and some soggy eggs were plopped onto our plate…a real continental breakfast.  Not to mention that our youth group, one of the seven, were conveniently given the last breakfast spot in the morning, so that meant extra cold eggs and sausages for us. Luckily Carter Chatillon and I had purchased some hot sauce at a gas station near Penn State and managed to drown out the lack of flavor in all food items given to us. Unfortunately, we used it all up after the second meal. 

Post breakfast, our group headed out to a worksite 20 minutes away to begin our mission work; a trailer park with a multitude of odd jobs for us to complete. We were introduced first to Dave, a single parent with two beautiful daughters, Victoria and Caida, ages seven and four, respectively. The group before us had installed a ramp in the front of Dave’s home for Caida, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy, so we were given the task of painting the exterior of the home, installing flooring and carpeting in the house, and tarring the roof.  From there we proceeded to work on two more homes, priming, painting,  hammering, sealing, building- we basically covered every sort of construction-related job one could imagine. Maggie Lussier and I, growing tired of priming our second house, proceeded to write a rap about Jesus. The opening line being, “J-E-$-U-S he’s chillin’, Jesus is his name and he ain’t no villain.” Around three o clock we called it a day and headed to the Wal Mart Superstore, complete with a Subway and hairdresser. We bought everything from Pizza Bagels to Luna Bars, stocking up for the busy week ahead of us. After the magical adventure through Wal Mart, we returned to base camp to swim, nap, shower, and get ready for another wonderful meal prepared by TEAMeffort. The majority of the showers were either scalding or frigid, never seeming able to find a happy medium between the two extremes. We ate, we prayed, we searched for the indoor pool, and went to sleep…Lord ONLY knows what tomorrow will bring.