Another Week to Remember

Under most circumstances, I have the ability to communicate my thoughts via the written word rather capably. I mean, sure, I am not Tolstoy, but I think I am at least as good as say, Dave Barry. That's good enough for me. Yet, for this entry, I find myself having great difficulty.

This is because I am typically an observer. As such, I am able to turn my observations into words and therefore into a story or what-have-you. I had a premonition months ago that this workcamp, my fifth from which I returned last Saturday, would be something different. I was right. And I am having difficulty writing about it because I did not observe it so much as I experienced it.


REACH Workcamps is an organization that works with community organizers and residents to identify people in need of home repairs and handles all the logistics and organization involved with bringing 250-400  mostly high school students and adult chaperones to a given area. There are typically two camps going on in two sections of the country at any given time over 8-10 weeks of a summer.


The project homes and to-do lists range from fairly simple, like painting, to very complex. For instance, in the past my projects have included replacing an entire subfloor in a kitchen and ripping out and rebuilding a porch. This year, our project was to drywall a ceiling and lay a laminate wood floor. I don't do all the work, of course. This week I was one of two adult leaders of a group of six amazing high school teens.


Our project came with an unexpected level of emotional baggage as our homeowner, (to which we refer as our "neighbor"), had REACH install a roof in the recent past that failed. The failure of the roof was remedied by another camp the week before we were there. Our crew was there to fix the water damage inside.

On day zero, we receive a project description and some background and meet our fellow adult, if there is one. Last year I lead a crew on my own. I was happy to see our projects would all be interior and that our home had air conditioning. I thought we were rolling in clover since the house looked really nice in the pictures and with the high heat and high likelihood of rain, we wouldn't be stymied by the vagaries of weather. And I had a co-leader who seemed very likable and ready to go. It was going to be a good week!

The first, 'first' was that the home was a full 40 minutes from base. Ugh. That's a lot of time lost each day just driving. Walking in to the trim and tidy house in a nice neighborhood only a minute's walk away from my REACH 2010 house, we saw immediately that the job had been undersold in the description provided. That was the second, 'first' - as the project descriptions typically make the scope of work sound much more difficult than they bear out to be in real life.

The third, 'first' was that our neighbors, weary from the previous week's camp and not entirely trusting of us since the reason we were coming back was bad work done by a previous workcamp crew. To say they were not totally happy to see us would be an understatement.

Our neighbors also smoked. A lot. I was already nursing a sinus infection. That was oddly not a 'first' as I had  a sinus infection last year, too. But the smoking really put me over the edge and the sinus infection quickly descended and became an upper respiratory infection within 24 hours. I would be spending the week with a fever, a cough and sotto voce. You know, just to make things interesting.

Crew 24 was Ashton, Emma, Zach, Zach, Frank, Ryan and co-adult Laura. To keep the Zachs apart, we needed to nickname them. So one got the name "Big Zach" and the other, originally got the unfortunate sobriquet of "Not Quite As Big Zach." Both Zachs, you see, were big guys. As we were holding up drywall over our heads, I just started to say "Big Zach" and "Back Zach", since "Back Zach" was behind me. Too bad for "Back Zach", but it stuck.

I was given the humble monicker of "Big Daddy Steak Homes", and I did not argue since I have long maintained that nicknames are bestowed... not necessarily earned. Besides, I like steak, Homes...


Crew 24 was amazing. And were it not for the incessant positivity and willingness to keep going until the job was done, we never would have made it. What crew 24 doesn't know is that by Thursday, I was pretty much past it. I had no idea how to finish and was pretty sure we wouldn't finish.While my words tried desperately to convey positivity and can-do spirit, I was panicking inside.


What crew 24 showed me was that all things are possible if you want it. These teens were supposed to be having fun first and foremost... it is rule number one that relationships and spritiual growth in faith are the objectives and the projects are secondary. Here I was working through lunch devotions on Thursday and we all skipped lunch devotions on Friday just to get a leg up. REACH would not approve. Crew 24 made some of their own fun, but I guarantee they didn't have as much as they should have. We were first to leave base in the morning. We were last to come back at night. Every day. Every night. Friday, we rolled in a full two hours after everyone else.

These kids worked. Hard. What they did not do, is complain. What they did not do is goof off. What they did not do is fight or waste materials. The did not wallow or despair. They just worked. And sometimes sang. I shared with them that one of my many quirks was I have "Yellow Submarine" on repeat in my brain, in full Ringo Liverpudlian twang, when I am under pressure. It's what I do. When things got tough, the kids would just sing "Yellow Submarine", butchering the lyrics all the way. It made us laugh. We needed to laugh.

We had to get help the last day to finish. One of the other adults and a student from our youth group came, and so did a couple others and so did our "Troubleshooters". And we did finish. We can legitimately be proud of the work we did  and the final product. We were thankful to experience what is commonly referred to as "Miracle Friday." I never needed a miracle before. My groups have always been done in the morning on Friday. The reward is sitting with out neighbor, building community and me giving what I call my REACH speech. Then we all go out to lunch, have a good time, get back to base early, take showers and await the rest of the crews coming in weary to give them high fives and revel in their miracle.


That's how I like things to be. This year, it was not to be. And I had been conflicted about it. I felt like I owed so much to the kids who did the lion's share of the work, and yet I didn't feel I got to know them well enough. I feel closer to them than I did to previous crews because of the resolve they showed and the attitude and the work and the camaraderie, but I wasn't sure if there was a lasting connection. I didn't know if we actually accomplished what we were sent to accomplish.


After some time removed, I realize I can't second guess the circumstances. I... we, were not in charge. And we made it work and made it successful because we gave our problems and concerns up. We recognized we were in stronger hands.


So, that is the nutshell version of an amazing and "great" week. I put "great" in quotes because I don't mean it the way people often mean when they say they had a great time. I did not have a great time and I reckon that the others didn't either. Not on the worksite anyway. But I believe we all had a "great" time, as in a time that was simply extraordinary and out of the bounds of normal.

Great things are not easy things, nor are they always fun things. But I would bet that if we were given a chance to work together again and go though adversity again, Crew 24 would elect to stay together and do it all again. I know I would. And even though this project was by far the most difficult in broad terms, I can't imagine doing anything different with any different people.

I have been reading a book, much of which is predicated on the 23rd Psalm. And boy, what a perfect read for the struggles of the week.

Ups and downs, hope and despair, celebrations and thanks. And none of us were in control of any of it. We simply placed our faith that we would be led as we needed to be lead and reminded ourselves that we are not given anything we cannot handle.

At the end, having walked through the dark valley, feeling the cold shadows upon us, we did not feel alone. Only for a short time did I feel helpless and defeated. And when I did, the angels of additional assistance came willingly and injected new energy and life into us, and into our project.

The difficult homeowners, once adversaries became friends. The eight strangers that made up Crew 24, were now brothers and sisters in arms, undefeated and indefatigable. I would venture we will not forget each other or our triumph easily.

And that, among so many other things, made this past week "great". In that I was not just a spectator of the glory of faith and trust in something we cannot see and do not understand, but I was a recipient of the grace and kindness that the universe has to offer. It is there for us if we want it, no matter what we call it. No matter how we attempt to quantify it or explain it, or deny it and turn away from it.


After a long last day, we took the crew to eat. It was the first time they had seen a TV all week... and the TV was dominated by the story of a crazed and helpless man who took his confusion and frustration and anger and angst and turned it against so many people in a theater in Colorado.


What a bookend to the week we just had. And it teaches us that there will be no end to evil. There cannot be good without evil. We can choose to focus on the story of a criminal mind who acted horrifically and inexplicably, or we can focus on the hundreds who helped, who called for the wounded, who evacuated the and protected the injured under extreme danger to themselves. We can focus on that which fractures our minds and leads us to derision and hate, or we can turn our attention to the church groups who were immediately on hand to pray, to the community organizations who were there to counsel and heal.


You see... you will always find what you are looking for. In a difficult project, you may find challenge and ultimate victory, or you may find despair and defeat.


Crew 24... a bunch of kids, taught me in a very real way that the bright side of things is where the action is. And for that, I am eternally grateful!