In October of l998, we went with our friends, Helen, Orvil, Debbie, Charley, Paul and Rosemary to the Red Bird Mission in Beverly, Kentucky. The Mission was originally established to help the people in the Appalachian Mountains. Our friends had been there before but this was our first time. We stayed in rooms that were occupied by nurses when the Mission was first built. We cooked our own meals each day and enjoyed the fellowship of the other people staying in that dormitory building. We spent a very fulfilling week at the Mission, each person doing jobs that the Mission needed done. The women either worked in the clothes closet, the school or the administrative office. The men did all kinds of repair work, shingled a roof and poured cement for a sidewalk. At the end of the day there was some left over cement so it was used to finish a basketball court for the children and repair holes in the street. The 4th grade children were studying Ireland and someone told them we had just been on vacation there so we were asked to come Friday afternoon and share some of our experiences. The children were so well behaved and asked many questions about the Irish culture. We had a free day in the middle of the week so we drove around the countryside and shopped in some of the little surrounding towns. On our way home we visited Shaker Village where religious history came alive. We will always remember this trip as a time when we worked hard and had a great time doing it! We also developed friendships that we hope will last a lifetime. A year later, we had a special dinner at our house to reminisce and look at pictures and a video we took of our Red Bird time together.
A Red Bird Welcome
Working Hard and Enjoying It!
The Red Bird Gang