Jesse Lee Appalachia Service Project’s 2023 mission trip is two months away, and we are busy busy busy getting ready, with lots of planning and training.
We expect to have about 180 youth and adults traveling to two counties in Virginia July 1-9.
Quick refresher: ASP is a national Christian volunteer organization founded by Rev. Glenn “Tex” Evans, a Methodist minister, in 1969. Since then, some 437,000 volunteers from across the nation have participated in weeklong mission trips to repair 19,000 homes in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.
This is the 39th year for Jesse Lee ASP.
It’s too late to sign up for the trip but you can still help by paying us to wash your car. Car washes are each Saturday in front of Jesse Lee, and funds raised will help us to rent a fleet of minivans to caravan everyone down to Appalachia and back. The vans also will be used daily by each work crew.
Additionally, Jesse Lee ASP gratefully accepts direct contributions toward the needed number of vans. Inquire at church with Deb Ahle, Steve Coppock or Peter Seirup.
Besides the car washes in May, you also may see weekend skills training in Jesse Lee’s back parking lot. Teen and adult volunteers – both those going down to Appalachia, as well as a smaller group volunteering for an “at-home” week of local home repairs – get hands-on practice using their tools while building wheelchair-ramp panels. These sessions give everyone some practical experience before we go, while also – a win-win situation – giving Jesse Lee’s Spirit Builders ready-made ramp sections when the call comes in for a needed wheelchair ramp.