Constructors For Christ 2024 Project

Monday, June 24, 202

At the end of our last post, on Friday afternoon, we had arrived in Pikeville, KY to start our annual project with Constructors for Christ.  It was a beautiful drive up from South Carolina and most importantly, it was uneventful.

Saturday morning, we all began our work.  Max and Randy along with about 9-10 others, met out on the job site to begin the construction of a distribution center for God’s Appalachian Partnership (GAP) in Minnie, KY which is about 30 minutes from Pikeville.   This is a new organization for us and as we learned more about the mission of GAP and the missionaries, the more we fell in love with the place and the people.  GAP’s number one mission is the sharing of the gospel of Christ.  Everything else is a tool to reach that goal.  Our project, the construction of a new ministry center is one of those tools.  GAP has outgrown their current center, which is an old, abandoned coal mine office/warehouse.  We began building a 7,500 sq ft building that will have a huge impact on additional services to the community.  Saturday was work on base plates so they would be ready for the full crew Monday morning.

Sunday morning before church we drove up the mountain from our RV park to get a good view of the “Pikeville Cut-Through”.  Pikeville had a history of horrible flooding.  The mayor had the vision to re-route the a four lane road, the Big Sandy river and a railroad to prevent future floods.  It was the largest engineering feat in the US and second in the world only to the Panama Canal.  The project was begun in 1973 and completed in 1987 at a cost of $77 million dollars.  An amazing site to see.

By Sunday evening we had 54 people ready to get to work.  Approximately 18-20 people were working in the kitchen preparing 3 meals a day for 54-60 people and 30-35 were working on the job site.  It was horribly hot (90+ degrees) most days.  No rain all week and very few clouds.  Despite the hard conditions, tremendous work was accomplished.  In five days, we went from empty, flat, slab to all walls except one short wall in place.  We needed just a few more studs. Most importantly, there were just a few minor scratches, but no serious injuries.

Here are a few pictures showing the daily progress:

Such a good week, making new friends and renewing old friendships. The crane should have been on site this morning and the trusses should have begun to go up.  Sorry we were not there to see that accomplishment but looking forward to some pictures from the folks that are still there.  Please pray for their safety as they work and travel.

On a sad note, we were notified Thursday morning that two of our friends had passed away in a house fire in Cleveland, Alabama. They were both dedicated Christians and spent their lives in public safety making our county and state safer places.  Kennith was in law enforcement and Regina was Max’s right hand while they helped build and operate Blount County’s 9-1-1 Central Dispatch for 22 years. In fact when Max was pulled away by his Emergency Management duties, she had to be his left hand, too. We left Kentucky Saturday morning to attend a celebration of their lives. The law enforcement, fire and EMS communities in the county turned out in force to honor them. We are comforted knowing that they are in a better place and that we will see them again.