Week 5 is about to start. It is a week of 60 and finding work for that many isn't hard, but organizing it, and getting things ready is. McDowel County is a fairly poverty stricken place. Most people are left from the mining era, but weren't able to move out when the mines closed. They live off of fixed incomes, and most of them live in the houses that were set up as miner houses from the original miner companies. If you don't know, the mining companies originally set these towns up as their own. They paid the workers in company credits, which were only good in the company store, and housed them in company houses, which made my dorm room look like a luxury suite. So these houses are little shacks that were put up about 100 years ago, and have just been repaired and altered throughout the years. So many of them are just left abandoned, leaving it as an eyesore to the community around them, as well as a danger and even worse when it is a duplex that someone still lives in the adjoining house. The folks I get to meet here are absolutely amazing. We put together a porch for a guy, and it is more a community center than a porch.
Our main community partner is a man named Jack Fultz, he started School For Life here at the school we stay in. He bought it right after it was put up for sale. He has a game room for kids, and really tried to do whatever he can for the community. I love driving around with him, cause he just stops and talks with just about every person, and cares about them and their needs on the highest level I have ever seen. He truly loves every person. He doesn’t just meet their immediate need, but a deeper need. Like if they need some work on their house, he will do his best to help them with it, but he won’t do it for them, and make them dependent on him, but allows them to grow in themselves. They are fully capable, but just need a good friend to come along side of them. He is that friend if they need.
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