The Appalachia team left on Sunday, March 8 and returned on Friday, March 13, spending their spring break on a mission trip to Paintsville, Kentucky. This trip was led by middle school science teacher Laura Terry, 11th grade boys grade chair, AP Capstone teacher, and English teacher Brooks Hanrahan, pre-first grade chair and lead teacher Lara Jensen, lower school teaching assistant and after care associate Julia Roddy, director of development Patrick Hughes, lower school faculty fellow Mikayla Schuster, and director of Christian life Greg Lisson. The team of seven adults and 29 students ventured to Paintsville to work on home improvement, construction, and manual labor. In anticipation for the trip Hanrahan said, “I am so excited for the manual labor that we are going to do and the tangible blessings we will create for the people there. It serves them in the moment, but they need it for the long run.” Students and faculty graciously give up their spring breaks every year because they have seen or heard of the importance of serving others.
Freshman Nika Jensen:
Day 4 1/11/26: In the top 3 days of my life
Each day keeps getting better. I woke up around 7:10 and got ready. I went to the sanctuary relatively earlier than usual. Samantha and Sawyer sang good plans, Ben gave a devotion, and after I read 1 Corinthians 12. At breakfast, one of the Texans from the other mission trip group recommended the blueberry pancake casserole. I put whipped cream on it, and it was so good that I even went back for seconds. Then I got to the work site and went inside right away. James and I cut insulation and nailed the right side of the window wall. I got the spray foam from Jess and used up 2 1/2 cans in the entire perimeter of the master bedroom. Me, Mr. Brent, and James were last to lunch. James had a quadruplet sandwich. We talked about really good horror movies with Jess, Ms. Roddy, and Mr. Hanrahan. Jesus came inside after lunch and started working on the drywall with Mr. Brent. James and I finished the insulation, and I learned how to use the circle saw. Mr. Brent opened up about life, and we all took 45 to 30 minutes to just listen to him. I learned so much, we could be so far gone and yet still be changed by God. Everyone outside finished the deck then we went back to the church. We did high, low, buffalo’s on the bus and had so much fun. Me, James, Henry, and Matthew ran 200 sprints out by the church. We had lasagna, bread, and salad for dinner. We drove 20 minutes to the bowling alley. We bowled for two hours. While we were bowling, my lane decided we had to do a punishment every time we got a gutter ball. We did 10 push-ups, 10 crunches, and 10 squats as our punishment. I ended up doing over 100 push-ups, squats, and crunches. When we got back to the church, we had hot chocolate and sat at the table all together before we went to bed.
