Appalachian Service Project 

For a week during the summer, Peace Church has a team of adults and youth that travels to the Appalachians to help with construction repairs for those in need. Please keep them in your prayers.

In the summer of 2005 Peace United Methodist Church of Fredericksburg, VA continued its long tradition of support for the Appalachia Service Project. This team  was led by Doug Boggs, Dave Coppage, Jeff Standring and Debbie Shelby.

What begins as an adventure gradually, but surely turns into a significant opportunity for service to those in need. The building and repair of structures that is always accomplished somehow pales by comparison to the building and repair of confidence, relationships, and faith that sneaks up on you. This wonderful program that started in the summer of 1969 when Rev. Glenn “Tex” Evans matched 50 volunteers to four houses in need of repair has blossomed to allow over 130,000 volunteers to serve over 8,800 families.
 

The hidden beauty of ASP, though, is what this ministry has meant to the youth and the leaders of Peace UMC. Through the years we have been able to construct diverse teams of youth and leaders who, with this shift of context, learn and appreciate the subtleties of character that set us apart and that bind us together. We leave home as a collection of individuals. We return home as a team. You get to know each other when you laugh together. You get to appreciate each other when you cry together.  To learn more about ASP go to http://www.asphome.org/.

Doug Boggs
ASP Coordinator
Peace UMC