‘The least of these’? No, just neighbors.

In Appalachia, the labor is transient, the relationships priceless

Volunteers and staff of Appalachia Build, a Mennonite Central Committee program, gather at Elkhorn Community Church, Elkhorn City, Ky., for prayer before work on June 7, 2024. —Christy Kauffman/MCC Volunteers and staff of Appalachia Build, a Mennonite Central Committee program, gather at Elkhorn Community Church, Elkhorn City, Ky., for prayer before work on June 7, 2024. —Christy Kauffman/MCC

In August, Peg and Lee Martin said goodbye to friends and coworkers in Kimball, W.Va., in McDowell County, which has the lowest household median income of any county in the United States. The Martins were location coordinators of Mennonite Central Committee’s Appalachia Build program there for seven years. Appalachia Build is a service and learning home-repair ministry program, formerly called SWAP, with locations in West Virginia and Kentucky.

Just prior to joining MCC, Lee Martin was a pastor at Mount Clinton Mennonite Church near Harrisonburg, Va., for 17 years. Before that, they were co-managers at Highland Retreat, Bergton, Va., for 11 years. Peg Martin practiced nursing throughout most of those years.

Recently, Chad Martin (no relation) met with them to reflect on their leadership, how it impacted their faith and their observations about service and care among neighbors in economic hardship. Martin, who directs Chestnut Housing in Lancaster, Pa., spent a week volunteering for Appalachia Build last summer.

Members of a high school youth group from Columbus Mennonite Church in Ohio stand with Matthew Kennedy while building a wheelchair ramp at Kennedy’s home in Kimball, W.Va., on June 4, 2024. Back row, from left: Lee Martin, Malakai Troyer, Eliza Graber, Gabriel Coble, Isaiah Turkley, Henry Wyse. Front: Matthew Kennedy, Micah Dodson, Mark Rupp. — Christy Kauffman/MCC
Members of a high school youth group from Columbus Mennonite Church in Ohio stand with Matthew Kennedy while building a wheelchair ramp at Kennedy’s home in Kimball, W.Va., on June 4, 2024. Back row, from left: Lee Martin, Malakai Troyer, Eliza Graber, Gabriel Coble, Isaiah Turkley, Henry Wyse. Front: Matthew Kennedy, Micah Dodson, Mark Rupp. — Christy Kauffman/MCC

CHAD: Let’s begin by talking about what pulled you to work in Kimball with what was then known as the SWAP program.

LEE: I heard the term decades ago: holy restlessness. We had that restlessness for a couple of years leading up to the opening at SWAP in 2017. A sense that maybe a change was in the air. As a young adult I had spent three years working with a Mennonite service program in Mississippi, doing low-cost housing work. I had done some construction over the years. I felt our gifts and abilities could maybe make a difference.

PEG: I wanted to take seriously the words of Jesus, “Whatsoever you do to the least of these . . .” But it wasn’t so long after we got to Kimball that I stopped thinking about people there as “the least of these.” They just became our neighbors.

CHAD: Do you think of a time when that sense of being neighbors clicked into place for you?

LEE: I went through cancer treatment starting in 2022. We felt a lot of support from a lot of places. But I was blown away when local McDowell County people were very clearly concerned and supportive. Financial gifts that surprised us. People saying, “You’re on our prayer list at church.” The care and concern amazed me.

CHAD: Did your reading of the Bible change during your time in Kimball?

LEE: I have lived in a pretty middle-class American context, and that tempers how we read the Bible and how we pray. Reading scripture through the eyes of those who are economically disadvantaged makes a significant difference. The Beatitudes took on new life for me. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Well, yeah, we should be humble. That’s a good Anabaptist trait. Then I read Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message: “You are blessed when you are at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”

We worked with people who were truly at the end of their rope. And seeing God’s kingdom break into that, through volunteers who had mutually beneficial relationships with people, we saw they regained some hope.

PEG: The challenge remains — what about those people we couldn’t help? At the end of the summer there were 60-some letters that went out to people saying, “We’re sorry. You’re still on the waiting list.” I am so aware of this.

Peg Martin with garden produce. — Courtesy of Peg and Lee Martin
Peg Martin with garden produce. — Courtesy of Peg and Lee Martin

CHAD: Church-based volunteerism has changed in recent years. How did your experience inform your view of that?

PEG: After SWAP started in 1985, the program had so many volunteers they had to limit participation to every other year. At one point they had five locations. That was back when there was still some memory of and worry about the return of the military draft, and volunteerism was much bigger.

LEE: Volunteerism is down across the Mennonite church. SWAP began with the goal of helping youth experience and learn about service as a way of life. I am glad that youth groups are still a key part of Appalachia Build. I am a believer in short-term service done with orientation and education. It’s not saving the world, but it can teach important things about the world and a person’s place in it. It’s about the gifts I can share and the gifts I need to receive.

CHAD: Getting to be in Kimball for a week, as a dad there with my daughter, I thought a lot about how differently the Mennonite service ethic is practiced today compared to when I was a youth. What did you find was most effective when orienting volunteers to their short-term experience?

LEE: Hearing local people tell their story. Interaction with Kimball neighbors and storytelling are priorities. The physical work is transient, but the relational work — we don’t know the impact of that. The focus on relationships and connections with people — that’s the heart of it.

Lee Martin cuts wood to fit a doorway in Kimball, W.Va., on June 4, 2024. — Christy Kauffman/MCC
Lee Martin cuts wood to fit a doorway in Kimball, W.Va., on June 4, 2024. — Christy Kauffman/MCC

PEG: One of the first homeowners we worked for told us she had to choose between hot water and medicine because she didn’t have the money for both. But when volunteers came and worked for her, she felt empowered by the love they showed and their willingness to hear her story. Later she started a chapter of the Silver Haired Legislature, an advocacy group on issues that benefit seniors. She said that after the SWAP volunteers came to her house, she was more willing to speak up for herself.

LEE: We just tried to instill a sense of call and respect for what volunteers would encounter and the people they’d encounter. A holy curiosity about the people and place where we are. To handle it with care and integrity.

CHAD: What are you going to miss from Kimball and your work with Appalachia Build?

LEE: The people’s down-to-earth honesty. And just the simple things of life there. People are what we’re most sad to leave, being part of that community. It really did come to feel like home.

PEG: And just being involved in important work. Hearing a homeowner say, after a group worked on her roof, that now she doesn’t have to wipe water off her range because the roof was fixed. It was just great to see those things changed for people.

CHAD: I think that’s why people get excited to do the hands-on work. There’s something elemental about making a better place for someone to live or providing a place to live for someone who didn’t have a home.

PEG: I remember one group that came when it was cold and rainy and muddy and miserable. Very few of them had experience with carpentry tools or doing this kind of work. But at the end of the week, we were able to say, “Look what you did!” It’s satisfying to see people accomplish something they had no idea they were capable of.

LEE: People today are removed from dirty hands and feeling the cold and heat and sweat. To be involved in practical stuff is a blessing for everyone.

Chad Martin directs Chestnut Housing in Lancaster, Pa.

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