Sorry for the absence...

It has been a busy week. All this last week we've been working hard, crawling under houses to fix leaks, waxing floors, getting vans registered, and going to the landfill. In the evenings we have a couple of hours for dinner, and then off to Orientation meetings with Randy. As a result, no time to find internet or cell service in order to keep you folks updated. Right now we're on our way home from camping all weekend in North Carolina. We went with Merilee and a group of people from another mission organization in McDowell County to Hanging Rock State Park, and it was beautiful! We hiked for about 5 miles, and made it up to the top of the official Hanging Rock that the park is named for! What a view... There will be more pictures later, but here is one from the top now. Hope you're all having a great week!

The weekend already

There isn't a ton to do on the weekends, so Heather, Tommy, and I drove to Bluefield to try and get a better idea of the area we are going to be in all summer. On the way back we stopped at Pinnacle Rock State Park and climbed some rocks, then climbed a lot of stairs up to the Overlook. What a great view! It was beautiful, and very relaxing. Now we are just hanging around the house playing Mahjongg and Mario.

Monday is Memorial Day, so no work... a break already! My first day here we went to the carnival, and now after just 2 days of work im getting a 3 day weekend. I am really enjoying spending time with Tommy and Heather. You can pray for our friendships as they develop in the coming weeks. Next week we will be working on getting the Iona house clean and ready for teams, finishing up work in the Emmaus house, and beginning assessments on local houses that will be worked on this summer. I'm excited to get working! Have a great day!

Something to think about...

Words of wisdom from a church in Bluefield...

The faaaair

After work, we all got clean and headed to Bluefield for the carnival! That's where we are now. I've only gone on one ride so far, but I'm with 10 other people so it's fun just walking around!

Day One!

I made it! This is what I spent the day doing with the other two interns (Tommy and Heather... They are great!). A trailer used to sit on this lot and now there is a lot of trash left over so we did a lot of cleaning and hauling. It's great to be back here!

Almost there....

My mom and I are leaving around 8 or 9 in the morning tomorrow for Northfork... As you can see, I am ready. Not. Just to clarify, the one suitcase that does actually have stuff in it is from Texas. It just hasn't been unpacked yet. So really about the only thing I have done as far as packing goes is do all my laundry. Although I haven't yet gotten around to folding it. Soon. I pack well under pressure! I think it's going to be a late night...

The details...

This is the support letter that I sent out earlier, in case you didn't see it. It explains better what Mustard Seeds is about and what I'll be doing!

Hello!

I hope that you are having a really fantastic year so far. I definitely am! The thing that I am most excited about this year is coming in May. You may remember that over the last 5 years, I have gone to the beautiful state of West Virginia five times. For a week each summer since June 2004, I have gone with the high school youth group at Fellowship Bible Church to McDowell County, West Virginia to work with the organization Mustard Seeds and Mountains. Mustard Seeds and Mountains is a ministry that focuses on people. McDowell County is a severely impoverished area, one of the seven poorest counties in the nation, a place where most people have no education, no job, and no hope. Mustard Seeds works to give hope to these citizens through the love of Jesus. They use home repair, leadership development programs, youth work, a Young Entrepreneurs program, and home based bible studies as a gateway to forming relationships. Teams come up for one week at a time throughout the spring and summer, or for long weekends any other time of the year, and work with youth or work on a family’s house for the week. In the past, I’ve worked on re-shingling a rotted roof, replaced a completely rotted bedroom floor for an adorable 6 year old girl who could not have been happier with her new floor, worked on the roof of a couple with custody of their beautiful baby granddaughter , worked on the porch and roof of a man called Heavyduty who was definitely an interesting guy to talk to, painted inside Mustard Seed’s new Youth House (they completely remodeled an old abandoned house in order to provide a safe environment for the area’s youth to hang out), and painted the house of a woman named Pearl who taught us all a lot about faith. After all of these years, God is leading me in taking a new step. Starting mid-May, I will be in West Virginia until early August working as an intern. I will be managing teams who are staying for the week, assisting in the repair of homes of the needy, elderly, and disabled, and building evangelistic relationships with people living in the area. I could not be more thrilled about this opportunity, and I know that this is exactly where God has been leading me over the last few years. This is going to be a big summer for me and I have no doubt that I will come out on the other side having learned a ton and experienced a major growth spurt in my faith! There are a load of things that can go wrong, and there is no way I expect this to be a successful summer that showcases God’s majesty if I am not surrounded by prayer support. That’s what I would like to ask of you... Pray! Pray for the Mustard Seeds Staff, pray for the teams that will be coming through all summer, pray for the people who live in McDowell County. Pray that the teams will come in with hearts open to what God wants to do in their lives that week. Pray for minimal conflict among everyone involved in this ministry. Pray not necessarily for safety, but that we will come closer to God whatever it takes! Often that means taking risks and leaving behind the comfort of safety. Above all, pray that God will be glorified this summer and hearts will be turned to him! The people who stay at home and pray are just as much a part of the mission as the people traveling, and I would love your support! I intend to keep up a blog (it depends on the internet) while I am in West Virginia, and if you send your email address to abbylee123@gmail.com, I will definitely email you a link so that you can keep up with prayer requests and all the amazing things that are bound to happen. Finally, I’d like to add that if you want to give a monetary donation to Mustard Seeds and Mountains in order to help them continue with their great ministry (they work completely off of donations), you can either go to their website (www.mustardseeds.org) or you can mail a check to Mustard Seeds and Mountains, Inc.; PO Box 686; Northfork, WV 24868. Any financial support you would like to offer is greatly appreciated by the ministry. But the most important thing is PRAYER! Thanks for reading this all the way through, and I hope that you have a fantastic summer. Don’t forget to send me your email address; I’d love to keep you posted on everything that is going to happen!

In Christ,

Abby Lee Eggers!

Here's what's goin' down...

So if you are reading this, you very likely already know what it's about. But in order to make a proper intro, I'll do a little summary for you. I'm interning in West Virginia this summer with Mustard Seeds and Mountains. On one of my short-term trips up there before, I kept a blog throughout the week on behalf of the whole team. It was updated each day and went over what our team was doing, the people we were working with, and what God was working on with each of us while we were there. People back home seemed to like it a lot, since it allows the prayer warriors, who aren't actually out traveling but are very much still a part of the team, to have a much better idea of what is going on as it happens. It's also a great way to communicate specific prayer requests as they come up. The only problem is that I have no guarantees on internet access while I am there. But I'll do my very best! Keep checking back all summer!

Me in West Virginia last summer