Introduction:

During the week of June 5-11, 2005, a workgroup of seven men from our parish visited with the good people of St. Jude Mission in Louisa, Kentucky. This community lives in one of the poorest counties (Lawrence) of Kentucky. Fr. Ralph Beiting, Sr. Bernadette Stone and many others have over the past three or so years, developed a community called the Point of Hope (sign shown below) where they offer housing and other forms of service to those in need. The community currently consists of one large building with a residence, office and common area including kitchen as well as five renovated trailers with a sixth just delivered. Last year, six men from our parish went to Louisa to do the rough renovations on two of the trailers and this year we virtually completed renovations on trailer number five. During our visit, we were blessed to meet several of the devoted volunteers (Sr. Helena Straub, Larry Presser, Larry Broan and too many more to mention all of them here) who invest every day of their lives to help the people of this poor mission community. Blessed is the community to have them. Blessed were we to meet them.

The "Point" of our trip: The Point of Hope Community. Shown here is the sign in front of the community along highway 3 south. Shown by the sign are (left to right):
Joe Chiarella, Bill Woodward, Steve Matusheski, Jim Scholz, Andy Shillingsford and Al Worchesky. Not shown is Woody McGee because, you guessed it, he is taking the picture.

A portion of the living room, kitchen and hallway under reconstruction and after repair, insulation, sheetrock and paneling.

That's our two senior construction guys: Andy Shillingsford and Jim Scholz doing the work and then inspecting the outcome.

Joe Chiarella spent his first day or so "half in" and "half under" the trailer rebuilding the floor of a closet and, as everyone commented, he was very happy to finally be out of the closet! He was then shown into the unfinished kitchen where it quickly become obvious that he was in foreign territory and was fortunate to have lots of help from Andy, Jim, Al, Woody, Steve and Bill.

Joe is shown here in the nearly completed kitchen with new back splash, counter top, sink, range and hood. Oh that thing he's holding!? That's just the "Friday afternoon water cooler." :-)

Seen here is Steve Matusheski in the middle bedroom after completing the paneling and painting. Yes, Steve is a big guy. Bill joked that he probably could have stood in that room with a roller in each hand, extended his arms and turned in a circle and he might, just might, have painted the whole room. But he would have gotten dizzy and fallen down - in which case the room wasn't big enough for him and the rollers too. So, somebody was gonna have to leave town...

Steve was our most humble worker who could always be counted upon to do the unglamorous jobs whether it was clean up, mowing, tar on the roof or whatever, Steve would do it and always with a smile.

Mr. Andy Shillingsford was our most experienced worker. Being in the construction trades for 18 years will do that for you! Andy was always quick to help any challenge and never complained when we asked him too many questions or interrupted what he happened to be working on at that moment.

We're sorry we didn't have a "before shot" for this bathroom but what the end result is compared to the starting point is nothing short of a miracle and the instrument of that, Andy, managed to pull that off in one day. Yes, it was a hot day! They all were!

The dynamic duo! Batman and Robin ain't got nuttin' on these two. We ended up calling this back bedroom the "chapel room" because of this beautiful window and paneling job. To say that it was a challenge to engineer the trim and paneling around this curved window would be a huge understatement. However, with the inginuity of Woody McGee (on the right) and Al Worchesky (on the left) with a few tips from Andy Shillingsford and Jim Scholz, they got it done! Congratulations Al and Woody!

Al and Woody both also contributed much help and ideas throughout the week and, as our more senior members, we all agree were an inspiration in endurance and spirit throughout the week.

Here we see master of all trades, Jim Scholz, highlighting his handy window work in the living room. Jim was everywhere: putting in windows, hanging sheet rock, putting up siding, painting, you name it but, if you couldn't find him anywhere else, you'd find him tending the trash bonfire! "Well somebody had to keep that thing burning!"

Jim was also often sought for a quick point of guidance or help and always responded kindly and sagely with a smile and, as you can see, large hands! ;-)

Saving our project manager - Mr. Bill Woodward for last... Bill certainly kept us moving and motivated and demonstrated what it means to be a "servant leader". Bill would always do whatever it took to keep us well coordinated, happy, healthy and supplied with tools and materials to keep things moving. He also never stopped moving, not for a second. They guy was as close to a "whirling dirvish" as anyone this side of Afghanistan has ever seen!

Equally importantly, Bill was always humming, singing, whistling, laughing, joking, etc. keeping all our spirits up. Consequently, yes, he also was often the target of some good natured ribbing. But, as you can see, he has broad shoulders. He can handle it.

Oh yeah, about that picture. Well, Bill did sit down one time - we thought we'd catch the moment. Tee hee. Here's to you Bill! (seriously now, it's a staged picture.)

After the Celebration of the Eucharist on Friday morning, we presented Fr. Beiting with the check from our faith community and some holy water (a gift from one our our devout parishioners) from both Lourdes and Fatima.

Shown in this photo are (left to right):
Steve Matusheski, Bill Woodward, Al Worchesky, Jim Scholz (holding a photo of John Paul II), Msgr. Ralph Beiting, Woody McGee, Joe Chiarella, Andy Shillingsford and, of course, Our Eucharistic Lord as reserved in the Holy Tabernacle.