More photos to come.  Out of respect for the privacy of those with whom we worked, some worksites were not photographed.

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” - Mark 4:37-41 NIV

Last spring when a deluge of rain fell upon Nashville—a city whose Christian dedication is visibly obvious in the church on nearly every corner—countless people asked, in a variety of phrasing, but all echoing the Biblical question, “Jesus, don’t you care if we drown?”  Don’t you care if my home is destroyed?  My city is paralyzed? Like the disciples of the Bible, the disciples of Nashville saw God slumbering in their hour of need.  But Jesus did not stay asleep!  With a redeeming, “Quiet! Be still!” Christ calmed the storm.

One woman in Nashville told me that when the flood came it was one trial too many, and she said, “I doubted there was a God, and was sure if there was, he wasn’t anybody I wanted anything to do with.”  But like the ancient disciples, her fear was transformed into amazement as she saw the city of Nashville come together, and her life took dramatic changes for the better as her community helped her overcome challenges even bigger than the flood was.

If being a follower of Christ means doing what Jesus would do, the miraculous calming of the stormy seas seems like an impossible example.  Yet this week taught us who went to Nashville that we can in fact be the hands of God in calming storms.  No, we don’t have the power to say “Quiet! Be still!” and have even the winds obey us, but in every damaged home and fallen tree, it was clear that the flood and subsequent storms and tornadoes were not gone yet.  Thus with each branch sawed and hauled and with each wall painted, we did a little to make the storms go away for our sisters and brothers.  Each task was part of the re-creating Jesus’s miracle on the Sea of Galilee anew.

Sunday

After being commissioned in the ten o’clock service to serve the people of Tennessee with the support and prayers of Mystic Congregational Church, we piled into minivans and drove to Providence airport.  Twelve youth and four adults—including Pastor Ann, Doug Aaberg, Kathy Parker, and me—in all were traveling.  Our matching bright yellow t-shirts, despite some protest from our stylish teens, helped keep us together and gave us lots of opportunities to share with curious fellow passengers about our church and our mission.  (My favorite question was on the flight to Nashville when a concerned man asked me, “What in the heck is a Mystical church?”  He was greatly relieved, it seemed, to learn Mystic was the name of our town.)

We rented three minivans for the week.  We set out from the airport to Bellevue United Methodist Church, whose parish hall would be home for the coming week.  Two drivers with old fashioned directions given by a local over the phone made it to the church easily.  One driver, your truly, took his youth on a forty-five minute scenic detour prompted by a fierce, and ultimately misplaced, faith in the TomTom GPS.

We were greeted at Bellevue United Methodist by a group of hospitable parishioners who showed us around and invited us to join their youth group night on Wednesday, an offer we happily accepted.

The boys and girls sides of the parish hall were determined.  The girls quickly arranged air mattresses and cots in an artistic geometric pattern.  The boys did not follow the girls example.

Monday

Our first work day took us to Joelton, Tennessee, to a private residence gutted by flood waters.  Though the home was up on a hill above the river, a damn of a reservoir higher up had burst.  The backyard swimming pool had fish from the pond in it.  We dissembled a wooden fence, did various yard work, and weed-whacked.  Two other Connecticut UCC youth groups worked alongside us, one from Ellington and one from Saugatuck.

Monday night, we visited downtown Nashville, starting with dinner at Jack’s BBQ, a highly-recommended rib joint on Broadway, Nashville’s tourist strip.  We explored downtown Nashville, including visits to boot and hat stores and passing by shrines to country stars none of our non-country-music-fan youth recognized.

For me, the visit to the riverfront was most striking.  Across the river, high up a hill is Nashville’s football stadium, which in pictures from last year was flooded like a lake.  To get from the flooded neighborhoods to the river involved a walk down long, steep stairs.  I admit sometimes when I see flood news reports, I wonder why people would build so low and close to rivers, but visiting Nashville it was clear: they didn’t.  This flood was truly enormous and unimaginable.

Tuesday

Tuesday we travelled south of the city to Columbia, Tennessee, where we repainted the fellowship hall of Saint Luke’s United Methodist Church.  The drive from Nashville took us through beautiful rolling hills and elegant equestrian estates.  The variety of tasks involved in repainting a large room were well-suited to our varied personalities.  Some youth eagerly grabbed rollers while some youth took tape and brushes for the detail-orientated trim work.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we took our vans in different directions.  The boys went to East Nashville to saw and clear fallen trees from recent tornadoes and storms.  The City of Nashville provided orange reflector vests, a favorite souvenir of many of our youth, and access to chainsaws (after safety training, of course), definitely the highlight of the trip for many.

The girls, Pastor Ann, and I went to Thistle Farms, an urban women’s ministry where one of my seminary classmates is an intern.  Thistle Farms helps women overcome addictions and prostitution by providing a 12-step program, a place to live, and a job making natural bath and body products.  One of the women in the program gave us a tour, told us her story, and then helped us get started helping for the day.  Our group helped make “thistle paper,” a tough card stock from recycled cardboard and thistles.  The women use thistle paper for greeting cards and gift boxes.  Our whole group was touched by the remarkable work this ministry is doing for women in Nashville and the stories of the women we met.  We would encourage you to visit their site and buy their products!  The girls especially enjoyed Thistle Farms lip smoothies.

On Wednesday night, we reunited.  The boys smelled like rotting trees and sweaty teenage boys and the girls smelled like lavender body butter, exaggerating the rapidly increasing difference between the boys and girls sides of the parish hall.  Our host church, Bellevue United Methodist, invited us to have pizza and play games, including an intense crab soccer match, with their youth.  Based on text messages and Facebook friend requests since Wednesday, it appears the joint activity was quite successful at bringing Tennessee and Connecticut youth together.

Thursday

On Thursday morning we sent Pastor Ann off to Tampa for the UCC General Synod.  e joined the youth of Belmont United Methodist Church to their weekly summer activity of visiting refugee children from Myanmar/Burma.  Our youth divided into “reading” and “math” groups who led games and songs with the children.  After the teaching time, we stayed and played outside games with them, learning lots of new activities that we’ll use in our own youth group.

After tutoring we went to Percy Priest Lake for a much needed cool off and afternoon of swimming.  It was warmer and calmer than our youth were used to, but on a nearly 100 degree day, there was not much complaining.

Friday

On our last work day we all returned to East Nashville for more chainsawing and debris removal work.  We were reunited with the Connecticut churches we had worked with on Monday.  The heat was intense and the work was exhausting, a perfect way to conclude our trip.

At night we unwound with souvenir shopping for our sponsors, writing thank you notes, cleaning, and a games of Sardines, for which some of the youth of our host church rejoined us.

Our youth had some great experiences.  Through the wide variety of projects, each was able to find a way to serve others that matched their own gifts and interests.  Through spending time together, they also became a stronger Christian community as a youth group.  Thank you to all those at Mystic Congregational Church who shared their prayers, their time, their financial support, and their teenagers!