Glory Ridge Freeze Out

As a fall retreat, the senior and junior high youth groups at my church went to Glory Ridge, the same place we go to for our mission trip each summer, at the beginning of November. I had never been before; the Glory Ridge week in the summer has always coincided, unfortunately, with the YMCA national championships.

Glory Ridge is a camp that many church youth groups go to during the summer in order to work on service projects for the local community, one of the most impoverished region in the state. Instead of working for the community, however, our group instead worked on preparing the camp for winter and contributing to on-site construction projects: clearing undergrowth, building a set of stairs into the slope, working on a new staff cabin, and chopping wood. The new cabin was particularly important, as it would help the camp expand its mission.

We spent all of Saturday working. I mainly worked on the cabin, sealing cracks in the wood with caulk, painting, and constructing steps for the porch. I had never applied caulk before and soon discovered how messy it could be; even when I released the trigger on the caulk gun, it still oozed out of the tip.Needless to say, there were some pretty messy places on the interior walls.

By the end of the day, we had painted almost the entire exterior of the cabin and finished the porch and staircase. Since I may never get a chance to go to Glory Ridge in the summer, I am glad I was able to do this weekend; I was still able to contribute to Glory Ridge's outreach efforts and the efforts of my church to alleviate poverty and human suffering. I had always been a little apprehensive about going to Glory Ridge, but now I know what it's like. Maybe I will be able to go next summer, my last chance before college.

Glory Ridge really is an incredible place and ministry; it has done so much for the people of Madison County and I'm glad to be able to say I participated in it.

Building a new staff cabin

View from the ridge