Old Union Mission Trip 2026

THURSDAY, AUG. 6

We awoke to partly sunny skies (I thought "wow, that's new") , so we knew we would have a nice sunny day to work. Sure enough, by 8 AM the sun shone brightly. By now we're accustomed to the morning routine leaving at 7:30 AM. Cassie led the morning prayer before we all left to our respective worksites. My group returned to the Foster house along with Team Peter (Peter, Lorene, and Geoff). What did we find when we first arrived?? Chester! He came to greet us briefly, and I got to pet him just like old times, and then he walked away. We never saw him again during the day. Also, because of all of the rain since Monday, our post holes that we meticulously dug were filled with water! Alex and Noah were with us again, and Buck arrived later. We had to use a sump pump to quickly drain the holes. Then Bob G, Carl, Peter and Lorene mixed cement to fill 5 holes. While waiting for the cement to harden, Alex, Carl, and even me cut the boards needed to make the square boxed platform of the ramp. Geoff, Tim and Peter left with Buck and Noah to dig additional dirt out of post holes at a nearby house. After lunch, we made the frame for the upper part of the ramp connecting the platform to the front porch. Alex said he would have been happy with just building the box, but we put on the gravy by planking almost to the porch. We only needed 3 more boards to finish, but ran out of lumber.

The clouds began to thicken and darken. By 2:30 PM, the clouds let loose and once again, we had to scramble to clean the area and put the tools away. While hurrying around, we forgot to cover the remaining bags of cement. Too late, but we attempted to possibly salvage them by covering with plastic. We all got soaked. As we traveled back to camp, it was pouring in Hendersonville, by the time we reached the town of Fletcher (10 mins later), the sun was shining and the roads looked dry.

As for Team Jeff B, they continued with putting up siding, soffit; finished the flooring and painting. Cassie and Judy then went to another new build to start painting there. They were excused early from the normal 4 PM stop time, hoping to return to camp before the other teams, but they didn't. Cassie told and showed me a picture that she took of a Red-shouldered hawk. I'm so jelly!

Once back at the camp, Mary Rae was beginning to shuck fresh corn on the cob that she purchased from a local farm market. I pitched in and husked 4 ears, until Judy arrived to take over. Upon arrival back to the lodge, after my shower and a nap, there was a bunch of us huddled around a blazing fire. Okay actually there were 2 small aluminum disposable grills afire with hamburgers and hot dogs cooking. We smelled the meat cooking as distant thunder could be heard in the background. Geoff said grace before we could dive into our picnic-like dinner which also included the corn, baked beans, veggie tray and salad, coleslaw. For extra special treat, Mary Rae also bought a watermelon! Everything was very delicious! But the corn was almost as sweet as McElhinny corn, but not comparable.

Carl led devotions after dinner from Mark 9:2-9 about Jesus' Transfiguration. How would you react to seeing what James, John and Peter saw, including famous historical figures? I would liken it to getting to meet George Washington and Albert Einstein. I could only blurt out "can I please have your autograph?" As much as we would like to stay up on the mountain and relish the view, we need to come back down and minister to people in need as Jesus instructed. If we do not come down, Jesus may send someone else to get us.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we got new T-shirts from Habitat for Humanity! We're now "official" HFH volunteers!

We are anxiously anticipating our last night's dinner out tomorrow. It is sure to be bittersweet. The gang at the card table is just wrapping up, and I can now hear the Katydids singing outside, and the light rain falling. Please continue to pray for us, as we will for you, our loyal blog readers. Goodbye and Goodnight everyone. Take care Laurie and Eagle. Signing off, this is Lorene and Clark.