One of the great ones

We were greatly saddened at the recent news of the passing of our dear friend, Owen Warren. Many in our Adults In Ministry program have worked with Owen, know him, or at least have benefited in some way from his expertise. Just like Owen is described in his obituary, he was the kind of guy you could ALWAYS count on.

Owen was an important part of the AIM community. There wasn't a summer or fall season that we didn't see him come to camp. We knew he didn't do emails or cell phones, so typically we'd decide what time was good to have Owen's skills (there weren't too many people we knew who would come AND bring their backhoe) and leave him a message at home. We may or may not hear back before the appointed time; however, around the time of the first meal of an event where he was expected, we would start looking. Sure enough, as the hot food was coming out of the kitchen, there Owen would be, finding his place at the table.

That was another thing Owen was know for around MTOP: his eating! We would actually have a discussion at staff meetings to make sure the kitchen was prepared for Owen's arrival. We knew to only worry about him if he was late for a meal. He could eat more poppyseed chicken casserole than anyone we knew. There were at least a couple of meals where Owen would still be eating as we were cleaning up. No problem! That's just what Owen did, take his time a savor every bite. And make sure he polished off the ice cream!

But what Owen was definitely known for best around Mountain T.O.P. was his willingness to help in any way he could. He was the easy going guy in the community, not shaken by the scope of a project or all of the personalities in a work group. He was just there, constant and consistent in his devotion to God through his everyday actions.

Visitation will be from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 13.  Services will be held at Woodbine Hickory Chapel at 10 a.m. Friday, December 14. Memorial contributions may be made to Mountain T.O.P., P. O. Box 128, Altamont, TN 37301, or Nolensville First United Methodist Church, 7316 Nolensville Road, Nolensville, TN.

Owen was undoubtedly one of the great ones. And he will be greatly missed! We invite you all to remember Owen's family in their grief and celebration of Owen's life.

Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world;

In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you;

In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you;

In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you.

May your rest be this day in peace,

 and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.  

Mason Jar Memory

Today we received a very meaningful, heartfelt donation we would like to share with the Mountain T.O.P. family. The letter, along with a mason jar of $5 bills, was sent by Sandy Partridge.

Last November, exactly one year ago today, as I sat overwhelmed with grief and trying to sort through all of Stan's things, I found a Mason jar containing a $5 bill. The jar was in his mission box, a Rubbermaid container that held all the things he would need if he was headed out on a trip.

Now it was his habit to put loose change in a jar. Once he had collected and rolled a substantial amount of change he would put it toward a mission trip or outreach of some kind. I had never known frugal Stan to save bills of any kind so it was clear to me that if he was going to save $5 bills he had a special project in mind. So, I placed the jar on my desk and prayed about what my sweet husband would want me to do.

Right before Thanksgiving it was clear to me that the Mason jar with the $5 bill was my challenge to undertake! The Spirit really pressed into me that my mission was to save every $5 bill I received as change over the course of the next year. I figured that I might collect about $200 and it would make a nice donation toward a worthy cause. Little did I know that the pursuit of the $5 bill would become a game strategy over the weeks and months. Imagine my surprise when I emptied this crowded jar today and discovered $550!!! Praise the Lord! (Our old cat helped me count so be sure to double check! LOL!)

At first I thought it would be difficult to decide who should receive this treasure-filled Mason jar, but the decision was actually very easy. You see, Stan was in retirement-planning-mode right before he died. His plan was to re-focus his energies toward Mountain T.O.P. and he was thrilled with the prospect of ministering to families in need in a place he loved so much!

So, I present to you Stan's Mason jar given to Mountain T.O.P. in his memory. I know the needs are many in the Cumberland Mountains but I am certain that there are special needs that come up at Thanksgiving and Christmas that above and beyond what Mountain T.O.P. budgets for each year. Please use the contents of this jar to shower blessings upon someone with special needs.

As always, you are all in prayers. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

Love in Christ,
Sandy Partridge

Love Come to Life

Stephanie and the Drewry MPT

Certain places have a way of cementing their significance in our lives when introduced during our formative years. For me, it is this hidden land off I-24, off the Pelham exit, up HWY 56 where I first experienced real love. You know, the kind of life-altering, soul-shifting love that, when experienced, redefines everything you’ve ever known about it previously? Real love. The first time I came to MTOP was the summer I was thirteen. My experiences working with the families of the Cumberland Mountains taught me about putting others before myself in the most basic of ways. For the next several summers, I came back to this special spot on the mountain and poured my heart into the work I was allowed to do and into the people I met. The love of Jesus became real for me. I saw the love of Christ come to life on that mountain, and a desire to get these experiences to translate into life in the real world down in the valley below was born within my spirit. 

Fast forward a few years. I had the opportunity to serve on summer staff at MTOP for three years while I was in college. These summers revolutionized the way that I operate at an almost cellular level. The end of the summer would always leave me riding high and determined to carry what I had learned down the mountain and into everyday life back at home. Months would pass and life would knock me around a bit, and before long my thoughts would be consumed with making myself feel better. However, an egocentric life has a way of paralyzing any sort of service for others. There is no sacrifice when we are focused on ourselves and not on others. There is no room for Jesus to work. College graduation came and I entered the workforce, but rarely would a day go by when those summers did not cross my mind or come up in conversation with someone else who had experienced the magic of the mountain. Yet, I often found myself really struggling with the fact that I wasn’t fulfilling my end of the bargain. What was happening on the mountain was not translating in the day to day. I felt unable to make the kind of impact or incite the kind of change in the valley that I had spent years witnessing up on that mountain. What was I doing wrong? However, there is the problem. 

The weekend of October 18-21 provided me with another opportunity to roll into Camp Cumberland Pines with a group of eighty-plus volunteers for a weekend of service. I was unprepared for the impact that this experience would have on my life. Really, I should know better than to think that I can’t be surprised by what the power of God can do to a heart. I’ve seen what He can do. My weekend at AIM was shaped by 1 John 3:16-17 which states, “This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears and you made it disappear.”  Boom. That’s it. That is the moment. This scripture opened the door and revealed the missing piece for me. It is a shift in focus. 

My MPT worked with a lady named Deborah over the course of the weekend. When we broke into our groups and were handed our notebooks with our jobsite information, we were all moved by Deborah’s story. The last few years had not been easy for her. The tragic loss of her husband in 2008 had been understandably difficult for her. It was apparent upon meeting Deborah that the biggest thing our group could do for her was to just be with her. Over the few days we were on the mountain, there was a lot of discussion of the Holy Spirit. Now, I don’t know about you, but that guy is tough to nail down and describe. Is it a feeling? Is it tangible? You get the idea. Our group was really lucky to be able to do some nice things around Mrs. D’s house that weekend. We painted a little. We defrosted a freezer, which I might add made us question our positions on global warming. This ice was thick. We put in some new flooring in her living room. All of these things were great and we were thrilled to do as many tasks as possible in the short amount of time we were given. But the best parts of our time together took place in those quiet moments of prayer, devotion, and conversation, when it became increasingly clear that something much bigger than ourselves was working amongst us. The Holy Spirit was present and he was creating a stir within all of our hearts to show us what it means to love. It didn’t matter that we had only known each other or Mrs. D for a matter of days. When our time together was finished, we knew that we had been a part of something really remarkable. We all sacrificed a little of our time and energy over that weekend, but what allowed Jesus to come in and work was the fact that we all, including Mrs. D, allowed that part of ourselves that we sometimes let stand back on the outskirts of life to come out and take action. We loved. We worshipped. We sacrificed. We served. All of us. When we open ourselves up to the possibility that we each carry something that is of value, to someone, it is really powerful to see what the Lord can do. Synergy is a real thing, and I know that the sum was truly greater than its parts that weekend. The Holy Spirit showed us how to love by sacrificing for another, physically and emotionally. We all rolled up our emotional sleeves and got our hands dirty.

So, how do I take the magic of the mountain down to the valley below? How do I continue to be a conduit of grace and love for Jesus? It is a moment by moment choice to take every situation and every interaction and pump it full of the love of Jesus by sacrificing of myself in some way. In every way. If someone is in need and I have something to offer, I have to use that as an opportunity to serve. The moment to serve someone is not hidden behind some big picture, grand vision, or massive project that I have to wrap my brain and heart around first. It is in these small interactions with others where I am given endless opportunities to serve and to share the love of Jesus. That is how to bring the mountain down into the valley. That is real love. We are called to live and love sacrificially just as Christ did for us. Real magic happens when the focus shifts to acknowledge the needs of others before our own and we allow Jesus to work. 

Stephanie Holland, Crievewood UMC

Overwhelmed with Joy

It was a busy day in June when I received a phone call from Tiffany Johnson, the Soles4Souls outreach coordinator. She was looking for the Grundy County Food Bank because of previous food distributions by the Ragnar Relay team. Once she explained that Soles4Souls wanted to do a shoe distribution in Grundy County, the wheels started turning. An event outside of our summer, the time of year in which we get to work with the highest number of families, would allow us to meet more needs of the community and continue fostering the relationships we have built over 37 years of ministry. It would also allow us to see the children we interact with over the summer and recruit new children to our summer programs. Among many other reasons, the excitement that began over that phone call turned into the very first Mountain T.O.P. Fall Festival.

On Saturday, October 27th from 10am - 2pm, we opened the gates of our camp to Grundy County residents with no charge to the public. Over 500 people showed up! I happened to be standing at the gate when it was opened and I couldn’t believe the steady stream of vehicles. People had lined the road and waited so that they could receive much needed items for the winter. We ended up giving out hundreds of books, coats, shoes, socks, hats, gloves and scarves. 800 of those books were donated by Scholastic. Coats were collected by the Murfreesboro organization, MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers), along with one of our Adults in Ministry participant churches, Kent UMC in Kent, OH. Socks were collected by the local youth group of Tracy City First United Methodist Church. Hats, gloves and scarves were collected in part by University of the South (Sewanee) students. Toiletries were distributed by the Grundy County Family Resource Center. Plus, many of our 20 weekend volunteers brought these items as well. 

Approximately 600 hot dogs, bags of chips and apple slices were served by a local church, Morton Memorial UMC in Monteagle, TN. Frito-Lay donated 700+ bags of chips. Sysco donated a portion of the hotdogs. Booths with carnival games, information and giveaways included eight local entities: Grundy County Rotary, Grundy County Early Intervention, HeadStart, Grundy County Health Council, Family Resource Center, Camelot Care, Tracy City FUMC youth and Beersheba Springs Health and Temperance Ministries. And the festival was funded by a large grant Mountain T.O.P. received from the Community Fund of the South Cumberland Plateau!

Watching all of this unfold (on a freezing cold day!) was truly overwhelming. After months of planning and organizing, everything worked beautifully. Kids were gleefully running through the field, jumping on moonwalks, riding horses, eating a hot meal and proudly showing off their painted faces. Families stood patiently in line anxious to receive new coats and shoes. Volunteers joyfully greeted everyone and worked hard to make sure everyone was having fun and their needs were being met. 

Later that evening, we had a sharing with our camp community about the day’s events. Story after story told of the gratitude from Grundy County residents, the life-shaping encounters our volunteers will cherish and the overwhelming evidence of the Holy Spirit moving throughout the day. There was not a dry eye in the room. One camper’s story in particular has stuck with me. Becky Strickland helped the Soles4Souls team distribute shoes among the families. As she helped a little girl take of her old, worn shoes and put on a brand new pair of shoes, she couldn’t help but think about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples the night before His death. How He must of felt as a He served, how they must have felt as they received, how powerful and significant it must have been to cleanse and make anew, to be cleansed and made anew. As she said, this act of giving new shoes can be likened to a “modern day foot washing.” Removing the old. Rising with the new. Coming one way. Leaving another. 

And so, we can say with blessed assurance that lives in our community have been changed for the better because of this event. We thank everyone who played an integral part in making it a success. We are full of gratitude and praise for this gift. 

To see pictures from the festival, click here.


Sam Tashman

The View From Here!

The Friends Cabin Men's Restroom is getting remodeled!

Here's some pics of the progress.

 

Recently, my friend who is the Development Director at the Lexington Rescue Mission (Lexington, KY) posted a link from the USA Today showing the shift in poverty for children and the elderly over the last 30 years.

Though we work in different social service sectors, we obviously are both seriously concerned about the poverty rate...what works, what's new, what the research and statistics tell. I've posted several times about this trend in education, that non-cognitive skills might be just as important as intelligence. Though character seems to play a huge role in the solution of how to help students, especially low-income students, become successful, it isn't the whole story. Emily Hanford, of American Public Media, writes:

Many advocates for low-income students are especially interested in the research on grit. Years of school reform focused on cognitive skills and standardized tests have not succeeded in closing the achievement gap. Perhaps teaching so-called “noncognitive” skills, such as grit, is a solution. But it’s important to recognize that people who are successful in school and in life have more than just grit on their side.

My thought is that "more than just grit" might actually be The Gospel. Hanford continues, "The idea that low-income kids need more grit fits neatly into a familiar narrative that poor people don’t work hard enough." John said it this way, "If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear" (1 Jn 3.17, MSG).

So, this past Saturday, we didn't just pass out shoes, socks, coats, or hot dogs. We LOVED.

- Much love, Julie

Over 500 People!

Early estimates are in: over 500 people attended the Fall Festival last Saturday at Camp Cumberland Pines. One of the coolest things about the whole day is that it was, in part, funded by a grant from the Community Fund of the South Cumberland Plateau. This fund was set up and managed by people from the community. The Fall Festival was an event for the community funded by the community. That's exciting to think about! Enjoy these pics:

All of the Fall Festival pictures

AIM Weekends 1 & 2!

We're having a GREAT fall! We had 52 campers AIM weekend 1 and 50 campers AIM Weekend 2! We've been able to work with 8 families! Here are some pictures of what's been happening!

Dobbins MPT Weekend 1

King home Weekend 1

Friday worship at AIM Pavilion

Sissom MPT Weekend 2

Nolan MPT Weekend 2

Ashby - Beginning of Weekend 2

Ashby - End of Weekend 2!

The View From Here!

CALM BEFORE A.I.M. WEEKEND #1

 

As you can see, Mountain T.O.P. is calm and empty on this last day before our first Fall A.I.M. Weekend.  On Thursday (that's tomorrow), we'll have 52 campers arriving to work on 8 families homes.  If you're coming to the mountain please drive safely.  We are very excited for you to arrive.  If you're not yet signed up for an A.I.M. weekend, there's still a place for you.

By the way, the Mountain T.O.P. Yard Sale is this weekend.  

Friday and Saturday 8-4pm at Camp Cumberland Pines. 

Fall Festival!

WHEW! We can't even believe how much growth has taken place with this event! It is going to be one awesome day in Grundy County! 

Pumpkins for the Fall Festival, thanks to Ronnie & Teresa Scissom!

Here's the current update:

8 community organizations: HeadStart, Grundy County Schools Early Intervention, Grundy County Health Council, Family Resource Center, Grundy County Safe Communities Coalition, Grundy County Rotary, SAA Ranch (pony rides) and Tracy City FUMC Youth Group (collecting socks for own community).

1 Mountain T.O.P. Day Camp table - former day camp staffers from IL, KS, GA, TN

1 Murfreesboro organization: MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) - Collecting Coats

Kent UMC -  

1 booth: coats 

1 booth: free glucose & blood pressure testing 

2 more AIM participant booths

Soles4Souls - 300-400 pairs of shoes and potentially donating food & water

Sewanee Students - collecting hats, gloves, scarves in dorms and campus organizations

United Healthcare donated 400 plastic bags, 200 water bottles and 200 frisbees

18 AIM participants volunteering on the Fall Festival side - from 11 states (AL, TN, KS, IL, WA, NV, IN, MS, OH, GA, FL) - 1 woman that came to AIM for the first time this past summer is coming back specifically for the festival and is bringing her two sisters (the ones from NV and WA)

5 of those 18 volunteers participated in our day camp programs this summer and are specifically coming back for the FF.

7-10 Saturday MTOP volunteers are coming to help with FF.

**Live Music - Johnny Phillips and Vera Lynn Bush (songwriters for big country artists)**

Johnny has performed on the same bill with over one hundred country acts including Big and Rich, Gretchen Wilson, James Otto, Shannon Lawson, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare, Brooks and Dunn, Trisha Yearwood, Bill Anderson, Asleep at the Wheel, Travis Tritt, and Don Williams.

Free Lunch - volunteers from Morton Memorial UMC organizing

3 inflatables! Two moonwalks and one obstacle course! 

And last but certainly not least, $275 has been donated to MTOP directly for the Fall Festival. 

You can do the same here:  Fall Festival Fund

It just made sense

Recently I was shared a NY Times article about poverty and education. You cannot live in Grundy Co, TN, on the Cumberland Plateau or (really) anywhere in the US and not hear about education. I've grown to be a huge fan of Mountain TOP's summer programs, and I am always looking for resources to aid us in our mission. If you are a parent, you know that summer camp isn't just about having fun. There are so many benefits to the experience beyond learning to juggle or going on a hike. All of our day camps for local youngsters have been working on incorporating quality place based education into our routine program. For non-educators, this can be a challenge.

What I like about this most recent article and some of the others by the author is that he highlights character formation as essential in learning.

...simply teaching math and reading — the so-called cognitive skills — isn’t nearly enough, especially for children who have grown up enduring the stresses of poverty. In fact, it might not even be the most important thing. Rather, tapping into a great deal of recent research, Tough writes that the most important things to develop in students are “noncognitive skills,” which Tough labels as “character.” Many of the people who have done the research or are running the programs that Tough admires have different ways of expressing those skills. But they are essentially character traits that are necessary to succeed not just in school, but in life.

The article goes on to mention that any student, not just those "enduring the stresses of poverty", benefit from character formation. And character formation is not just for schools, but let's not get into that debate right now. Apparently all of this is drawing on 10 years of research in the area. And I'm inclined to think, especially from a Kingdom perspective, that we might just be on to something. 

Along with all of the successes of this past summer, MTOP collaborated with Tracy City Elementary School, Scholastic (yes, the ones that write text books), and the Yale Child Development Center (yes, that Yale) to pilot a camp to teach resiliency (i.e., noncognitive skills) in younger children. I mean, I know Dr. Linda Mayes at Yale knows what she is talking about, but I guess I just didn't see it all at first.

Of course, none of us really knew this when we started Quest. It just made sense.

The Means to Help

This past Wednesday, I spoke at one of Collierville UMC's WOW Wednesday night classes. There are a number of awesome AIM volunteers and YSM participants that come out of Collierville, as the church has been coming to Mountain T.O.P. for 18 years! It was a pleasure to look out and see friendly faces among the crowd!

Every time I head out to share about the ministry, I ask God what He wants me to say. In preparing for this particular visit, I was interested to see the difference in statistics for a county like Grundy and the county in which I was speaking.  Here's what I found (based on 2011 Census Bureau data):

	Grundy	Shelby	TN
Population	13,535	935,088	6,403,353
Bachelor’s Degree  or higher	8%	28%	22.7%
Median household income	$26,529	$44,700	$43,314
Median value of owner-occupied housing unites	$80,000	$135,300	$134,100
per capita money income in past 12 months	$14,000	$25,002	$23,722
Persons below  poverty line	31.5%	19.7%	16.5%
How many people?	~4,100	~187,0oo

I know there are many differences among these two communities, but what caught my attention was their similarity. Thousands of people live below the poverty line. Not just in Grundy or the seven other counties we serve, but in Shelby County, TN. In my backyard. In your backyard.

Our theme scripture for this year comes from 1 John 3:16-18. As I looked at these statistics, I couldn't help but recall, "If you see some brother of sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear." 

I believe we all have the means to help others. Financially, physically, socially, spiritually, emotionally, or in whatever way God has gifted you. These statistics prove that our help shouldn't stop at MTOP. They prove that the question we ask volunteers at the end of a weekend or week-long mission trip is imperative. What will you do to help those in need in your own communities? 

Our scripture very bluntly says that God's love will disappear if we do not help others. We simply can't turn a blind eye or a cold shoulder or sit back and let someone else volunteer... at least not those of us who proclaim to love Christ and desire to spread His love.

So, ask yourself. Do I have the means to help? 

If the answer is yes, then practice real love! Wherever and whenever God may be calling you to do so.

Week 7 at Martin Methodist!!!

Check out our inaugural camp week at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, TN!

Campers stay in Criswell Hall!

Dining area!

Ike (peachtree city pres) being crazy already.

Worship in the Gault

Worship!

The director, Mary Kate Fisher, giving the message!

Sunday response!

Thomas Harness giving the field speech!

Face off got a little intense!

Thomas and Dayna Patterson going over the YRG criteria!

Dani Mitchell's Major Group!

Dayna's Major Group!

Russell Ambrose's Major Group!

YRG get to know you