Day 2 - The Day of Four Church Services

Dungannon has a thriving church community. Each teen selected and attended a service at one of the four local churches: United Methodist, Catholic, Freewill Baptist and First Baptist. All the church services were well received and there were a great number of comments about the Freewill Baptist.

After services, we put on our hiking shoes and bathing suits and headed for The Falls, a local watering hole featuring a 100 foot waterfall.  The teens had a great time getting wet and hiking.  This year, half of the group decided to hike a 2.7 mile trail from a trail head up to the falls.  There were a great many obstacles requiring the teens to climb over trees and negotiate rocks and boulders in the trails.  There was also a section of the trail that was overgrown and a short search party was dispatched to locate the proper trail. With the group linked up, the hike continued.  At the end of the hike, everyone met at The Falls for a cool swim below the thundering falls. Since this is a favorite of the locals, we joined in with 4 families for an afternoon of fun.

This evening was the first time we started to learn about the work sites. There appears to be a lot of great jobs in an around Dungannon and out in other rural areas. In the morning, teams will be assigned and the work will begin in earnest.

(Written by Clifton Poole)

Dungannon! Traveling.

Loading up on Friday evening at St. Anne's

Clifton writes:

The start of our Dungannon Mission trip always begins with a grand caravan.  All of the churches met at St Timothy's and actually departed relatively close to on time around 8:30 am.  This year there are a total of 63 missioners, from four Region V churches:  St Anne's, St Timothy's, St Thomas' and Holy Cross.

After the group pictures were taken and goodbyes said, we hit the road heading west... Dungannon, VA or bust! If you did not know, we are heading to a region of the country where many immigrants settled. According to Ancestry.com, 13% of Dungannon residents report German ancestry, and 10% report Irish.

The travel was uneventful.  We negotiated  Interstate 66 and found ourselves in southbound traffic on Interstate 81 in about 90 minutes. The further south our caravan traveled, the bolder the colors of nature became.  The greens of the trees were brighter and the sky blue shown vividly, without a hint of cloud.

Our first rest stop was just south of the Interstate 81 turnoff.  We stopped for an extended lunch in Christiansburg, VA at 12 noon.  Last year we had an extended - extended stop.  Instead of eating near the highway, we spent an additional hour driving into downtown Blacksburg, VA.  (Blame it on poor GPS management.)  After lunch and a short thunderstorm, we arrived at Abingdon, VA in 90 minutes and began our rural road driving into the town of Dungannon.

Girls at the Grill

All the church groups arrived within 30 minutes of each other and by 3 pm, the Dungannon Development Center was a buzz of activity.  The biggest activity is locating the prime bunk spot.  That accomplished, we started the task of unpacking the vehicles and storing gear.

For the first two days the teens prepare meals.  This first evening was the traditional hot dogs and hamburger grill where we encourage them to work the grill (for some, for the first time). This year, the meat were accompanied by baked beans and fresh garden salad.  After dinner, we got down to the preppin' for the business of the week.

Anyone want watermelon?