Just back from rural Kentucky, North Aurora’s Jabari Sisco and 85 other members of the Batavia United Methodist Church’s mission trip streamed into the morning Sunday worship service to talk about their experience.
Sisco, who will be attending Aurora Christian High School in the fall, spent the mission trip putting siding and foam board insulation on a mobile home as part of the Appalachia Service Project’s summer program.
Even though it was his first time handling tools and other construction equipment, he said the experience was fun in addition to rewarding.
“You could see how the experience really changed everyone’s perspective,” he said.
For his mom, Hasana Sisco, the experience was very emotional. The trip was the first for her younger son.
Her older son, Juwan, also participated in mission trips with Batavia United Methodist and Appalachia Service Project all through high school.
“Tears and smiles were everywhere on the faces of parents, kids, pastor, all of us as they entered the sanctuary,” she shared via email.
The service ended with the youth praise band which included Sisco’s older son on keyboard playing “Lean on Me.”
Other members of the group spent the week repairing roofs, building room additions, providing wheelchair ramps, securing foundations, digging drainage ditches, constructing porches and steps, installing insulation and siding and weatherizing homes as part of the Appalachia Service Project which serves communities throughout Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Each week throughout the summer, a team of volunteers pick up a project that was worked on by a group of volunteers the previous week.
The groups are housed in a base camp, school or community center.
The Batavia group spent the week on cots and air mattresses in a local middle school, according to Amy Nelson of Batavia.
This year, Amy, her husband Brad, and daughter, Aleigh, a student at Batavia High School, all participated in the trip.
It was the third trip to the Appalachia region for Aleigh. She also has completed mission trips to Haiti and Nicaragua.
Aleigh worked on the house of a 93-year-old man who hadn’t left his home since December, and only then to go to the hospital.
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Her team built a ramp “so that he could get in and out of his house without being carried,” she said.
“The trip was as life-changing for us as it was for the families that we helped,” Amy Nelson said. “It is cool to see the community come together and make these projects happen.”
“The project is not only about construction, but also about building those relationships with the people you are helping — to let them know that there is hope out there, God loves them, we love them,” she added.
Amy worked on a room addition on a home for grandparents who are seeking custody of their four grandchildren.
“The parents of the children are drug addicts,” she said.
The room addition is a necessary step to gain permanent custody, she added.
“This is not just a room addition, it is a life change,” she said.
Batavia United Methodist Church members say the mission trips are well worth the effort.
“There is a lot of work that still needs to be done there,” Nelson said.
Each year, the group chooses a family to continue to support after their week is over. Online donations can be made at https://www.bataviaumc.com/online-giving