From Jody Roth, 7/07/08

RE: serving as a leader on the High School Pittsburgh Mission Trip

The entire experience was awesome - really from the time we left to the time we returned. The kids were terrific and showed such a level of maturity and kindness to each other that impressed all of us leaders.

Surprisingly, the house I was assigned was the SAME house I was assigned to last year, which apparently is very unusual. The house belongs to Mrs. Bennett who is an 86 year old widow and confined to the downstairs due to her health. She had just been in the hospital for four weeks and was struggling with a lack of energy. Her nurse Alice mentioned that Mrs. Bennett was also suffering from depression.

Our job was to do all interior painting, so we had a lot of face time with Mrs. Bennett. Her son, who converted to Islam, lives with her on the 3rd floor. Last year he showed no interest in us at all and barely spoke to us. We rarely saw him. This year, however was much different. The first afternoon, “Akiem” was in the kitchen making something in a mass quantity. I was curious, so I asked what he was making. He seemed reluctant to tell me at first, but after a few minutes he explained it was a product he was selling on the Internet. When I mentioned it was something my husband had recently talked about, he offered me a jar and the next day he had it on the table for me. The next day we had to paint a room that had an old record player in it. When the kids saw it, they got so excited and asked if we could play it, so I said they could ask Mrs. Bennett. She said sure if they could get it operating, but the last she knew it wasn’t working. So the kids started to work on it and then Akiem came into the room and helped them get it working. We listened to Ray Charles, Motown, Jackson 5 and others. Akiem even poked his head in to request we play Georgia! The music brought so much life into that house, it was awesome. I just imagined how this was how the house was when Mrs. Bennett was younger and full of energy raising her kids. It was beautiful and so joyful to have the seven of us in their home for a full week just showing the love of Christ.