I just can't wait to get on the road again

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure,
full of knowledge.

- Constantine Peter Cavafy

I'm heading to Johnson City, TN next Wednesday to serve Appalachia Service Project (ASP) as the summer staff Chaplain. This will be my fourth summer with ASP, though my first summer as a support staff. I have served in Buchanan County, VA ('06), Letcher County, KY ('07), and Claiborne County, TN ('08).

I leave for training on the 20th, and will begin my sojourn sometime around the 1st of June. I expect to have cell phone and email access for the entire summer, though sporadically. Aside from fulfilling my actual job expectations, I hope to keep this blog updated regularly, learn to play the autoharp, study Greek (just for you, JKnust!), and tackle my epic summer reading list (which will be fully posted in some future posting).



This summer will be different in that I will be living out of a minivan, driving from center to center every few days or so. (See the above map for the territory that I will be covering.) Therefore, I won't have a permanent address for anyone to send me letters, I won't really be somewhere where that anyone could come visit me, I won't have my own staff, I won't have my own county. HOWEVER, I'll get to drive around Appalachia and see lots of centers, love on lots of staff, meet lots of families and volunteers, see the impact of ASP in its fortieth summer, visit my old families from past summers, get intimately acquainted with atlases and road maps, get lost, and spend a summer seeking grand adventure.

It will be a good time.


NOTE: Map image is from Appalachia Service Project, Inc. website. For more information, please visit http://asphome.org/ourwork_wws.html