Issuu

X h e IM ountain S p ir it:

The Magazine o f the Christian Appalachian Project

Septem ber-O ctober 1987

V ol. V I, N o. 5

Contents Features 4

Jam es Still: A Good W riter, A Good M an by J im W ayne M iller R ecognized as one o f the best of the A ppalachian w riters, Ja m e s Still m ade significant co n trib u tio n s to the storehouse of A ppalachian lite ra tu re , as well as to the H in d m a n S ettlem ent School in K n o tt C o u n ty .

A p p alach ian G ospel T o u r, p. 22

T he M ou n tain C hristian A cadem y by J o e Foley T h e stu d en ts who enrolled as the first freshm an class o f the M o u n ta in C h ristian A cadem y in 1983 g rad u a ted this year. T h e y — and the school— have ad a p te d as circum stances have d em an d e d .

T he A ppalachian G ospel T our, Part I

J a m e s Still, p. 4

The September-October Theme

by F ath er R alph B eiting F ath e r B eiting an d a crew o f 12 people e m b a rk e d on a to u r o f the O h io R iv e r in Ju ly , preach in g on the riv er banks of four states. P resen ted here is the jo u rn a l that F ath e r B eiting kept as they traveled.

Departments 3

From Our Founder

R andom T houghts

A round the Project

T he CAP C loseup

L etters

Low levels of education con trib u te m ost significantly to the overall m akeup of the problem s in A ppalachia. T his fact m akes A ppalachia a very fertile territo ry for experim ents with alternative education. In this issue y o u ’ll m eet Jam es Still, an A ppalachian w riter who was an integral p art of the H in d m a n Settlem ent School in K n o tt C o u n ty , K entucky. In 1983, the M o u n tain C h ristian A cadem y, a religious school in Floyd C o u n ty , opened its doors w ith a cu rricu lum th at offered an alternative to th at of the public schools. T he spring of 1987 saw its first class of g raduates. O n the C O V E R , Jam es Still (photo by W arren B runner). O n the B A C K C O V E R , two early faculty m em bers of the H in d m a n S ettlem ent School ride th ro u g h the m o untains to get to school (photo courtesy of H in d m a n Settlem ent School P ho to g rap h ic C ollection/B erea College S outhern A ppalachian A rchives).

P ublished by the C h ristian A ppalachian Project. E d itor, M a rg aret G abriel. A d visory B oard, F ather R alph W . Beiting; M ike M cL aug h lin ; Leslie B. L arsen; Ja c k M o rris; Bill Begley; R andolph J o rd a n ; Lloyd Feltner. G raphics C oordinator, D ebbie Fraley W ilson; C irculation M anager, T h eresa Richey. The Mountain Spirit is published six tim es a year. T h e annual subscription price is $5.00. Subscriptions and other correspondence should be sent to The Mountain Spirit, C h ristian A ppalachian Project, 322 C ra b O rch ard R o ad , L ancaster, K entucky 40446. C o p y rig h t, 1987. T h e C h ristian A ppalachian P roject, Inc. All rights reserved. M em b er, C atholic Press A ssociation. T h e C h ristian A ppalachian Project is a non-profit C h ristian service organization o perating th roughout eastern K entucky. T h e project operates on the philosophy th at “ helping people help them selves” is the best ap proach to A ppalachian poverty.

From Our Founder We have a tendency to think of private and religious schools as the alternative to public educa tion, but actually, the opposite is true. Our nation grew up around private and religious schools, rather than public education, and the same is true of the mountains. In Appalachia, we have schools like Berea and Alice Lloyd colleges, and settle ment schools like the one in Hindman, that have been extremely successful through the years. They point out that, traditionally, alternative education has been one of the things that’s worked. Our zeal to provide uniformity in education has, many times, gotten the public school system in trouble, but that doesn’t mean that we should do away with it. Public schools need to be saved, reformed and refurbished. In this reformation, we need to keep sight of the reality that parents are the primary teachers of their children. This is a God-given right and the role of the school is to assist the parents. When all schools —public, private and religious —have this tenet firmly in mind, they can go on to provide what is best for children in whatever school the parents choose. Yes, the state needs to be concerned, but the primary concern of the state should be to develop its citizenry to its finest and greatest extent. We must not fall into the trap of thinking that different schools must be set against one another. Competition is the essence of a free society—that’s true in business, it’s true in religion, it’s true in education. We can’t force everybody to belong to the same religion, we wouldn’t force everybody to belong to the same political party and we shouldn’t force everybody to belong to the same school system. But, like political parties and religions, there needs to be a form of harmony between private, religious and public schools. They need to be like a husband and wife —dif ferent, but sharing a common goal: the good of the community. For the good of the community, schools need to support one another. They can—and should —dif fer, but before they can use their differences to the advantage of their communities, they must recognize what the other has to offer. Religious schools have a tremendous role to play because the religious values that they emphasize are as impor tant as mathematical values. Private schools are usually very concerned with academic excellence, and the public schools are looking at the broad concern of everyone. All three of these systems have something to offer. Each has a grace and charisma of its own and they should learn from each other. When you have everyone working Septem ber-O ctober 1987

Father B eiting talks to M CA students.

together for the good of all, you’ve got success and you’ve got something worthwhile. You’re going to find this especially true if the parents are the motivating and the deciding factor. By working together, despite their differences, schools will provide what our children need the most, which is the motivation that they get from the support of a family. If parents support whatever system, they’re going to say to their child, consciously or subconsciously, “You need to study and the reason is not because you’re going to make more money, but because you’re going to make a change. You’re going to make something better come about —a better country, a better family, a better person.” I think we need to change the face of education in this country, there’s no question about that, but we’re not going to do it only by paying larger salaries or building fancier buildings. These things help, no doubt, but the real changes will come when we’re challenging each other and in doing so, working together. Here we have one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. Not many separate communites, but one nation. I believe that giving alternatives is the way to bring the best out of all of us —not uniformity, but diversity that winds up in unity. When we start challenging children to do and be their best, we become a people who are about ideals rather than about programs. We care about the ideal, and see to it that the child develops to the highest ability that God and human nature can provide. By encouraging and developing the child in this way, you allow him or her to be free. In allowing the child to escape ignorance and the darkness that it brings, the child blossoms forth into light and you have something very special. You have the ideal.

B ru n e r

W h e n James Still, the Eastern Kentucky poet, novelist and short story writer, had his first poem published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, he sent a copy to the benefactor who had provided the scholarship for his graduate education. Still’s patron, heir to a sash-and-blind fortune, was not at all certain that a boy who wrote poems had benefitted from his expenditure. He wrote to Edgar A. Guest, then probably the best-known poet in the country, to ask for advice. Guest’s terse reply came promptly: “Leave this young man alone. He may draw up at a place you know nothing of.” After a childhood in Chambers County, Alabama among “barrels of relatives, dozens of cousins visiting back and fo rth ,” after undergraduate years at Lincoln Memorial Univer sity and graduate work at Vanderbilt University and the University of Illinois, James Still drew up at the Hindman Settlement School in Knott Coun ty, Kentucky, in the depths of the Great Depres sion. He had gone to Hindman to do recreational work with a former classmate, Don West. For the next six years he worked there on a salary that averaged, he once calculated, six cents a day.

James Still.

Jam es Still: A Good Writer A Good Man

by Jim Wayne Miller 4

In 1939, Still went to live on Dead Mare Branch in a two-story log house built before 1840 (now on the Kentucky Register of Historical Sites). He moved there to Finish a novel, River o f Earth (now recognized as an American classic). He never in tended to stay long. But he soon realized that the house on Dead Mare Branch was the place he had been looking for all his life. He must have been right. Except for time out for military service in WWII, fellowships at writers and artists colonies (Breadloaf, Yaddo, McDowell), travel in Mexico and Central America, and teaching at Morehead State Univer sity, Still has lived in Knott County for over half a century. Here he has written poems, stories and novels, and kept a journal of doings and sayings in his community. Although he has gone away many times, Still has always returned to Knott County. And he renewed his association with the Hindman Settle ment School in 1970 and continues to serve as a consultant to the school’s staff and its director. He is also a member of the Hindman Settlement School Writers Workshop, held annually in August. For many years Still was the Settlement School librarian, though he prefers to think of himself as a “reader’s advisor” and archivist (he established the Settlement School Archives). Over the years many people have wondered why he has continued to live in so remote a place. To Still the answer is obvious: he has lived on in the hills of Eastern Kentucky and called the place his The Mountain Spirit

home because there he has been able to exercise “as much freedom and peace as the world allows.” Knott County, Kentucky, has afforded Still the freedom and peace to create a distinguished body of writing. In addition to River o f Earth, which appeared in 1940 and is available in reprint from the University Press of Kentucky, Still has published a volume of poems, Hounds on the Mountain, another novel, three short story collec tions, and three books for children. The novel, Sporty Creek, continues the story of the family in troduced in River o f Earth. The short stories are collected in On Troublesome Creek, Pattern o f a Man (available from Gnomon Press) and The Run fo r the Elbertas (also available from the Universi ty Press of Kentucky). In 1986, in connection with the celebration of his eightieth birthday, his col lected poems, The Wolfpen Poems, appeared, published by Berea College Press and distributed by Gnomon Press. Because he has lived an apparently isolated life and made no effort to advertise himself or to pro mote his writing, and accepted awards and honors infrequently, James Still has been perceived as a hermit-writer. This is a misperception. He did fail to accept the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an invitation to be Phi Beta Kappa poet at Columbia University in the 1940s. But, according to Still, he declined in both in stances because he lacked bus fare and suitable clothes for the occasions.

While he appeared to be living in isolation at the Hindman Settlement School and on Dead Mare Branch, Still was not out of touch with the world. He was a constant reader of The Nation, The New Republic, and The New York Times. He was publishing in the best journals and magazines in the country. During these years he numbered among his friends Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling, writers Katherine Anne Porter, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and poet Robert Frost. And he has accepted other awards and honors. James Still is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and the Southern Authors Award, and has been twice honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also received the Kentucky Arts Council’s Milner Award, the highest honor awarded in the arts in Kentucky. Still has never been a recluse. On the contrary, he reaches out to those around him. His associates describe him as a friendly man and say he refuses to tolerate any ridicule of minority groups or the disabled. In gratitude for the scholarships that made a college education possible for him, he is now providing the means for a college education for a promising young east Kentuckian. Through the years, from his own modest means, he has pro vided medical assistance and clothing for needy children. Over lunch at Yaddo in August, 1983, Still began telling me about the early years at Hind-

A ppalachian m usic is an im portant part o f the curriculum at the H in d m an Settlem ent School. Septem ber-O ctober 1987

high school’s graduates continued their training; one-fifth became college graduates. Katherine Pettit and May Stone knew, accord ing to Still, that the school’s success depended upon how well it adapted the curriculum to local needs. Students might never pursue education at a higher level, but they could return to their com munities with better habits and more effective ways of living. The real success of the school, Still says, was measured by the number of students who returned to their communities as teachers, nurses, m in iste rs, b u sin ess men and w om en, homemakers, farmers, agricultural agents, and social workers. When Still came to the school in the early 1930s, 87% of its graduates remained in the mountains. M r. Still and a group o f students in front o f the library w hich bears his nam e.

man. (I would not realize until later that Hindman was not his subject at all, but rather that he was explaining something about himself that he con sidered important to anyone wishing to under stand his life.) When Still joined its staff, the Hindman Settle ment School had been in operation for thirty years. It was then, and remains today, a unique educational institution with an interesting history. The first rural social settlement school in the United States, the Hindman Settlement School was begun in the context of the social reform movement of the late nineteenth century, when settlement houses were being established in Lon don, New York, Chicago, and Boston to improve the lives of immigrants in urban slums. Perhaps the best-known of these was Chicago’s Hull House, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams. An American social worker and author of several books on social issues, Jane Addams was an in spiration to many young women in the late nine teenth and early twentieth centuries. Two such women were Katherine R. Pettit of Lexington and May Stone of Louisville, who were active in the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, and who founded the Hindman Settlement School at the Forks of Troublesome Creek, in Knott County, Kentucky, in 1902. The school flourished, its purpose being “to provide an educational opportunity for the youth of the mountains and keep them mindful of their heritage.” By the early 1930s, when James Still became the Settlement School librarian, the high school was accredited by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools. Seventy-five percent of the

Since the 1960s, some writers dealing with the history of the Appalachian South have criticized the school’s founders for imposing their own values on the mountain people. Some accused them of employing a form of cultural im perialism—of stripping young people of their heritage. James Still takes issue with these charges. The school and its staff had no interest in molding students according to a New England model, Still maintains. The school’s program was much more practical; it consisted in teaching students how to read and write effectively, and in equipping them with good habits and practical training. Still says he was never aware of any intention on the part of the school’s directors and staff to im pose any alien culture. Their purpose was simply to teach students to read, write, and count. He points out that both Katherine Pettit and May Stone were Kentuckians, their ancestors among the first settlers in Kentucky. These women valued the culture of the mountain people and wished to strengthen and preserve it. If the founders of the Hindman Settlement School had a mission, Still believes, it was not a strictly religious one, either. Rather, they came with a social consciousness common to young, well-educated women of their day, and with a sense of moral obligation to help their mountain kinsmen, through education, to enjoy richer, more productive lives. James Still subscribed to this goal, and he has nothing but admiration for the classroom teachers who worked at the school in those years. “The teachers taught all day and then tutored at night in the dormitories,” he recalls. And he has good reason to remember. Still lived in one of those dormitories, where two-hour study halls were nightly events. The Mountain Spirit

His life at Hindman in the ’30s was far from idyllic. He had no days off; he was always on du ty, seeing after children, supervising them. A nephew in Florida wrote asking if Still could send him ten dollars a month. Still was earning, by that time, Fifteen dollars a month. “Missionary barrels” that came to the school contained clothes, and although Still desperately needed clothes, the Settlement School policy prohibited staff members from taking clothes from these barrels. When he hardly had shoes himself, he bought shoes for a little boy who walked by his house in ice and snow. He bought the shoes, admittedly, to put his own mind at ease, for he could not endure knowing the boy walked with wet or frozen feet. Once a wren built a nest in the pocket of a coat he had hung outside to air. Reluctant to destroy the bird’s nest, he left the coat hanging outside so the wren could lay her eggs and raise her young. Of course, the coat was ruined as a result of this long exposure. Still’s consideration for the boy with cold, wet feet, and for the bird were instances, I realized, of the same sensitivity and compassion found in his novels, short stories, and poems. But I had not realized the extent of his selflessness until, there at Yaddo in 1983, he told me more about his work at Hindman in the early days. While he was the Settlement School librarian, he also carried books voluntarily to other remote schools in Knott County. He would ride a bus across the county, get off with his box of books, carry them on foot to a school, and pick up books left on a previous visit. A bookmobile on foot, he was able to reach about four schools a day in this manner. But it would be a mistake to assume that this voluntary work of bringing books to children in isolated areas, children from homes where there were no books, was necessarily met with gratitude. At least two teachers refused this service, saying the books Still brought distracted the pupils from their studies. When word got around that Still was carrying books, a woman administering welfare programs in adjoining Perry County informed Still that he might qualify under one of her programs (this was during Depression years). He might earn $22.00 a month for his work. Still recollects receiving one check before an official prohibited him from go ing into the schools. Nor did he find favor with a public health of ficer in the county during the early years. Still had a child with a rheumatic heart condition (and later epilepsy) admitted to Children’s Hospital in Louisville, where the child underwent treatment for about two years. (He is credited with saving Septem ber-O ctober 1987

*••

F o lk d a n c in g at th e H in d m a n S ettlem en t S ch ool.

the lives of two children through his referrals.) The county health officer resented Still’s not mak ing the referral through her. He reminded her that she had known about the child’s condition and had done nothing. Again, when he referred a case of trachoma out of the county, he met with resent ment from the county nurse —because it reflected on her for not having identified the problem. While Still talked, we lunched leisurely and went through our mail. Still showed me, as a cur rent example of how he is sometimes perceived in the place where he has lived and worked for over half a century, a letter from someone who urged him to “get forgiveness of his sins.” The letter was unsigned. “But I know who wrote it,” he said. And laughed. “Most of my sins are sins of omission.” He told me all this after having passed over to me, on a page he had typed earlier that morning, a passage from A lexander S o lzhenitsyn’s Matryona’s House. I read the passage: Misunderstood and rejected by her husband, a stranger to her own family d esp ite her ha p p y, am iable temperment, comical, so foolish that she worked fo r others fo r no reward, this woman [Matryona], who had buried all her six children, had stored up no earthly goods. Nothing but a dirty white goat, a lame cat, and a row o f fig plants. None o f us who lived close to her perceived that she was that one righteous person without whom no city can stand. Neither can the world.

Photo courtesy of Hindman Settlement School Photographic Collect ion/Berea College Southern Appalachian Archives

M r. Still and m usician, Jethro A m burgey.

Reflecting on the passage, I realized what Still’s recollections at lunch had been about. Solzhenit syn’s description of a misunderstood and rejected woman, who worked for others for no reward and accumulated no material possessions —this life, Still indicated to me, paralleled his own. For he had carried books to poor children, bought them shoes, subsidized their education, helped them get medical treatment. (For a two-year stretch he took a child suffering from grand mal epilepsy to General Hospital in Louisville every three months for examination and medication. “By bus from Knott County, since I didn’t own a vehicle.”) His was a life that was not only legitimate but necessary. And successful. A day or two before he gave me the passage from Solzhenitsyn, Still had passed to me a 3 x 5 card on which he had typed a line of Christopher Morley’s: “There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way.” At the time, I had no idea why Still had given it to me. Now, thinking about his recollections of life in Knott County, about the passage from Matryona’s House, I realized that the passages Still carefully typed and passed to me were his way of inter preting his life to me, his way of saying what he meant and signified. “I have always put 8

something, however small, into any hand held out to me,” he once told me. Many people in the area where Still has lived for over fifty years, and about which he has written almost exclusively, are only now beginning to discover his work. But when they do, they like it. A Knott County resident once told him: “I’ve lived here all my life, but until I read your novel River o f Earth I’d never really seen the place.” After a group in Hisel, Kentucky, had read several of his stories, Still visited them, read for them, and talk ed informally. In a poem about the visit, Tom French-Corbett described the Hisel group as “folk thirsty for a word about themselves and those who have come before.” He called Still “homey, com fo rtab le and e n te rta in in g ;” his fiction “familiarities raised by the magic of compelling word and story to the level of drama.” Still’s work left the group “a legacy of renewable resources from which to recharge the spirit and enhance the lives of us all.” I knew and valued James Still’s writing long before I knew James Still, the man. Now that I have learned more about him, I see his life in the mountains as standing alongside his literary work, and inseparable from that work, a resource and example for us all. James Still is not only a good writer, he is a good man. The Mountain Spirit

Random Thoughts There is a certain risk in using any label as there is in any attempt to communicate at all. Let me try to minimize the risk of misunderstand ing by emphasizing that alternative education is not a mode, still less a set of techniques, to be slavishly im itated or followed. It is, rather, an approach to teaching and learn ing—a set of shared attitudes and convictions about the nature and purposes of teaching and learning, about the nature of childhood and adolescence and ultimately about the nature of man. It is, perhaps most of all, an opportunity. Advocates of alternative educa tion generally agree that the major purpose of education should be to educate educators, which is to say, to turn out men and women who are able to educate themselves —men and women who have the desire and capacity to take responsibility for their own education and who are likely, therefore, to be life-long, self-directed learners. To be less academic and more practical in definition, I think the first purpose of education, especial ly in the region where I live today, should be to provide our people with an opportunity to learn those basic skills that will enable them to earn a living and give them some support and direction in controlling their lives. According to the 1980 census, our congressional district has the highest percentage of adults without high school diplomas of any district in the nation. A study conducted by the Moun tain Association for Community Economic Development in Berea, identified three factors as problems contributing to our low educational achievement —low expectations at home and at school, low levels of school funding, and politics. Whatever the reasons, the results are thousands of people without a S ep te m b er-O c to b e r 1987

high school diploma who suffer a reduced ability to work and a limited chance at providing for themselves and their families. For whatever reasons these people were not able to complete their for mal education, an alternative educa tional opportunity can enable them to rebound with optimism and become self-sufficient. Thanks to the efforts of Rep. Harold Rogers and individuals working in his major districtwide ef fort “Forward in the Fifth,” to im prove education at all levels in our district, to the many GED programs across the state, such as Family Life Center School and School on Wheels of the Christian Ap palachian Project, thousands of citizens are taking advantage of a GED program in their community to go back and complete that educa tional opportunity. The efforts are paying off with noticable results for them, their employers, and their communities. The underlying assumption of alternative education is that an enriched and carefully planned en vironment supports the natural drive toward learning; students are able to learn mostly by themselves, from each other and from books. They learn in encounters with the things and people around them, and they do so at their own irregular and individual pace. They learn most in tensely when they are interested and see the pertinence of what they are doing. I feel privileged to be working w ith an o rg a n iz a tio n th a t recognizes, supports, and serves in the area of alternative education. From the beginning, CAP’S par ticular contribution to the Ap palachian scene has been an em phasis on serving, “helping people help themselves” through education, economic opportunity, employ ment, and a sense of community.

This leads me to the final and most difficult point of all: among the elements of an alternative educa tion is the resolve that people, all people touched by the educational experience, are to be served and not to be used or exploited. Serve is a difficult and overused word. The unabridged dictionary I consulted gives two full pages to serve and related words, and serve, service, and servant among them have over sixty separate definitions. Yet I can find no other word that is capable of carrying the meaning I would like to convey. And I do not want to define the word serve abstractly. I would rather use it in terms of the consequences of being served. I prefer to say that all of those persons who are touched by the alternative education experience are served, and, while being served, they grow as persons; they become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more productive, and more likely themselves to become servants to a progressive society. The result is that the least privileged in society will benefit, or at least, not be further deprived. (And it really doesn’t matter how serve is defined, if that is the result.) This result is the goal of alternative education that provides an oppor tunity. The type of opportunity that prompted a recent Jackson County GED graduate to comment; “All I can say is, it’s never too late. Give yourself a chance.” —GGE. Gary Eldridge is the manager o f the Family Life Center School in Rockcastle County near Mt. Ver non. The FLC School works on GED tutoring with boys in the CAP Group Home and girls in the Mutual Care Home as well as adults in Rockcastle County who wish to obtain their GED. Affiliated with the FLC School is the School on Wheels, which provides homebound tutoring. 9

A round the Project

by the CAP News Service

School on W heels E xp and s Services ROCKCASTLE COUNTY-The School on Wheels has gone to jail —regularly —over the past two months. There, two or three times a week, school m anager Gary Eldridge is locked into a cell by the county jailer —to teach GED preparedness to several of the prisoners. “The social worker from the jail called a few months ago,” Gary ex plained, “and told us that there was an inmate who was interested in finishing his GED. He had learned to print but also wanted to learn to write.” While Gary was visiting, several more of the inmates expressed an in terest in taking the classes, too. “The fellows have a lot of time —they are interested in doing something while they are in there,” Gary said. “I think it reflects well on them to strive to improve their quality of education.” “The jailer, Billy Kirby, has been very helpful,” Gary continued. “We have to go back and work within the cell itself because there are no other facilities available. Mr. Kirby is fix ing one large room with tables where they can all gather for lessons, which will be a tremendous help.” Inmates who never had the op portunity to finish their education are working hard at it now. Three of the inmates are ready to take their GED tests, just after two months of study. One inmate, who has been released, is going to attend GED classes at the school. Gary is excited about this new venture. “The inmates are in terested, motivated and want to learn. This is another chance to reach people who want to continue their education by receiving their GED.” 10

T h e library at the FLC School shares volum es w ith the School on W heels.

S w im m in g P ool in F loyd C ou n ty P rovid es C o m m u n ity R ecreation WHEELWRIGHT-The Wheelwright Swimming Pool has had a busy and fruitful summer, as they have sponsored an on-going Swim-a-Thon to benefit the Heart Fund. Starting in May, each Friday afternoon was set aside for swim mers to lap the Olympic-sized swim ming pool, earning money pledged by their families, friends and local businesses. “We’ve had tremendous participation,” said Katie Newsom, pool manager. “One little ten-yearold girl raised over $100.” The local chapter of the Heart Fund awarded a beach towel to the swimmer who raised the most money. The Wheelwright pool also had divers raising money, Katie reported. “Lit tle kids were sponsored by people who paid by the dive. Some of them

couldn’t dive at all in May, but by the end of the summer, they were pretty good little divers.” The Wheelwright Swimming Pool hosted more than 3000 people per month through the summer months. The pool closed on August 14, when the schools in Floyd County open ed, but not before they celebrated the summer with a community swim. “We donated the services of ou r life g u a rd s and invited everybody in town, through the churches and so on,” Katie said. “We had a gospel sing, too, with three groups singing with the peo ple.” The Wheelwright Swimming Pool has been used as a community meeting place for the folks in that part of Floyd County throughout the summer. They take pride in the facilty and work hard to see that the community benefits from all that it has to offer. The Mountain Spirit

around the project . . . continued

Sum m er P rogram s in C h ild D ev elo p m en t “We wanted to take the kids with the most needs and do more support services through a structure in the summertime,” explained Ellen Burke, director of human develop ment, about the summer programs in CAP’S five child development centers. Two of the centers provide day care as well as child development, so have had summer programs since their inceptions. In the past, the other centers have had a summer vacation, like the “big schools,” as the kids call them. All of the summer curricula in cluded classic summer activities, like swimming and picnics and each in cluded trips to local libraries. The Garrard County center had a theme for each month —Dairy Month, In

dependence M onth, Summer Recreation and Safety Month. The Children’s Discovery Center in Somerset studied the moon and stars as well as farming in the com munity. Although the summer activities allowed kids to experience the joys of the season, lesson plans also in cluded preparation for the school year, especially for the five year olds starting kindergarten. Some lessons were held during the school day, and some during one-to-one tutor ing sessions that teachers conducted in the homes. Ellen said that the schools also had a program designed for children who were between kindergarten and first grade this summer. “Some of the kids were in our centers for three years before they started kindergarten. We think that spending one more summer in a familiar environment can give a kid a real boost before they start first grade.”

Staff and volunteers —both tem porary and permanent —visited homes this summer, recruiting students for the fall and teaching parents about development ac tivities that they can use with their children. The Hisel Community Child Care Center in Jackson Coun ty, the newest center, prepared a handbook which they are using in their parent training program. The goal of the child development summer programs was two-fold. First, the centers wanted to make sure that children were as wellprepared as possible for the coming school year. A secondary, but equally important, goal was to build esteem in the kids for themselves and each other. “Sometimes our en vironment is more supportive than the regular school,” Ellen said. “If we didn’t do anything else this sum mer, we wanted the kids to feel good about themsevles and what they’re learning.”

Moving? Please notify us of change of ad dress to make sure you receive every issue of The Mountain Spirit. OLD ADDRESS p le a se p rin t

nam e

address

city

z ip c o d e

s ta te

NEW ADDRESS nam e

p le a se p rin t

ad d ress

city

s ta te

z ip c o d e

Mail to: The Mountain Spirit, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancaster, KY 40446. O utdoor play is an im portant part o f pre-school sum m er curricula. Septem ber-O ctober 1987

around the project . . . continued

T een C enters O pen in L an caster and M artin LANCASTER & MARTINBecause CAP believes that much of Appalachia’s hope lies with her young people, a great deal of energy is going into teen centers in these communities, in addition to the one which opened in Mt. Vernon in the fall of 1986. The center in Martin is actually the first of the three to start, but in August, they celebrated the grand opening of a new building for their center. Manager Peggy Nelson plac ed ads in local newspapers, with radio stations and has distributed flyers throughout the county publicizing the opening. “We had a dance for the kids on Friday night, then we were open all day on Satur day with gospel and bluegrass bands and refreshments.” The opening had activities for the whole family, Peggy explained. “We want the parents to see what we have to offer here. We feel like that will reinforce what they’re hearing from their teenagers.”

visiting and getting the word out about what we have to offer.” As the centers in Mt. Vernon and Martin are designed for the teens in those areas, the Lancaster center will tailor itself to suit the needs of the kids in Garrard County. Julie says that she expects to be able to zero in on those needs when she starts home visiting. Julie and her staff of two volunteers will use contacts from the teenage girls’ clubs that operated in Lancaster several years ago, and will be speaking at churches and at the high school in Garrard County. Julie hopes that through the teen center, kids will get “a sense of themselves. I want them to feel good about themselves and to recognize their potential. If, five years from now, kids can look at themsevles and see that they are valuable people who have a lot to offer, we can feel like we’ve done our job.”

CAP has teen centers in Lancaster, M t. V ernon and M artin.

In addition to the activities that take place in the center (this year, Peggy has a volunteer who’s qualified to teach ballet, so the center has been outfitted with bars and mirrors), the kids go on field trips about once a month. “We take them to ballgames at Morehead State University, among other things.” The staff believes that ex posing the teens to college campuses and activities may encourage more of them to continue their educa tions. As the center in Martin celebrates their move, Julie Williams, the new manager of the center in Lancaster is working toward opening in the fall of this year. “So far, I’ve been buying furniture and carpeting and other things for the center, but I’m looking forward to finishing with all of that so that we can start home 12

T h e last d a y o f school in M ay at the C A P C h ild D ev e lo p m e n t C en ter in B erea w as d ev o ted to a ca rn iv a l for the ch ild ren and th e ir fa m ilies. T h e ch ild re n , w ith the h elp o f the staff, m ade the b oo th s and gam es. L ocal m er ch an ts co n trib u ted b a llo o n s (M cD o n a ld s and L on g J o h n S ilv e r ’s), p rizes (L o n g J o h n S ilv er s), h eliu m (F o o d to w n ), and food b o x es (F am ou s R ecip e). H e re , A1 H o m ey p ro v id es m oral su pp ort as a co n testa n t fish es for p op corn . The Mountain Spirit

around the project . . . continued

N ew P la n t L ocates in G arrard C ou n ty LANCASTER —“I’m happiest to see this group of children here to day,” said Kentucky Governor Mar tha Layne Collins. “This is what we’re really working for —the future of our children.” Governor Collins was referring to a group of three, four and five year old students from CAP’s Sunshine Center who attend ed a reception in late June, welcom ing Allison Abrasives to Garrard County. The new plant will manufacture the abrasive tools needed to cut steel. In full opera tion, the company will provide 155 jobs in Garrard County. “I haven’t seen so many smiling people in one place in a long time,” said Bettye Wiederhold, president of the Garrard County Council for Progress. Mrs. Wiederhold helped make the arrangements for the reception held at the site of the new plant. Over 200 Garrard County residents attended the welcoming

festivities and listened to comments from Governor Collins, state and local politicians and Don Farmer, chief executive officer of Allison Abrasives’ Lancaster plant.

Into Stocks?

The increased economic develop ment activities in the county will help offset the 11 % unemployment rate in the county. According to a report prepared for the Economic Development Administration by the Lazar Management group, the presence of 155 new jobs in a com munity the size of Lancaster will create another 75 support jobs. David Fisher, CAP’S coordinator of business development adds, “The factory will provide a tax base for growth in the county. It may attract more industry because industry follows industry.” Although Eastern Kentuckians do not want to rely too heavily on in dustry coming in from outside the area, the presence of new business and new money will provide a great economic boost to the region.

O f the business variety, that is.

Did you know that corporate stock may be donated to the work of the Christian Appalachian Project? For a tax deduction? Often at lower cost to you than a cash gift? Send NOW, without obliga tion, for your free copy of “Giv ing Stocks.” Simply fill out the coupon below and send it in the envelope in this issue of The Mountain Spirit! Cut Here

“Please send, without obligation, my free copy o f the important brochure, iGiving Stocks. ’ ”

D u r in g th e cerem on ies w elc o m in g A lliso n A b rasives to G arrard C o u n ty , G overn or M artha L a y n e C ollin s p resen ted D o n F arm er w ith a p ictu re o f “ M y O ld K e n tu c k y H o m e ,’’ in B ard stow n . S ep te m b er-O c to b e r 1987

N a m e____________________ A ddress__________________ State_________ ZIP_________

The C A P Closeup

H o sp ita lity — K en tu ck y Style Mrytle Smith

by the CAP News Service Photos by Margaret Gabriel M yrtle Sm ith.

T h e Family Life Retreat Center in Mt. Ver non, Kentucky, is used by several church and civic organizations. They use it as a retreat for business meetings, marriage enrichment weekends, and pastoral retreats, among other things. Many of these groups return year after year to the retreat center, appreciating the comfort, peace, quiet, good food and . . . Myrtle Smith. Myrtle is a favorite with the regular visitors at the retreat center. From the time she makes their reservations until she is settling people into their rooms and serving their dinner, she is taking them under her wing, seeing to their well-being and comfort as she would in her own home. “You see them coming down the walk,” she explains, “and they are really glad to see you —they just keep coming back! Father Ed Boughman, a yearly visitor to the center, gives me a hug every time he visits —one time he had someone with him, and I said I was going to give him a hug, too. I didn’t know he was a bishop!” 14

Myrtle, who has been working at the retreat center for the past seven years, began as a parttime cook, working only whenever a retreat was held, and has advanced to her present position as coodinator of the retreat center. She is well known for her cooking —she makes sure the visitors have good, home-cooked meals while they are away from home. “I do all the menu planning, the buying of the groceries, the food, and part of the preparation,” Myrtle said. “I do all the roll making, the biscuits, the gravy, and the pies and cakes.” Myrtle prefers to cook from scratch, too. “I like to make my rolls fresh, let them rise, put them in the oven, take them out and put them on the plates. Everybody just goes hog wild over those rolls.” Myrtle lives in Mt. Vernon with her husband of 34 years, and her 24 year old son, Darrell. Myrtle and her husband, William, adopted Darrell “in Feburary of 1964, a six month old baby. Three The Mountain Spirit

months later, after ten years of marriage, I got pregnant. My daughter Daphne and Darrell are eighteen months apart.” Daphne, now 22, is mar ried and has a three year old daughter. She lives in nearby Conway, but Daphne and her family visit Myrtle regularly. Myrtle really enjoys her job. “When I think back on all the good times and meeting of all the different people, it really gives you a good feeling when they come back,” Myrtle said. “We’ve had groups from the Florence Christian Church from Louisville, the Covington Catholic boys and girls groups, and last year North East Christian Church of Louisville sent four different groups down.” Danny Dodson of the Northeast Christian Church explained why his church was so pleased with the retreat center. “Myrtle always makes us feel welcome. She never interferes and provides the service for us. We’re not concerned about go ing somewhere else —we’re concerned that there won’t be a Myrtle there to greet us!” “The most fascinating group I ever worked with, I believe,” Myrtle said, “was the first big

group we had after I began working for the center. The Episcopalians held a men’s Cursillo here. The men were so humble. They asked us to join them during their services and communion, and then they would help us with the lunch. In the late afternoon, they would get out in the parking lot and sit on the bumper of a car or whatever, and they would sing and play the guitar. The last night of the Cursillo, some of them got up to testify as to what the Cursillo had meant to them, and every one of them cried. “It was such a moving experience during the communion. We would sit in a circle while the priest would bring the communion wine around to each of us, calling us by name and saying ‘Myrtle, Christ died for you, and this is His blood, and you do this in remembrance of Him.’ It was something as to how people of different faiths can come so close to God along with each other!” Myrtle continued, “Seeing doctors and lawyers serving dinner to their companions really touched me. It just goes to show, it doesn’t matter how big you are —you are still a servant of God.” ca p.

M yrtle enjoys cooking from scratch. Septem ber-O ctober 1987

Letters I’m overdue in writing to tell you that the March-April issue of the The Mountain Spirit was especially special. Especially fine were the editorial by Mike McLaughlin and the article on Hall Hollow by students of Wheelwright High School. Since I became a CAP supporter through the mail, I’d felt a little puzzled as to your relation to black people, as they don’t seem much evi dent in your mailings or The Moun tain Spirit. Besides inspiring and in teresting reading, this issue cleared that concern of mine. Again, thanks to Mike McLaughlin for his beautiful article. May you thrive and grow. Mary S. Parker Los Alomos, NM

I have been getting The Mountain Spirit for two years. I’ve enjoyed them until this last one, JulyAugust. I can’t understand how a Chris tian magazine could run a story so full of sin. I’m referring to “A Slap in the Face o f W e lfa re .” I pass my Christian magazine around, but not this one. It went in to the trash. Carol Royalty

Your organization has “Christian” in its title, but I’m wondering why a Christian organization would put a story like “A Slap in the Face of Welfare” in their magazine. “Moonshining” I do not consider Christian. I’m very disappointed in The Moun tain Spirit for July-August. If there are to be more of this type of story to be used in The Mountain Spirit,” please stop my subscription. Mrs. H. W. Irvine Keizer, OH 16

We have just completed reading your July-August issue and must say that we have been overlooking a very outstanding publication.

the matter, but I do vote for can didates who support programs which are aimed at helping the financially poor.

The articles on family housing, the people and those who work to provide the housing tells it like it is. I grew up in Kentucky of simple farm and town folks, Henry and Boone County and I remember the Great Depression Days too well.

I am certainly glad for people who are able to get off the welfare rolls. In no way do I need for anyone to be “grateful” to me for my contribution, however small.

Athough we have been con tributing to CAP for a number of years, we did not realize how much CAP was doing for the eastern part of the state. From now on, our con tributions will increase and you can count on it. Col. Lewis H. Walker San Antonio, TX I didn’t get the point of the story, “A Slap in the Face of Welfare.” In fact, it seemed out of place in The Mountain Spirit. I really don’t understand how such a story was included in your magazine. Innocuous enough in a local publication, although I’m not sure “taking a slap at welfare workers” is innocuous in any publication, the story really is in sulting to many of your supporters. I, for one, work in a state agency which provides unemployment in surance to people out of work. We also coordinate with many social workers in providing employment training services. True, we are in the position of implementing laws and regulations which sometimes limit payments, but most of our workers attem p t to provide p rom pt payments and helpful services to eligible people. As a taxpayer, I am also somewhat puzzled. I give approx imately 33% of my income (more this year) to federal taxes which sup port the welfare system, along with other services (some of which I am not too happy about, it is true). It is true I don’t have a lot of choice in

Maybe I took it too seriously, but somehow, I don’t believe making fun of people who try to help, or showing law enforcement officials as crooks, or glamorizing smugglers is fit fodder for your magazine. Joan M. Mount

The story in the July August issue of The Mountain Spirit, (“A Slap in the Face of Welfare”), is this a true story or fiction? I can’t see any redeeming feature in it. Care to comment? Mrs. W.C. Logue Orlando, FL

“A Slap in the Face o f Welfare”is a fictional story, the work o f the ac tive imagination o f Ike Adams, a native o f Letcher County, Ken tucky. I offer a sincere apology to readers who were offended by the subject matter, and the treatment o f the characters in the story. I was taken with Ike’s story because o f its literary quality, and obviously didn’t give any thought at all to the content. The problem with making mistakes in editorial judgement is that everybody can see them! -E d . Letters to the editor are welcome.

They should not exceed 150 words in length, and we reserve the right to edit them fo r space. Address letters to The Mountain Spirit, Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancaster, Kentucky 40446. The Mountain Spirit

T a m m y Bailey Eric B aldridge T o n y Borm es M elasene C ole P ark er D erossett

The Class of 1987

K evin H en ry

The First Graduating Class of

D an H u tch in so n

The Mountain Christian Academy

Ross Jo n e s T im L ykens C larizz a Singayao

O f the ten students of the first graduating class of the Mountain Christian Academy, nine are con tinuing on to college. Two will study physics, another architecture. Perhaps in a different place, in another more af fluent area of the country, such a graduating class would be the norm; in Eastern Kentucky, it is anything but the norm. At the end of the 1985-86 school year, Floyd County, the county in which MCA is located, ranked 178 out of the 180 Kentucky school districts, based on results from the Kentucky Essential Skills Test given to students state-wide. While the county has made some progress in the construction of new facilities, many students nevertheless still attend tiny, multi-grade schools. In the community of Drift, not 10 miles from the MCA campus, approximately 30 students, grades kindergarden through eight, are taught by two S ep te m b er-O c to b e r 1987

by Joe Foley Photos fr o m the C A P Archives

teachers in a two-room school house. At the beginning of the last school year, the school had but one room and one teacher to accommodate all of the students, grades K-8. Against such a backdrop came the impetus for MCA. The conclusion of the 1986-87 school year also graduated the top administrative staff of MCA, a staff that had opened the school in 1983 with about 150 students, spanning pre-school through the ninth grade. Gone now are the school’s first dean, Sister Judy Yunker, her administrative assistant, Dave Hensley, and the school’s director of secondary education, Sister Monica Schieber. Under Sister Judy’s stewardship, the school was built and then expanded to include an elementary school building, a secondary school building, and an ultra-modern gym. Enrollment was increased from 150 the first year to almost 300 last year. Sister Judy resigned last spring to devote more of 17

ly created to address more indigenous problems, problems such as sanitation, malnutrition, and contaminated water. It was in this willingness to first identify and then react to specific problems that the idea for MCA was first formulated. “When I came to Floyd County,” Father Beiting said, “the temptation was to just go ahead and repeat the things we had done in the Lancaster area with CAP. But I felt since it was a different part of the Appalachian area, that what I needed to do was to learn. So I began to ask everyone, ‘If something good could happen, what would you suggest?’ Without fail the response everyone made was Sve need a better school’.” Subsequently, Father Beiting called several community-wide meetings for those interested in starting such a school. The response was over whelming, and the decision was made to go ahead. “It was going to be the most difficult and com plicated thing we had done because it would entail a large investment in the way of land and buildings; it would involve a great number of teachers, and the management of a great number of other material things,” Father Beiting said. “It would be the largest single program that we had ever started.”

' -**

Armed with a substantial grant from CAP, Father Beiting purchased land for the school on Highway 80 about a mile west of Martin. A local coal company excavated and landscaped the site, and soon thereafter contracters began construc tion. Later, the office and volunteer quarters of CAP’S eastern division were built on the same site.

T h e M CA now enrolls children from pre-school through the 12th grade.

her time to the Benedictine Monastery of Mt. Tabor, of which she is prioress. In Sister Judy’s place is now Paul Hughs, a veteran of Eastern Kentucky education. Mr. Hughs has served as principal at the elementary, junior high and senior high grade levels. Beginnings

When Father Ralph Beiting, CAP’S founder, was reassigned to the Floyd County area by the Catholic Church in 1981, he decided to initiate many of the same service programs he had begun in the Lancaster area, where he had lived and worked for 30 years. Thus CAP expanded from the foothills of the Appalachians into the coal fields deep in the mountains. But whereas many of the needs in the mountain area were similar to those around Lancaster, many were not. While programs such as home repair and emergency assistance were expanded to the Floyd County area, other programs were especial18

Despite break-neck efforts, construction could not keep pace with the desire of the community to have MCA up and running. Thus, in the fall of 1983, the school opened in facilities offered by the McDowell Baptist Church and by the Assembly of God Church in Martin. Shortly thereafter, con struction of the school complex was completed, and classes and administration moved in. The goals Father Beiting and the community outlined for the school were three-fold. First of all, the new school was seen as a way of changing attitudes of the area’s youth, as a way of convinc ing them the future of Appalachia rested in their hands. “We would make them more anxious to be a part of the Appalachian solution, not merely to take education and run with it to Lexington or some other place,” Father Beiting said. “We wanted them to become more deeply Christian and concerned, more family-oriented, more con cerned about making Appalachia a new place where imagination and hard work and concern for others would be a part of life.” The Mountain Spirit

Father Beiting said a second goal of MCA was to positively influence the public schools in the area, a goal he said is gradually coming to frui tion. “We’re not opposed to the public schools and don’t want to impair them in any way,” he said. “We hope that our presence would enable them to become even better. When a school system has no way to check itself, compare itself, it becomes staid. We’ve offered them competition,” he said. Since its inception, MCA students have scored a full grade level and a half, sometimes higher, than its public school counterparts in the county. Finally, Father Beiting said the school would seek to serve as a model for private education in other mountain communities. Equal Opportunity

From the beginning, the MCA has sought a broad representation of the region in its enroll ment. If MCA’s goals were to be achieved, the school could not become a single-faith or parochial school, nor could it become a school targeted to but one socio-economic group, the rich or the poor. In order to change attitudes, in order to serve as a model, the school would have to en join parents from all faiths and all socio-economic backgrounds to enroll their children. If tuition payments necessary to run the school presented a barrier to some parents, then a way had to be found to reduce, or in some cases, remove that barrier.

Enter the Christian Appalachian Project. Since 1983, CAP has given annual grants of up to $130,000 to MCA to make the school accessible to all children. At present a full 40% of MCA students are on a financial aid program of some kind, with 20% receiving full-tuition scholarships. The Hutchinson family in Martin is one family benefitting from the CAP-MCA relationship. Rodney and Lou Anne Hutchinson have had two children and one grandchild attend MCA. Dan, the oldest, graduated this year. Dennis enters ninth grade this year and Adam, the grandchild,

A bove, the curriculum includes art as an im portant part of e d u c a t io n ; b e lo w , m o r n in g assem bly. Septem ber-O ctober 1987

enters first grade. In return for the scholarship grant the family receives, Lou Anne drives one of the two school buses. She has also cut grass and washed windows. Other parents, in return for full or partial scholarship grants, help clean the school. “I guess I want to make education in Eastern Kentucky wake up,” Mrs. Hutchinson said. “I just feel like they’re sleeping. When I see what we can do with the little bit of money we have at the school, compared to the public school system and the amount of money that they have, I just feel like we are accomplishing much more,” she said. “I do want the school to succeed, desperately.” On the religious front, MCA had fourteen dif ferent faiths represented in its enrollment last year. New Phase

With each year, MCA has added a grade level, allowing the freshmen of 1983, the highest grade level at the time, to stay with the school until graduation. Thus, with each year, more teachers were hired and curriculum expanded. Now, with a graduation class under its belt, the school has entered a new phase. Grade expansion has been completed; the school now runs from pre-school through the 12th grade.

Expansion of the physical plant has been nearly completed, offering one of the most modern educational facilities to be found anywhere in the country. What once was seen by some in the mountains as a fledgling endeavor, scrambling for whatever support it could get, is now recognized as a solid institution offering solid, moral educa tion. The school has completed its founding stage and is entering a period of curriculum diversifica tion and even stronger college preparation. Mr. Hughs sees the MCA enjoying three distinct advantages over the public schools in the area. First, MCA is not inhibited by court rulings affec ting the teaching of morality, as is the case in the public schools. He plans to offer Christian in struction every day to every grade level. “You can not teach morality without teaching religion,” Mr. Hughs said, adding that an interdenominational approach would be taken. Mr. Hughs also said the school benefits by not having a burdensome sports program. Area public schools place heavy emphasis on sports. Thirdly, Mr. Hughs believes that MCA is not constrained by local politics that have marred Eastern Kentucky education. “I think you find politics in every school system in the state of Ken tucky,” he said. Volunteer Teachers

Last year one volunteer with the Christian Ap palachian Project taught at MCA; this year the number will increase to three. CAP volunteers will teach at the second, fifth, and seventh grade levels. “The volunteers bring a > knowledge of the different , parts of the country and

IP I p

5H i

share that with the students,” said Sr. Judy. “They also give the students a model of service.” The three volunteer teachers will be fully cer tified for the grade level they will be teaching, ac cording to Mr. Hughs. Future

The beginning of the 1987-88 school year marks the fifth year of MCA’s existence. By the end of the school year, MCA will qualify as a full member of and be accredited by ISACS, the In dependent Schools Association of Central States. The school will also enter its second year of a 10 year, $10 million endowment campaign designed to carry MCA well into the next century.

whatever local support he can to help keep the school strong. “It is easy to get enthusiastic and stay so for a year, but you don’t change anything in a year, and you don’t design a new system en tirely in Appalachia in a year,” Father Beiting said. “It’s going to take long-term commitment on the part of a core group of people who are going to work for the school, no matter what.” CAP.

The relationship between the Christian Ap palachian Project and MCA promises to remain strong. In addition to being philosophically and financially tied, MCA and CAP share some of the same guiding personalities. CAP volunteers teach in MCA classrooms; CAP’Seastern regional direc tor, Mike Sanders, also serves on the school’s board of directors; and, of course, Father Beiting, the founder and board chairman of the Christian Appalachian Project, is also the founder and board chairman of MCA. Father Beiting continues to be the champion of the school. As he travels across the country in his work with the Diocesan Mission Office, he tells people what the school is attempting to do and what they can do to help. He also coordinates A b o v e, the M o u n ta in C h ristia n A cad em y; left, F ath er B e itin g w as able to see classroom s w here others cou ld see o n ly m ou n tain s; righ t, P am S tu m b o in stru cts the sixth grade. S ep te m b er-O c to b e r 1987

The Appalachian Gospel Tour,

Part I by Father Ralph Beiting as told to Margaret Gabriel

Every summer since 1947 Father Beiting has taken to the highways and byways o f Eastern Kentucky to street preach —spread the word o f God through preaching, prayer, and song to folks in the small towns in the mountains. Also an avid boater, this year Father Beiting combined two o f his favorite activities by em barking on a houseboat trip down the Ohio River, stopping at each town along the way to preach the good news to the people on the bank.

Friday, June 26 We were to rendezvous at Holy Family Church in Ashland at noon —Father Frank Osburg, Doyle Fortney and the Mountain Troubadors: Mary and Joseph Schloemer, Jack Welsch, Donna and David Tuback, Stan Cebrzynski, Marie Uschold and Bob and Rita Barringer. I traveled this morning from Washington, DC, and arrived at the church a little ear ly with Joe Foley, who is coor dinating details on the river bank.

blem with the generator, so they had taken the boat upriver to Catlettsburg. There I found the Daniel Boone sitting peacefully in the water, with all its banners and flags flying very nicely. It looked to me like things were in pretty good shape, but then I learned that the generator had blown a circuit panel, and the Kohler people couldn’t fix it until Monday. This meant that we had to depend upon shore power for electricity.

During his journey, Father Beiting kept a journal so that he might share his experiences with readers o f The Mountain Spirit and reflect upon his mission.

The Daniel Boone was nowhere to be found, but the people at the wharf told us that it had been there the day before. I called the office and learned that there was a pro

As this bad news was sinking in, the crew arrived and everybody wanted to know, “where do I put my bags? Where do I sleep?” We got things settled down, took care of the crew assignments and left in a very

The Mountain Spirit

brisk wind, for Ashland, to prepare for our first appearance. The wind made the water very turbulent, but eventually, we made it and tied up for the evening, thinking that the next day our mechanical problems would be a little better.

our extra aggravation. Our crowds were very receptive that night, and we had a lot of attention from the media. By 11:30 we were in our berth at Catlettsburg, pleased with the message we had given to the peo ple in Ashland.

Saturday, June 27 We lost a fuse from the portable generator in the rough water last night. As I was working on the problem, Joe discovered that we could get elec tricity from the shore, but the man wanted to charge us $50 to plug into his power. We prayed that God would reward him as he so justly deserved, but we had no way to go but to pay him. We got our first ser vice underway just on time, despite

Sunday, June 28 We had Mass on board this morning, then traveled to Huntington, West Virginia, where we met the crew from “60 Minutes.” I’d have been happy to sit at the dock for awhile —we had a troublesome wind as we were going in —but the TV crew asked if we would leave the dock, go out in the river and come in again under the bridge that leads into Huntington, which we did. God, in his mercy,

S ep te m b er-O c to b e r 1987

stopped the wind for a few minutes as we came back into the dock, and this time we were able to dock in the proper direction. We had a very large crowd in Huntington. They came and went and we were extremely pleased with it. Some of the people asked me to stay for six days and put on a revival. They knew they could get a lot of people to come if we could be there for several days. Another lady said that she had not been to church in years, but after hearing us, she promised God that she would be in church on Sunday. Many people told us that they were grateful that we came, and they appreciated the words we shared about God and about Appalachia. Monday, June 29 We started out for Portsmouth, Ohio, this morning, about 40 miles downriver. The “60 Minutes” crew is still with us, along with “PM Magazine” and “Our Sunday V isitor,” a Catholic newspaper.

lllll!: :

■ T he Gospel T ou r included a dozen stops in tow ns along the O hio R iver. L eft, the crowd listens attentively in W arsaw.

while they’ve received our literature for years, they had never met me or anybody directly associated with CAP. As we settled in for the night, we were in fond hopes, again, that some of our mechanical problems would be over. Tuesday, June 30 We had a little trouble getting one of the engines

started this morning, but after cajol ing it into cooperation, we were on our way to Maysville, 55 miles away. About 10 miles out of port, it stopped again, and no matter what we did, it would not start. After some investigation, we discovered that we were out of gas. One engine was running, but we didn’t know whether we had enough gas to get to

There is still no word on our generator, but at least we have been able to replace the fuses in the por table generator. After we anchored, we learned that the maintenance people for the city had not been notified to turn on the power in the outlets that night. By the time we found the responsible party, we were scheduled to start preaching in about 10 minutes. But find them we did, and the program went off very well; the singing was good, the preaching was good and once again, we had a great deal of enthusiasm from the people on the bank. We had all kinds of folks there. Some of them were contributors to CAP. They were elated to see us, because 24

The Mountain Spirit

on the gasoline, wished us well and pushed us out.

Maysville. Just then, I saw a homemade sign proclaiming GAS POP ICE. We pulled aside the dock, our 68’ houseboat sticking out at the front and back, and gassed up. As we started out again we heard a voice over our marine radio say, “This is Maysville Marine Ser vice. Daniel Boone, where are you?” We told them “We’re on our way!” We arrived at 5:30, hooked up our electricity, and prepared to preach and sing there at the river bank. An Episcopal priest, Father Joe Han non, and a choir from a local church joined us that night. We were ex tremely elated over the stop. It was very good, a lot of people came who were kind and receptive and everything worked out beautifully.

In Cincinnati, we went to the Serpentine Wall to preach for the next two nights. When we got in, there were all kinds of media folks there, but our first job was to get electricity. We normally hook into a receptacle on shore which energizes all the electrical parts of the boat, including our loudspeaking system. Here, we overloaded, and therefore blew, the fuse. Just then, someone came up in a sailboat and helped us to reach another cord which we ran to the top deck to operate the lights and the amplifier. Now we had power, but it poured the rain from 6:00 to 10 minutes ’til 7. When we started at 7:00, there were only a few people and they had umbrellas, but gradually a crowd gathered. When we finished, we returned to the city dock in front of Riverfront Stadium. We worked on our elec trical problems until after midnight, but it was dark anyway, so we gave up and went to bed.

Thursday, July 2 The people who were supposed to fix the generator on Monday finally showed up to day. After an hour or two of pid dling with this and that, they were able to get it started, and it ran nice ly until 10 minutes before we started preaching. We did get to start almost on time, though. Bowden Atherton, a minister from Tulsa, Oklahom a, preached with us tonight. As he was talking about his ministry of feeding the poor, a downpour came and we had to stop for the evening, so we headed back down to the dock, in front of the stadium. The rain caused a delay for the Cincinati Reds and, cheapskates that they are, they never call off a game. When they won, well after 1:00, they shot off their customary fireworks. All of us had gone to bed, when all at once, these explo sions started, with the sky lighting up and everything. Thinking that we were being bombed, we all jumped out of bed and ran outside to in vestigate. The next evening, we decided we’d just as soon see the

Our weather began to change to day. We’ve had a stiff wind, but ear ly Wednesday it stormed pretty heavily. Wednesday, July 1 We stopped for gas about 9 miles north of Cincin nati at a dock where we gave out some literature and got some water. The people there recognized us and called out “Is that Father Beiting’s crew?” They gave us a nice discount S ep te m b er-O c to b e r 1987

A color guard was part o f the festivities in C arrollton, K entucky.

In m ost o f the tow ns, services were held on top o f the Daniel Boone, w ith the crow d o n the shore.

Reds lose if they’re going to play that late at night.

Two singers from Carroll County High School joined us this evening. The second girl was right in the mid dle of her song when a huge storm came up the river and forced us to stop. But only for a little while; shortly we were right back on the air. The largest crowd of the trip, so far, heard us here in Warsaw. I

suspect that in the latter part of our program, we were talking to seven or eight hundred people. It was remarkable how many peo ple wanted to talk to us. A foster mother asked us to play with her four children, and assured us that she would remember us in her prayers as we continued down the river. We saw a fine display of Fireworks and the people across the river were lined up for two miles. When it was over, you could see all their car headlights go on as they left to go home. It was a taste of Americana at its nicest —small town folks gathering to celebrate the bir thday of their country.

To be continued

Cebrzynski

Friday, July 3 We spent Friday refurbishing our supplies, had din ner at my sister Dorothy’s house, then went back to the river to get ready for the evening’s services. We were able to get electricity without quite the aggravation we were used to. So far, with one or two excep tions, there has been an uncertainty about whether we would have elec tricity until the very last minute each night. During services tonight, a lady came down the steps, and, without our knowledge, began to do an interpretive dance. She first danced on Thursday night, and she was back tonight. Apparently some people liked her and some people didn’t, but we never did get to talk to her. Saturday, July 4 We bid farewell to Cincinnati, with the engines running much better, but without generator power. We don’t know what in the world to do about it, so we headed out for Warsaw, Kentucky. We stopped for gas in Aurora, Indiana where we met the crew from “Sun day Morning,” who traveled on to Warsaw with us. We made good time because the river is rising and the current was with us.

The 4th of July celebration was underway in Warsaw, but we need ed to dock and secure our electrici ty. We started our normal pro cedure: run as much as 300 feet of cord. Then, we plugged into a city pavillion on the riverbank and blew their fuses as soon as we tried it. By 5:00 we had remedied the problem, which was fortunate because we were scheduled to start preaching at 5:30.

T h e tour was part o f the 4th o f J u ly celebration in W arsaw, K entucky. The Mountain Spirit

J :

5P r

*Lp* P

<s- ' ''''S' •.

& *« '***?*

N O N -P R O F IT O R G A N IZ A T IO N U .S . P O S T A G E P A ID Christian Appalachian Project

C H R IS T IA N A PPA LA C H IA N P R O JE C T 322 CRAB ORCHARD R D ., LANCASTER, KY 40446 The Mountain Spirit