Sentimental Journey

Maggie Blodgett and her husband Tim were on a road trip to the Renfro Valley music venue in Mount Vernon, Kentucky when she saw a sign for Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) that piqued her interest. She immediately asked her husband to turn the car around so that she could stop into the offices. That was the beginning of her CAP journey. She had no way of knowing that traveling 820 miles from Orwell, New York, to Kentucky, to listen to music would lead to a closer connection to her husband and to a richer life.

After driving back home, Maggie and Tim went back to the business of raising a family. They were enormously proud of their three sons, and they were very involved in their lives. But Maggie couldn’t stop thinking about CAP. Kathy Kluesener from CAP’s Volunteer Program had kept in touch, and Maggie felt drawn to figure out a way to drive back down to Kentucky.

Six years after her first visit, Maggie began simplifying her life so that she would have the time to volunteer. “I had been praying about coming, and I thought, if I’m going to do this, I better clear my calendar. There was a preparation involved which took a couple of years.”

Four years later, she made the trip down to Camp AJ to volunteer.

Although Maggie was excited about her camp experience, her husband didn’t share the call to be a part of the Summer Camp Program. But then one of the counselors at Camp AJ mentioned WorkFest as a way to get him involved.

“I thought well, okay, I can make the sacrifice, and I can make the compromise. I can do the building thing. I just wanted to do something together,” Maggie recalled. But after coming down for WorkFest, she was hooked. “It wasn’t a sacrifice at all!”

Tim and Maggie Blodgett returned to Kentucky in the spring with members of Sandy Creek United Wesleyan Church for a Mission Group trip.

Tim wanted to join Maggie in her volunteer work at CAP. “It was a way to bind our marriage while helping other people. When you get to empty nest syndrome, it’s like when you were first married. We wanted to find something that was more than just us.”

Maggie appreciates the different opportunities that exist even within the Housing Program. “When we come down to CAP, we can have different interests; we don’t have to go to the jobsite together. I could stay back and work in the kitchen or clean if I wanted to.”

Church members pose with their GroupFest participant on her completed porch.

This year the couple was a part of WorkFest, and a month later they returned with 12 church members whom they had recruited from Sandy Creek United Wesleyan Church. Before the group left to return home, they were already discussing plans for another trip to Kentucky next year. Tim also plans on showing a presentation about their Mission Group trip to other churches in New York to see if they will join them. “It’s kinda neat how it keeps growing.” • _________________________________________ Donate at christianapp.org/MtSpiritGive to help us continue to share these meaningful stories. Find out more about volunteering with CAP on our website at christianapp.org/volunteer