ASP Sunday: Reflecting on 41 Years of Service & Dedication of ASP Hall
As part of Covenant’s ongoing 100th anniversary celebration, on Sunday during the ASP Service we were honored to have past and present volunteers from the Covenant Appalachia Service Project (ASP) team offer reflections on what ASP has meant to them since Covenant started participating in ASP, way back in 1982. The following ASP alumni shared reflections from their years on the team:
Jeff Hall (1982 … 1986): As a high school student, helped pull together the very first Covenant ASP team in 1982, and channeled ASP’s impact through his college career, into the Peace Corps and ultimately into One Village Partners (www.onevillagepartners.org), an organization Jeff started to help the people of Sierra Leone address the poverty via community-led initiatives.
Jacqui Hickey Rothera (1993 … 2010): First volunteered in high school, continued through college, worked for ASP as summer staff, continues to volunteer as an adult, serves as an ASP Ambassador, and is a true example of ASP being relational ministry, as she still maintains relationships and frequent phone calls with people she served when she first volunteered.
Dan Apostolu (2009 … 2021): Also started volunteering in high school, and is one of a rare few who continued through college and moved on to continue volunteering with Covenant as a Group Leader.
In addition to these Covenant alumni, one of our newest volunteers, Keri Hagenbuch, offered her observations of her very first ASP trip during the first week of July when she and her crew helped install a new roof for a family in Breathitt County Kentucky.
You can watch the service below.
After service, everyone enjoyed an ASP-style picnic lunch in Fellowship Hall, followed by the dedication of ASP Hall.
ASP Hall is the hallway and stairs between the sanctuary building and the Kingswood building. On display are a quilt made in 2021 of ASP t-shirts from past years to celebrate Covenant’s 40th year serving with the Appalachia Service Project, along with a 40th year certificate presented to Covenant Church from ASP’s CEO Walter Crouch on July 7th, 2021.
In addition, there are two display windows that will be used to display various ASP materials. These are Bella’s windows. During our trip to Breathitt County, we learned that Bella and her mom found the winters to be extremely cold. To make their home warmer, we helped install insulation, siding and a new energy efficient window for Bella and she was very excited to get a new window. We were very excited to receive the old windows from Bella’s mom. Even though they weren’t good at keeping Bella’s family warm, they could serve to warm the hearts of folks who pass through ASP Hall. So, we installed them in ASP Hall!.
Victoria Hiscott and Keri Hagenbuch, volunteers from this year’s team, helped put some finishing touches on the display, mounting a commemorative t-shirt from our 40th year in Bella’s Window. More will be added to ASP Hall as we continue this long-lived outreach effort.
Please stop by ASP Hall to check out the quilt and find out what the ASP team is up to.
