Volunteer Voices

I spent the last week at CAP orientation. It seems a little weird to “get oriented” after being here for three weeks, but they wait until they have a decent size group to go through the orientation. It was held up at camp, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was a conveniently short trip, but it would have been nice to get away from the place where I work. Still, I really enjoyed early mornings sitting on the dock, drinking tea and watching the steam on the lake.

About a month ago, I was running through the woods of Jenny Wiley State Park, enjoying the scenery while watching out for snakes on the path and batting spider webs and gnats out of my face every few steps. At the same time, I was distractedly mulling over whatever thoughts came into my head, and I found myself thinking about my CAP time. I arrived at CAP on September 3rd, 2010, all fired up to become an Elderly Services casewor

I came to the realization a few days ago that I have been with CAP just shy of six months. The time span of six months to me has always signified the end to an incubation period of sorts. After six months somewhere you’ve generally developed a daily routine, learned the ins and outs of your job, or fostered close personal relationships. In fact it had been six months from the time I graduated from college until I received my CAP acceptance.

WorkFest (our alternative spring break program for college students) has come and gone, and it was everything, and so much more, that I thought it would be. It all started with my housemates and I moving out of McCreary House and into a dorm area at Camp Andrew Jackson. Camp is beautiful, but I was so worried about the upcoming weeks that I only noticed in passing. The following day, after church, I met Jay.

By Beth Dotson Brown

One day while in the CAP office where she had been assigned to serve, volunteer Anita Rayner heard someone say she was short a cook to prepare food for a volunteer group.  Anita volunteered to fill in. Little did she know that her offer to help would grow into a long-term volunteer commitment that has introduced her to hundreds of CAP volunteers over the past seven years.

I think it emblematic of my time at CAP that I write this reflection of my life after CAP hours after having dinner with one of my housemates who lives about an hour away. After 6-1/2 years, we can still pick up like we just came in from work days in the hills and hollers of eastern Kentucky.

Devos. Every CAP volunteer knows them well. Those short little segments following dinner during which someone, often the cook of the meal still being digested, shares a bit of wisdom which they prepared days in advance.

Well, maybe. I know for a fact some people put a lot of thought into their devos, but then there are those (I’m not saying I’m not one of them) who completely forget to prepare a devo until five minutes before dinner time.

When applying to serve with CAP, you not only agree to serve as a volunteer but as a community member in the house in which you are placed. I have lived at the Johnson Volunteer House for a little over a year now and plan to stay until June. Needless to say, not everyone stays for a second year with CAP, so naturally the Johnson House has changed over time.

At 62, I was floating along nicely making plans for our future retirement and deciding where we were going to live and what wonderful sights we were going to visit.  Then God intervened and said to my wife “come home.”  Here I was, a professing Christian, left with a hole the size of the Grand Canyon in my heart and all of my plans dashed on the rocks of despair.  That was when I came to know Jesus and start to follow His plan instead of mine.  His plan, revealed through a series of steps, was for me to come

Christian Appalachian Project offers a large variety of volunteer opportunities for people who desire to serve in eastern Kentucky. Our programs include: housing, elderly housing, child development, GED education, respite, family advocacy, elderly and summer camps.