Frenchburg is, if possible, even more rural than Sunbright, TN (where I spent about nine weeks last summer working for Appalachia Service Project). Frenchburg has two roads, 551 residents, and countless dogs and cats.
I arrived in Kentucky on Tuesday night, after driving for about 9 hours. Before coming to Frenchburg, I visited my friend Elizabeth, who I worked with in Sunbright last summer, and who is working in Barbvourville (pronounced Bahr-vull), KY this summer. On Thursday, I arrived at the Glenmary Sisters' Frenchburg Mission around one pm. I arrived to a home-cooked lunch, including cherry pie made with freshly picked cherries. There are two sisters here, both named Kathleen Mary. Sister Kathleen is Irish and loves to give me lots of homemade pie, cobbler and other desserts. Sister Kathy is from Wisconsin and loves to give me Ale-8 (a delicious type of soda not unlike gingerale that can be found only in Kentucky). Last weekend, Sister Kathleen celebrated her fiftieth anniversary with Glenmary at the annual Glenmary Sisters jubilee in Owensboro, KY, and so this week has been a little bit slower than usual. I have been getting the lay of the land and meeting community members (including going to a little league baseball game for eight year olds and seeing nearby Cave Run Lake, a very beautiful and large lake that I can't wait to swim in!!).
I have also been learning about the projects that I will be helping the sisters with this summer. We will have two volunteer groups for one week each, who will work on some construction projects. I got to visit one of the houses they will be working on yesterday, and am sure that I will see the other home (apparently in dire need of many repairs) soon. Sister Kathy and I are also working on starting a 4-H club to provide activities for some of the highschool aged youth who have little in the way of positive activiites to keep them occupied when school is out. We will also begin helping an elderly (94!) man who lives near the Church and needs some help around the house with simple things. Sister Kathy, who took final vows in October and is spending her first summer here in Frenchburg, would like to expand the sisters' ministry to the elderly here. The sisters are also working on getting citizenship for a woman who immigrated illegally from Mexico with one son and is now married with another son here in KY. After she improves her english (and we improve our spanish!), we may be able to work more with the mexican immigrants who work in the nearby sawmills. Finally, the sisters opened a community center and thrift shop a few years ago, and I will be spending some time helping out with that. Beyond this, there are many other community members to whom the sisters provide much needed ministry.
In terms of prayer life, we pray twice a day in the chapel next to our house. On tuesdays, the sisters have Mass here at the chapel. The nearest Catholic Church is about 20 miles away, and this is where we will go on Sundays. Another one is about 30 miles away. There are very few Catholics here in Menifree county, and the sisters provide a much needed Catholic presence for these few Catholics.
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