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Summer Staff devotional
Hey friends and welcome to the ASP summer
staff podcast with your amazing and multi-talented
spiritual programs friends Jane and Shawn.
Hey we're excited to be bringing you a
number of wonderful voices all summer long.
We're gonna remind you about what it means
to be deeply relational people and to be
people who practice your spiritual life every day.
You're gonna hear a recurring invitation to serve
each other with love and humility.
You're gonna be invited to remain attentive to
the beauty in people that surround you, to
care for yourself and others, and to trust
God and in any hardships.
We want you to dig into community and
to let wonder and awe transform you.
Okay across nearly every reflection the strongest message
is gonna be this, the most meaningful moments
often happen not in accomplishing tasks but in
being fully present with people and with God.
And friends we are for sure not recording
this on the side of a road in
Johnson City.
Not at all.
You've heard no background noises.
No.
But we do want to introduce you to
our first guest who is none other than
the remarkable Michael Hensley who is one of
ASP's development and sustainability officers and one of
the best humans that I know.
Get excited.
Oh I know I am and so sit
back, relax, listen to this and be blessed
and we look forward to talking with you
guys again more this summer.
Enjoy.
Love ya.
Hello my friend this is Michael Hensley.
I have the privilege and the honor of
serving with Appalachia Service Project as our development
and sustainability officer.
My role is funded through the Thrive grant
which you may have heard a little bit
about.
This grant is helping ASP build out three
disaster recovery hubs across central Appalachia.
So I get to work with our funding
partners and donors to make sure that this
work continues not just today but for many
many years to come.
But if I'm being honest that title doesn't
really capture why I'm here.
I first encountered ASP in an unconventional place
at a celebration of life.
A man named Ryan Carter who had given
years of his life to this mission.
That night a seed was planted.
As I listened to story after story about
ASP, about families, about service, about love and
hope showing up in tangible ways, something in
me stirred.
Later after the Gatlinburg wildfires I got to
know the leadership team a little bit more
and after 10 years of working on Capitol
Hill I started to feel a pull.
Not away from something but toward something.
I just finished a spiritual formation program through
the University of the South when Hurricane Helene
hit and I knew deep down I was
being called into the work of long-term
recovery.
So I put my name in the hat
and the rest as they like to say
is history.
One thing that I've learned this last year
since I've been on the team at ASP,
ASP is not just one person.
It's not one role.
It's not one summer.
It is a movement.
It's a family.
It's a mission.
A mentor once told me hope for the
future isn't based on you.
It's based on a group of people who
are moving in the same direction.
That is ASP.
All of us bringing our gifts under one
banner of housing justice.
This summer our theme is simple but it's
everything.
Love your neighbor.
And I want to talk about what that
really means because love your neighbor isn't just
an idea.
It looks like something.
It looks like rebuilding a porch.
So a sweet, sweet woman going through cancer
treatments can sit outside safely and feel that
wind on her skin and listen to the
birds again.
That's love.
It looks like showing up even when you're
tired, even when it's hot, even when the
need feels overwhelming.
And I'll be honest with you, there's a
hard truth in this work.
Once you see poverty you can't unsee it.
There's a kind of holy restlessness that comes
with this work.
You start asking questions like why is this
happening?
How did we get here?
And those questions don't always have easy answers.
But here's what I personally have come to
believe.
Service matters.
It matters because it reminds people that they're
not alone.
Every single one of us knows what it
feels like to be in a dark place.
And then the light creeps in and something
shifts.
That's what you get to be this summer.
You get to be part of that light.
And maybe you're someone who has a strong
relationship with God or maybe you're still figuring
all that out.
And let me just say this.
If you don't believe in God, can you
believe in love?
Because I personally believe God is love.
Not up in the clouds somewhere, but right
here.
In the laughter, in the conversations, in the
wind, in the ice cream, in the quiet
moments, in the work of your hands, God
shows up when love shows up.
Now I want to pause here for just
a second because if you're going to love
your neighbor well, you have to care for
yourself too.
And I know this work can feel overwhelming.
There are so many needs.
So let me give you a few things
that have helped me.
Take it one day at a time.
One step at a time.
You don't have to solve everything.
Just start somewhere.
Pay attention to your body.
It will tell you when you're overwhelmed.
And when it does, breathe.
Seriously.
Even when you're driving between runs, take a
few deep breaths.
There's something about it.
It resets you.
Listen to music.
Let it lift you when your energy feels
low.
And most importantly, don't isolate yourself.
Find your people.
Talk to your staff.
Talk to your chaplain.
Process what you're carrying.
You are not meant to hold this alone.
And I need you to hear this.
It is okay to be exactly who you
are.
You don't have to perform.
You don't have to wear a mask.
Just be you.
Come home to yourself because the truth is
you have worth.
You have value.
You are good.
Not because of what you accomplish this summer,
but because of who you are.
You are part of something bigger than yourself.
Something seen and unseen.
A movement of people who believe that every
family deserves a home that is warm, safe,
and dry.
And the work you're doing, it doesn't just
change the lives of the families you serve.
It changes you.
It shapes you.
It forms you.
It calls you into who you were created
to be.
So if you forget everything else I've said,
please remember this.
You are loved.
You are valued.
You are worthy.
You are good.
Exactly as you are.
Let me pray for you.
God of love, God of light, I ask
that you surround each of these summer staffers
with your peace.
In the long days, in the hard moments,
in the quiet spaces in between, remind them
that they are not alone.
Fill them with joy, with purpose, with a
deep sense of belonging.
Give them the strength to serve others and
the wisdom to care for themselves.
And may they come to know in whatever
way is true for them that they are
deeply loved.
Amen.
So go out this summer and love your
neighbor.