Alex Durbin, Class of ‘09

When I was preparing for life after graduation I wasn’t entirely sure what I would be doing. With a B.A. in Philosophy my options seemed at once stiflingly limited and incredibly vast. I could do anything I wanted, so long as it involved nothing more complicated than thinking a lot. I had become a real-life, all grown-up adult ready to face the “real world.” Having spent the last 5 years of my life studying philosophical and ethical ideas and ideals I thought it would behoove me to try and put that education to practice through doing the most ethical thing I could think of: a year of service.

When I began my time volunteering at the Christian Appalachian Project I had it in mind that I would be coming down here to revitalize the area with my freshly proven intelligence and the vigor of youth. I dreamed that I would be bringing with me something that this area lacked in terms of ability and desire to be productive. I had also come here with the idea that this would be my own personal “retreat into the desert” as it were. I would be living simply and have time to reflect upon my spiritual life and to confer my wisdom upon others. It turns out that when God dispenses humility it comes in a great abundance and that there is nothing more “real” than the world of service.

I began my volunteering service on July 5th of 2009 working as a camp counselor at Camp Andrew Jackson in Jackson County. The kids who go there are from the surrounding counties, many of which are ranked as the poorest counties in the nation. The children are aged 6-13 and many of the older kids have been going there for 3 years or more, intimidating for a first time counselor who’d never set foot in a summer camp. I spent 4 weeks running, chasing, swimming, climbing, eating, and painting with children. I learned more from them about myself in those short weeks than I had in my previous 23 years. These kids came from underprivileged families and frequently had a very low quality of home life. If their health was poor, their education was abysmal. Yet despite their desperate want for material things, they had an abundance of joy, energy, and love to give every single day. I learned that I could not bring anything to these children that they did not already possess in terms of desire and willingness to succeed in life. Sure, money and education were important, but so much more important were loving family and loving God. Those are truly what make a person successful.

After my first humbling month in Appalachia I moved to McCreary County to do home repair. I have worked with my hands doing carpentry of one form or another since I was a child watching my grandfather work in his shop, and I love everything there is to do with carpentry work. For the last 9 months I have rebuilt and improved more than a dozen homes, and although the work itself is very satisfying there is not a single porch, window, or roof which has given me more pleasure than sitting in the living room or on the porch of an old beat up house with an old beat up man or woman talking about how the weather will be over the weekend. The work may be what I am there to do, but it is the people that make the experience worth-while.

One of the greatest aspects of volunteering with CAP has been living in community. There are people from all over the country, of all different ages and stages of life, who come here to serve. Each day the house as a whole participates in a devotion, which could be anything from reading a Bible verse to reflecting upon the experiences of the day. After nearly a year of living, eating, working, and worshiping with the same people the house begins to feel more like a family than a simple community. And despite all our differences we cannot help but to love one another and to feel loved.

Both the people of Appalachia and the other volunteers whom I’ve spent my time with have been so filled with spirituality and love that I have learned more about what it means to love and to have faith from their kind example than I ever could have learned alone. I will have this experience with me for the rest of my life, and I thank God every day for having brought me here to grow and to become humbled in his service.