Drilling, hammering, and clinking fill the air as teenagers work in unison to repair homes. Construction isn’t their only mission, as they are also united in their goal to learn more about their own faith. In groups of five high school students and two adults, they drive to Central Appalachia for a week in July and work to restore homes there. Allie Hennessy ‘26 is preparing to embark on her fourth trip with the ASP program.

“It’s a mission trip I go on every summer with my church, and the organization is year long, but my church goes for one week during the summer,” Hennessy said. “Its mission and purpose is to help lessen the gap for less income people that live in the Appalachian area, specifically with housing.”

The adult leaders on these trips are often very passionate about growing their Christian faith. They foster discussion among the students about serving others, as well as aid in the coordination of the repairs. Hattie Koher is the Director of Youth Ministry at the First United Methodist Church of LaGrange and has been working with the ASP program since her teen years. This will be the church’s 30th annual trip with ASP, sending around 100 high school students in July.

“One of the things I love about ASP is that it’s focused on relationship building,” Koher said. “I can still remember when I was 15, sitting on a new porch step of a 20-year-old woman named Dawn playing with her 4-year-old daughter, Hope, and her baby son Christopher. She had been kicked out of her family home when she was pregnant at 15, and was working to provide for herself and her children, and putting herself through nursing school. Dawn called us her angels, and I just remember thinking through how our lives really weren’t that different, and I was super impacted by that connection point with a life experience I hadn’t been exposed to before.”

The program itself was established in 1969, founded by Reverend Glenn “Tex” Evans and inspired by connecting youth to service.

“Tex was pretty awesome,” Koher said. “He had done a bunch of different kinds of service mission work in the region and said one of the things I think we’re missing as a country is the belief that young people have the power to change the world and if you give people the right tools, pretty incredible things can happen.”

Since Evans founded ASP, many high-school students and adult leaders have been greatly impacted by his initial mission, Koher said. Hennessy is one of these impacted students. 

“It’s been eye-opening on a faith level,” Hennessy said. “One of ASP’s mottoes is to accept people for who they are, right where they are, and that really resonates with me. I bring it into my everyday life now, taking that with me everywhere I go. Understanding that they were all in different places.”

Although the program is powered by many students every year, there is no lack of connections made on the trip. While repairing homes is the mission of this organization, the bonds that they make are no accident.

“Service is a two-way street,” Hennessy said. “Yes, I’m giving up my time to be there, but they’re giving up more for letting me come into their homes where they live and taking over their lives for an entire summer. The fact that these people have to have the courage to ask for help and they have to be brave enough to let you into their home is so welcoming. Service isn’t about donating, it’s about making everyone around you be the best they can be.”