Treading softly.

• Author: Cramer, Katherine
• Position: Life in Appalachia

We had five places to choose from and I chose Appalachia. My student union was sponsoring alternative winter breaks, and in my senior year of college, I felt I was ready to be a volunteer. I could have helped out in a Washington, D.C., soup kitchen or aided migrant workers in Texas. But I wanted to learn about Appalachia, and I was intrigued by the host organization's affiliation with the Methodist Church.

I'm not Methodist and I don't consider myself religious. Until last winter, my contact with organized religion had often left me with a bit of acid in my soul. Devout people, I thought, were those who felt more righteous than the rest of us, and who proved their righteousness by seeking out "evil" members of society. It made me particularly uncomfortable to listen to anti-abortion activists who seemed less dedicated to saving unborn babies than to chastising women who dared to make their own decisions.

But my two weeks in Chavies, Kentucky, with the Appalachian Service Project, a nonprofit home-repair organization, neutralized my antipathy toward religion. Like many of my fifteen fellow volunteers from the University of Wisconsin, I was wary of any attempts at religious conversion, but the ASP staff taught without preaching: no prayers at meals, no church on Sunday.

I thought I would find in Appalachia people who were in need of financial assistance and donated labor from volunteers who usually lived in comfort somewhere else. I knew the trip was supposed to be educational for me, but I hardly expected to learn more than I could give. I found, however, that the people of eastern Kentucky practiced an ethic of looking inside and looking after each other that they called Christian love. It wasn't the "Christian love" televangelists and pro-lifers spout. The lesson was universal and empowering, not damning and cruel. It resided in ASP's ability to take the resources of the community and use them to keep wind and rain out of the homes of people most in need.

When a blizzard brought Chavies to a standstill, the residents didn't stand around wondering when the plows would come; they gathered at the town gas station and pooled tire chains. And to make sure those walking on the main hill wouldn't slip, one man sprinkled ashes on...