The Episcopal

Diocese of Lexington

Provincial Youth Event Held at St. Timothy's Barnes Mountain

In July, over 200 teenagers gathered in Berea for the triennial Provincial Youth Event. Besides having fun together, they were on a mission: to create a Youth Outreach Center on Barnes Mountain. After four days of sun and sweat (as well as rain and mud), St. Timothy’s was improved by leaps and bounds.

St. Timothy’s Mission at Barnes Mountain has always been a place marked by generosity of spirit and Episcopal cooperation. Named after a church in Philadelphia that donated clothing to start a thrift shop in Ravenna, St. Timothy’s bought 40 acres of land on Barnes Mountain in the early 1980s and started its work. It grew into a summer camp, a guest house and caretaker’s house, and in 1984, a church building was erected.

In the years that followed, an educational building was erected, which was used for a day school, food bank, and a roof to sleep under for work groups that came to assist in the community outreach of St. Timothy’s.

But in recent years, its leaders were drawn into work elsewhere, and the facilities began to age. The old log buildings on unstable foundations began to sag and crack. The basketball court grew weeds and the playground desperately needed repair. There was talk of closing it down.

Then in 2003, Bishop Sauls was at a youth conference, and he met Cookie Cantwell, the Province IV Youth Coordinator. He was excited to hear about the work projects she had led, and he invited her to do the same in our diocese. That spark of an idea started a wildfire of activity, and before long, she and the PYE Design Team (led by Nat Duncan of Mississippi and Kim Smith of Atlanta) were on Barnes Mountain, volunteering a complete makeover!

Including adults, over 250 people descended on the mountain on July 21, 2004. They brought picks, shovels, sledgehammers, saws and paint brushes. They brought work gloves and sturdy shoes, bandannas and protective glasses. They brought enthusiasm, and they brought hope.

The kids tore down rotting fences and dug new post holes. They deconstructed the old log guest house and finished the foundation for a new church. The caretaker’s house was completely repainted, and a new floor was added in the kitchen. There were special teams to do each task, and when it came time to take apart the stone fireplace and underpinnings for the guest house, about 10 kids became the “sledge crew,” with special t-shirts for the occasion. The crew swung sledge hammers for hours to clear the site, and the young women and men poured their hearts into it.

The heart of the project is a new Youth Outreach Center building, at the rear of the property. Built with funds from United Thank Offering and the Roanridge Foundation, this 3,000-square-foot log building will be the “home base” for many youth groups and other work groups that will come in future months. It will be able to house 20-40 people, with a kitchen, bathroom and shower facilities, and a common living area. The building was purchased from Old Virginia Hand-Hewn Log Homes, which discounted the price because of our mission.

The participants were joined by five bishops, including Bishop Sauls, who worked almost as hard as the youth. They came to support the vision of St. Timothy’s: to be a center for developing young servant-leaders who can be trained for community mission in their own towns and cities. The Province IV youth have already committed many individual churches and dioceses to return with their own groups to work in Estill County, and the youth are considering ways to do another project at Barnes Mountain next summer.

Bryant Kibler, minister-in-charge at St. Timothy’s, has been employed by the diocese to train and lead the work groups that come to the mountain, as well as for his leadership of the small congregation that worships there. He is currently living at the Cathedral Domain, where he helps the Domain staff and provides a pastoral presence.

Bryant, along with Andy and Cindy Sigmon, has been invaluable both at PYE and in the follow-up construction that is taking place after the event. They have also been helped by Johnnie Ross and Stacy Sauls, who had the vision to bring these groups together, and by David Cupps, who brought together many of the details and wrote several successful grants to fund the project. Last, but far from least, are the PYE Design Team headed by Kim Smith, Nat Duncan and Cookie Cantwell, whose enthusiasm and hard work brought the youth to a week full of hard work that ended in celebration. These people and many others are continuing to work to bring together the generosity and connectedness of our Episcopal Church to Barnes Mountain and Estill County.

Advocate Photos by David Cupps