Opinion : Remembering what I did not see in Kentucky

No, we do not know why this winding two-lane road in Kentucky was on fire Thursday.

Vinton volunteers finished this roof in Kentucky just an hour or two before a fierce thunderstorm.

My second trip to Kentucky included something I never thought I would see (a road on fire), a few things I have not seen for a while (a rainbow), some cool places I had not yet seen ( The Blue Heron coal mine and Cumberland Falls) -- and something cool I have only seen once before.

The highlight of my week on the west foothills of the Appalachian Mountains was something I did not see on Thursday: Water.

Oh, there was plenty of water outside. It rained that day much harder than it has all year in this part of Iowa.

But inside, the old house was dry.

If it had rained like that just a few hours earlier, June would have gone looking for bowls to catch the water.

June, a widow with a variety of health problems, has lived for 18 years in a house with a variety of problems, including a leaking roof. We tore the shingles off of one side of her house; the other side had a part where most of the shingles came off without the need for any tools. And that was the part of the roof that looked the newest.

We finished half of the roof on Tuesday. We prepared the other half on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, we finished covering it with metal.

At noon, it poured.

While most of the volunteers ate lunch in June's living room, she took me on a short tour of the house -- the part we had just finished. She went from room to room, showing me places in the ceiling she had replaced because of water damage. She also showed me places where she used to put large bowls to catch the water as it came in.

"You won't have to do that anymore," I said.

That night, as we reviewed our project with our Christian Appalachian Project coordinator, I asked her if she ever got discouraged because of the large number of people who still need help.

Yes, she said.

But, she added, it's like the story of the starfish.

I had heard that story before; a few in our group had not.

A man walked along the beach one night, after the tide receded. He picked up stranded starfish and tossed them back into the water. Those away from the water would die soon. Someone said to the man, "There are so many. How can you expect to make a difference?" He replied, as he held up a starfish: "It makes a difference to this one."

We made a difference in Kentucky. We only made a difference to one person. But we made a difference.

And of all the cool things I saw that week -- the waterfall, the coal mine or that bizarre fire on the highway -- the thing I remember most is what I didn't see pouring though the roof of June's house during that storm.

(And by the way, lots of you Vinton Today readers have done cool things like this for others. We'd love to read your stories, too.)

Video