ASSIST JC visits Eastport for 20th year

From the Labor of Love Food Pantry and Nutrition Center to buildings downtown and homes scattered throughout Eastport, not to mention Shackford Head State Park's trails, there has been no part of the island city that hasn't seen the helping touch of the ASSIST JC teams from All Souls Congregational Church in Bangor.
While the ASSIST JC program began in 2000, the first trip to Eastport was in 2002. Almost every alternate year since has seen a new team of teens and adults come to do hands on construction and repair work for homeowners and organizations in need as part of a training process that prepares them for mission work in another country the following year. Four adults with this year's group also participated in Eastport's work visits as teens. Rebekah Timms, the ASSIST JC leader for the Eastport visit, remembers back to 2002 when she came with her sister, Ashlee Black. "The magic of Eastport happens when you take kiddos out of their comfort zone," she explains. The island city, while only a little over two hours away from Bangor, has a very different feel and pace. "Kids slow down." The week is about connecting with each other and the community as much as it is about learning how to sleep on a gym floor with a bunch of other people, use construction tools and listen to the advice of an older team member.
Timms says, "We're inter generational. Thirty somethings are learning from the 60 somethings, the teens are learning from the 30 and 60 somethings, who are rejuvenated by working with the teens" and their different perspectives. It's peer building at its best and very important to the success of the following year's mission work. Deciding that sleeping on a gym floor or having to live in a group environment without smartphones is not a good fit is much easier to solve with a trip from Eastport to Bangor than with a trip from Guatemala to Maine.
"I'm excited to be back," exclaims Black. It's been 17 years since she was in Eastport. "It's kind of fun being here as an adult." She's noticing that already the group is coalescing, with different teens showing skills that the team leaders will take note of and think of how to nurture. "All of a sudden you're relying on others. They're the people holding your back when you hit your Wednesday slump." She adds from her own experience, "So when you go to Honduras and you're sick with 'traveler's everything,' it's really nice to have that connection with everyone."
In 2016 Ezra Hamer Nagle came to Eastport and then went to Guatemala the following year. One of the most valuable lessons he took away from the Eastport experience was how to navigate down time. Unlike Timms and Black, he grew up with smartphones, and only adults are allowed to have them present for the Eastport visit. He almost refused to go when he contemplated the two-hour drive from Bangor without being able to entertain himself with his device. It's the same question still being heard today, and the answer is the same. Start talking to each other, learn to play cards and other games, learn to slow down and overcome boredom. "One of the most dangerous things for a 16-year-old to be in another country is to be bored," he says.
As someone who as a 14-year-old teen was shy and tentative about trying new things, Olivia Kord came to Eastport in 2010. Her family had been to Eastport as part of ASSIST JC before, so that helped with her comfort level. During her time on Moose Island she learned "how to be OK with being uncomfortable, and realizing that others are uncomfortable, too." It's that line of discomfort that when shared with others in the team, when learning new skills feels a bit scary, that "this fantastic thing happens here in the coming together."
Timms jumps in. "Whether you're cleaning the brushes or making scaffolding -- we grow right at the edge of the comfort zone." She adds, "It's testing boundaries in a safe way. We call it productive boundary testing."
The ASSIST JC group this year is 31 strong, with 12 teenagers and 19 adults, some of whom have been parents or grandparents of past teen participants and others who see the value of the inter generational work and come with skills and a willingness to help prepare the group for next year's mission work. Timms says about Eastport, "It's like returning home," with what seems like everyone knowing of their arrival and chipping in to supply cookies and other treats, bread for peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunches and more. "Being here is like being home," agrees Kord. Now it comes naturally to juggle a million things for the benefit of the group's work to be cohesive and to help others, and in part because of that past experience in Eastport when she was a teen learning how to navigate the ASSIST JC mission.