Appalachia and you

I'm getting ready to go to Good Works, a ministry in Athens, Ohio to what would technically be called--for the most part--low income people in Appalachia. I was born in Appalachia, and lived the first 15 years of my life in Appalachia, so I suppose I should expect to see a lot of people I'm related to...

The funny thing is that while Appalachia has certain stereotypes--some of them good (beautiful scenery, hometown feel, wilderness) and some of them questionable (yes, I have all my teeth; no I'm not married to my sister; no, I don't drive a pickup truck)--the ministry to the poor of Appalachia is remarkably similar to the ministry to much of the rest of the nation.

Once I was on a trip from an "urban" region of Appalachia (relatively speaking) to a "rural" area of Appalachia (as in, yes some of the homes have dirt floors...really). Any outsider would say, "you idiots! There's no place to work here! There's no future life for your children! You're in poverty here...so MOVE!" Of course, there are some people in Appalachia who are making some very poor choices that are causing terrible poverty, and others who are enslaved in a system that brings about hunger. But, moving is probably not a necessary answer--and they know that, because they response to the idea usually goes something like this:

"My parents are here, my grandparents are here, my friends I've known for my whole life are here. My brother's buried over there in that cemetery. The owners of that store will let me pay for stuff a little late if I have to. The most beautiful sight in the world is on top of that ridge, at dawn, in winter with the snow in the valley. Five generations of us have survived here...and we will too."

In that they're saying, "I'm not going to play the game of life by the rules of what is deemed to be popular culture. There are things more important."

There's something noble about that.