By Miles Layton
TANGIER ISLAND, Va. — When Charlie Pensinger of Carlisle, Pa., packs his bags each summer, he knows exactly where he’s headed — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It is one of the weeks that I look forward to most of my year,” said Pensinger, a member of the Carlisle Mission Team, a coalition of churches from south central Pennsylvania that makes an annual pilgrimage to this small Chesapeake Bay island. “It’s so good to be able to come down to the island and just be a part in bringing a spiritual trip to the folks down here.”
This year marks Pensinger’s fourth consecutive visit, and the team arrived 49 members strong — a number with its own quiet biblical resonance — representing 10 churches across the region. For roughly 12 of those members, it was their very first missions trip.
Pensinger said the three tenants of this mission is keeping folks “warmer, safer, and dryer”.
“That’s the purpose of the construction arm of this spiritual trip — spiritual and construction are our 2-handed approach to missionary work,” he said.
Pensinger continued, “We like to think of this trip as Missions 101,” Pensinger said. “We don’t need an airplane ticket, we don’t need shots, we don’t need any of that. We get to stay here in Virginia and come out just to a beautiful place with beautiful people.”
Tangier Island, long known for its deep Christian faith and its Chesapeake waterman culture, has welcomed mission teams for years. The island’s residents have historically maintained one of the most devout communities on the East Coast, where church life anchors the rhythm of daily existence. For a team rooted in that same faith, it is fertile ground.
Called and Equipped
The theological backbone of the Carlisle Mission Team’s work is straightforward: God provides the gifts, and people are called to use them in service to others.
“God gives us the talents, He gives us the time,” Pensinger said, “and it’s people just committing to come down and help share all the gifts that God’s given us with the people of this great island.”
That theology of stewardship — the belief that skills like plumbing, carpentry, and electrical work are spiritual assets as much as practical ones — drives volunteers to climb onto roofs and crawl under porches in summer heat. The work of fixing a leaky roof or building a wheelchair ramp becomes, in this framework, an act of worship as much as an act of service.
The team draws from 10 churches, all from south central Pennsylvania, whose congregations rotate participation from year to year. The diversity of denominations united around a common mission reflects what many in the Christian tradition call the universal call to serve — the idea that faith without works is incomplete.
Roofs, Ramps, and Real Work
Across the week, volunteers spread out across Tangier to tackle home repairs that island residents often struggle to get done — a challenge familiar to many in isolated communities where contractors are reluctant to make the trip across the water.
“There have been several dozen homes that we’ve been in,” Pensinger said, “and we do work such as roofing and deck building. We do plumbing, electrical. We do a lot of the jobs that the folks on the island have trouble getting contractors to come across to do.”
The repairs are deliberate and practical — stopping small problems before they become catastrophic ones.
“We’re not completely rebuilding homes, but we’re trying to fix the roof leak before it destroys the floor,” Pensinger explained. “We’re trying to replace a couple deck boards before it needs a new deck.”
Accessibility is also a priority. “We do a lot of ramps for folks that are in wheelchairs and things like that, where they have some mobility issues — a lot of ramps versus steps, just railings to put up to help them out however we can.”
In the Christian tradition, care for the vulnerable — the elderly, the disabled, those without means — is considered central to faithful living. On Tangier, that calling takes the shape of a hammer and a level.
A Community That Gives Back — and Reflects the Divine
If the mission team comes to serve, the people of Tangier seem determined to return the favor. And for Pensinger, that generosity carries a deeper meaning than simple hospitality.
“The people here are so gracious — they will bring us food,” he said. “The very first morning we were here, somebody cooked a ham and dropped a ham off at the Sunday school building so that, as the missionaries, we had some extra food here. They are loving in every way.”
But it is what he sees beneath that generosity that moves him most.
“We get to see God through the people on the island,” Pensinger said — twice, and without prompting, as though the phrase carried a weight he wanted to make sure landed. For him and his team, the exchange between missionaries and island residents is not a one-way transaction of service. It is a mutual encounter with the sacred.
That theology — that God is visible in the faces and actions of ordinary people — is perhaps the quiet engine beneath the entire week’s work.
More Than Hammers: A Week Full of Community and Scripture
Construction aside, the team packed the week with faith-based programming for residents of all ages. Vacation Bible school served the island’s youth with scripture and song. Women’s Bible study filled the mornings, offering reflection and fellowship. A women’s craft night drew participants together to make bracelets and necklaces — small tokens, but woven with conversation and community.
Teenagers gathered for a hide-and-seek night, and though strong winds grounded the planned teen bonfire, the evening found its own meaningful shape. A flag retirement ceremony gave young people a lesson in civic and patriotic reverence — values that, on Tangier, are deeply intertwined with religious identity.
“We had a flag retirement ceremony that Rob (Baechtel/Brigadune Inn owner) led to show folks how that’s handled when you have old flags,” Pensinger said. “We did that as part of our teen night.”
A family fun night closed out the week’s evening programming, featuring “skits and singing and jokes and just a fun comedy night that we had for the island and for our mission team” — a reminder that joy, too, is a spiritual practice.
Community Day and Cornhole
Saturday brought the week’s grand finale: Community Fun Day. The morning opened with a kids’ fun run, followed by what Pensinger described as “almost like a carnival atmosphere for the kids on the island,” complete with face painting, drawing, and activity stations. The traditionally beloved community softball game adapted this year due to field unavailability — replaced by a community cornhole tournament and barbecue. The change in game didn’t diminish the spirit of the gathering.
Reasons for Optimism — and Faith
After four years of visits, Pensinger has watched Tangier through seasons of worry and progress. The island has faced well-documented environmental threats, with erosion slowly eating at its shoreline. But this year, he says, feels different.
“I feel more optimistic this year than ever,” he said, citing beach restoration efforts near the Brigadune Inn, newly installed historical signage near the Sunday school building, productive collaboration with the town council, and the cleanup of blighted properties. “Definitely see improvements on the island, and feel very good about the future on the island.”
For a man of faith visiting a community of faith, optimism and hope are not merely emotional states — they are theological convictions. On Tangier Island, where the church bell has long called watermen to worship before they head out on the bay, the arrival of 49 volunteers with toolboxes and Bibles each summer is its own kind of testimony.
Pensinger and his team will pack up and head back to Pennsylvania. But they’ll return. The people of Tangier will see to it — probably with a ham waiting at the door.
Tangier Island, Virginia 