Oh man! Our last day is tomorrow. Everybody is talking about how this week has just flown by. We have done some amazing things in this short time we have been here. I have seen kids break out of their shells and start to open up. I have seen kids who never seemed to have shells...or maybe their shells were tie dyed, had P.A. systems installed, and had flames painted down the sides...come even further away from their shells. It has been fun and a pleasure to work with this group of people.
We had something amazing happen and the sequence of events is nothing short of amazing, but I am still going over it in my head and will have to take a day or so before I write about it. It will definitely be something to look forward to.
Today our group fed 888 people in the dining hall at St. Vincent de Paul. They had such a well run operation that even our band of rookies couldn't slow it down. I can't say that there was divine appointment in our assignments, but it did seem like we all got to go somewhere different that suited each of our personalities very well. Lauren and Sarah got to help the women and families section of the dining hall. Matt was given the job to "drop and click." He dropped the forks on the trays and clicked the device that told how many meals we had served. Sylvia got to start the food trays going. Jake and Dylan were in the middle of everyone handling drinks. Anita, (our host for the week) was in charge of vegetables. I, was the runner. Did you hear that? Me! Runner! I am thinking of having a shirt made that just says, "Runner!" I liked that job because it kept my easily distracted mind busy by making me do a lot of things. I also liked it because the title made it seem like I was actually running without being required to do so. (It is not safe to run in the kitchen boys and girls)
The dining hall was busier than a centipede at a shoe sale. There was a steady stream of customers right up until 11:45 when the volunteers got to eat their lunch...and be back to their jobs at noon. I sat with some of the people who worked at the hall regularly and one of them had been doing this for 23 years! Seeing that people have been helping for so long warmed my heart.
We then went to the Bay Area Rescue Mission (BARM) and we were affected more than perhaps any other place so far...but that is a story for later. At the end of our night we all gathered with the hosts and played Mafia in the gathering room. It's just a game, so if your kids come home saying that they killed someone, it was all pretend...probably.
Friday...Our last day. :-(
We are all fairly exhausted after this day and we are all going to be happy to be back to our beds, our one day of sleeping in past 6:15 before going back to work and school, and our shower that could last longer than 3 minutes! None of us have had the same experience, the same feelings or emotions, or even started from the same place with our perceptions...I also know that none of us will walk away from this week unchanged.
Together we have served more than a thousand meals, prepared food for thousands more, talked to total strangers, stepped out of our comfort zones, stepped into where some said we would be in a danger zone. We sorted clothes, organized hangers, filled bags with rice or oats, worked in a day school with toddlers, and worked in an after school program with teenagers from the inner city. It seems that the only thing we didn't do was sit around wondering what was for dinner or trying for find out what was on TV. We were busy for the entire time we were here and almost nobody can say with certainty what we did on which day. It has all become a blur of work and fulfillment.
As many times as we were thanked for the work that we did at all of the places we visited, we thanked them for allowing us to come be part of their wonderful missions. We thanked them for the opportunity to come and help them for a few hours when they are there, in the trenches, helping on a daily basis...and keeping smiles on their faces the whole time. It is good work that they are doing. It is important work that they are doing. It was a great experience to be a small part of it for a little while.
We had something amazing happen and the sequence of events is nothing short of amazing, but I am still going over it in my head and will have to take a day or so before I write about it. It will definitely be something to look forward to.
Today our group fed 888 people in the dining hall at St. Vincent de Paul. They had such a well run operation that even our band of rookies couldn't slow it down. I can't say that there was divine appointment in our assignments, but it did seem like we all got to go somewhere different that suited each of our personalities very well. Lauren and Sarah got to help the women and families section of the dining hall. Matt was given the job to "drop and click." He dropped the forks on the trays and clicked the device that told how many meals we had served. Sylvia got to start the food trays going. Jake and Dylan were in the middle of everyone handling drinks. Anita, (our host for the week) was in charge of vegetables. I, was the runner. Did you hear that? Me! Runner! I am thinking of having a shirt made that just says, "Runner!" I liked that job because it kept my easily distracted mind busy by making me do a lot of things. I also liked it because the title made it seem like I was actually running without being required to do so. (It is not safe to run in the kitchen boys and girls)
The dining hall was busier than a centipede at a shoe sale. There was a steady stream of customers right up until 11:45 when the volunteers got to eat their lunch...and be back to their jobs at noon. I sat with some of the people who worked at the hall regularly and one of them had been doing this for 23 years! Seeing that people have been helping for so long warmed my heart.
We then went to the Bay Area Rescue Mission (BARM) and we were affected more than perhaps any other place so far...but that is a story for later. At the end of our night we all gathered with the hosts and played Mafia in the gathering room. It's just a game, so if your kids come home saying that they killed someone, it was all pretend...probably.
Friday...Our last day. :-(
We are all fairly exhausted after this day and we are all going to be happy to be back to our beds, our one day of sleeping in past 6:15 before going back to work and school, and our shower that could last longer than 3 minutes! None of us have had the same experience, the same feelings or emotions, or even started from the same place with our perceptions...I also know that none of us will walk away from this week unchanged.
Together we have served more than a thousand meals, prepared food for thousands more, talked to total strangers, stepped out of our comfort zones, stepped into where some said we would be in a danger zone. We sorted clothes, organized hangers, filled bags with rice or oats, worked in a day school with toddlers, and worked in an after school program with teenagers from the inner city. It seems that the only thing we didn't do was sit around wondering what was for dinner or trying for find out what was on TV. We were busy for the entire time we were here and almost nobody can say with certainty what we did on which day. It has all become a blur of work and fulfillment.
As many times as we were thanked for the work that we did at all of the places we visited, we thanked them for allowing us to come be part of their wonderful missions. We thanked them for the opportunity to come and help them for a few hours when they are there, in the trenches, helping on a daily basis...and keeping smiles on their faces the whole time. It is good work that they are doing. It is important work that they are doing. It was a great experience to be a small part of it for a little while.
Still leaving us hanging…. can't wait to hear the story.
ReplyDeleteLeft me out of the dinning. I did drinks with jacob not Dylan he served food.
ReplyDeleteI see how it is mr garrett
ReplyDelete