I have another post for Wednesday, I wrote it before we left. It's for Ash Wednesday. I'll save it because of course I have plenty to write about Tuesday.
First we met the Salvation Army truck to help serve breakfast. I can't tell you where because I have no idea, just that it was in front of another mission that didn't open until 9am. There was another group that came with the S.A. from Vanderbilt University. We all helped serve coffee, hot chocolate, bottled water and granola bars. We had arrived a few minutes before the truck, so we already had the chance to talk with some of the people waiting for breakfast. At one point I looked around and all of the volunteers were talking with someone there for breakfast. A couple of people pulled up in a Cadillac and one of the gentleman, Billy, shared that he didn't think that was very fair that they got breakfast. I wasn't quite sure what to say, so I told him our ride was the big red van. He said he preferred the van, and I said, well they both steer about the same while mimicking the "play" in the steering wheel. He laughed and that got his mind off of the "fancy" car. Later, we as a group talked about this and came to the realization that maybe they bought the car used, or when things were going well for them and that was all they had left and they were living out of it. You never know the situation and you just can't judge a book by its cover.
From there we headed over to Community Care, a UMC that serves lunch and breakfast different days of the week. They have shower and laundry facilities. Some of the group cleaned up outside, some cleaned the shelves in the pantry, some packed care packages, some helped prepare lunch and Sami and I buffed the Sanctuary floors. There are pictures, they will be added. Shruti (our host, you pronounce her name Shroo-thee) came and got Sami and me for lunch, we prayed and then ate. There was a little scuffle at our table with two of the guests which really got people riled up. This facility does not tolerate foul language, abuse, etc and Toi (the director, pronounced Toy) means business - tough love. The situation was diffused (the man was escorted outside). Sami was ready to talk to the woman about the abuse and I was quite scared. I could tell Jen and Bernard were too, so I stood up, asked Sami if she was okay to stay and Bernard, Jen and I went back to the Sanctuary and put the chairs back. When we went back upstairs we found out that the woman was removed as well because her water bottle was not full of water. It's sad, but this place cares about their volunteers, that was evidenced by the other guests who were shocked at the behavior of these two people. They were all ready to protect us and themselves. We are blessed that it did not get more out of control. It was an amazing experience all around and that event taught us all something new (different for each of us).
From there we headed to The Next Door, a facility that helps women coming out of incarceration and addiction type situations. We started off in their meditation room, it had two bookcases full of books and Bibles. Another group had already purged the romance novels. Our job was to purge again to get only enough books to fit on one bookcase. As we started that process, Mary (one of the Directors) would come and ask for volunteers to help do other things. I think some people went and cleaned, I stayed with the books because I love to organize and purge (only other peoples stuff, not necessarily my own). Amelia and I weeded our way through them all and set aside a couple boxes full of books to be donated. It was at that point that I realized the shelves were on upside down! A couple of the guys came back and carried the one bookshelf out to the dumpster. Then they carried the other one upstairs (two flights) to a different room. We took all the books up on a cart (via the elevator) and Bernard, Josh, Amelia and I put them all back on the shelves in a more visually appealing way. When we were finished we actually had space left, so we spotted a cute green vase on top of the refrigerator so I grabbed it and put it on the shelf. It looked so great! (again, there are pictures - but they're all on Sami's camera).
Then we went and cleaned the staircase. That's an interesting job. Don't stand below someone on the stairs when that person has a bucket of water and paper towels.
We all gathered in the dinning room and one of the residents came in and shared her story. She was amazing and at the very end she told us that she has never shared that with anyone outside of the Next Door community. It was hard to not cry, but she was very honest and open. After she finished, they asked a couple of us to help in the kitchen with Miss Cynthia (a former resident who now returns to volunteer and mentor), the rest went and finished cleaning. Stephanie and I helped cook their dinner which was pancakes, bacon and eggs. It smelled so good. Miss Cynthia poured the first batch of pancakes and I flipped. Then Stephanie managed to take over and we had a good system. Every single pancake was perfect and golden. While we finished with dinner, the rest of the group sat down to hand write individual letters to the residents. Stephanie and I felt bad because we didn't get to help do that, then we asked if we could write one for Miss Cynthia. I told Stephanie I wasn't sure what to write and she started dictating. I started writing, then we realized we should add a verse. I said we should try to find one about food. There were books that the rest of the group were using, so we looked in one and couldn't find anything. Bernard brought a couple more books over to us, so we started looking in the index. The book I had didn't have an index, so I just started flipping through pages. I found the perfect verse, it talked about God and preparing and serving food in his name. It came from Deuteronomy, but I don't remember where. It was amazing.
We headed for dinner at an Indian restaurant, Sitar. Shruti is Indian and she told Sami and me that she loves this restaurant, so we were pretty excited. It was amazing. We had naan (think pita bread-ish), and chicken curry, two other kinds of chicken, lamb, vegetables and rice. It was delicious. We headed back to the church and got all the way back here and decided we needed dessert since it's Fat Tuesday and Sami didn't get her paczki. Shruti told us about the Pink Berry, so that's where we all wanted to go. It was all the way back, literally blocks from Sitar and we drove all the way back. It was very amusing. Pink Berry has all natural, organic frozen yogurt. You can pick as many toppings as you like for no extra charge!! It was fantastic. Then we came back here to debrief which ended up taking two hours. It's not 11:38am, we're getting up early to have devotions and 8:00am.
Wednesday's schedule:
Devotions at 8m
Feed the Children (they're all in school so we'll be packing emergency food boxes or hygiene boxes)
Urban Exposure (we are sent out into the city to do a small list of things)
Greek food for dinner
Ash Wednesday Service at Community Care
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