Meghan Whitaker turned 15 years old today. It seems "Happy Birthday" has been sung a plethora of times on this trip. But it never gets old. They are great celebrations. Tomorrow will seem odd because we have no birthday in our group. We're not really sure what we're gonna do.
Let me tell you some other stories from Wednesday, July 9:
Team 1 was led by a solo Karin Hust today.* They departed soon after breakfast and devotions for United Nations Plaza, which sits in the shadows of City Hall. They were armed with Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches and Capri Suns. Their mission: feed those who were interested. As you can suspect, many people did not refuse their kindness. The cool part for Team 1 during this part of their day were the conversations they had. Again, it's continuing to reinforce the fact that men and women who are poor and have no shelter are people who deserve dignity and love and compassion. It seems those were things Jesus cared about. We're just trying to follow his example. The second half of their day was helping (helping = manual labor) with an organization called Project Open Hand (POH), whose main objective is to provide meals to people to people who are shut-ins, as well as people with HIV/AIDS.
*Barb Basalone, embracing her role as a good mom and a good team leader, stayed behind with a sick Jake Bergeron. Team 1 was disappointed that Jake & Barb were not in their ranks for their day of service, but mustered enough strength once things started rolling. The good news at the end of the day is that Jake is feeling better, and the time to rest should have given him enough energy to see the week to it's completion.
Team 2 (Brenton + Rachel's Team) had their first all day assignment. Leaving at about 8:10AM, they headed off to the Salvation Army center on Mission Street.
(I loved this sign that welcomed us. William Booth would be proud. The righteousness of the efforts of the Salvation Army continue to be seen over 140 years later...)This location runs a summer day camp for children. Team 2 acted as volunteer leaders for the day camp's field trip to the Cartoon Art Museum and to the park. They were given groups of 5-7 kids from age four to twelve. These are kids from low-income families that crave attention in so many forms, the kind of young people that act out to get noticed, pretend to be hard on the outside but are unable to hide their tender heart when given a chance. Team 2 showed love through playing games, shooting baskets, reading books, singing worship songs, juggling balls, and going down slides at the park. All in a days' work of loving on kids.
Team 3 (Steve's Team) had an all day assignment of their own, at the San Francisco Rescue Mission. Between some heavy cleaning of the facilities, as well as preparing today's meal, Team 3 made their mark on the staff at the Rescue Mission, as well as some of the people that receive help there. And just to show how God is in control of our week and ordering our steps, even those of our individual groups, I want to share a story about Steve Swodeck. When Team 3 arrived at the Rescue Mission, they were asked the simple question if anyone had any experience with computers. Steve sheepishly admitted that he knows a little (which is an understatement, but he was being bashful). The Rescue Mission staff then mentioned that they were in need of someone who was familiar with Microsoft Access. Which is exactly what Steve has a certification in. So he spent a couple of hours working with the office staff helping them to clean some things up on their computers, and to help streamline some of the processes. Coincidence? Definitely not. Especially when you think that our team schedules this week were random and any one of our three groups could have worked at the Rescue Mission today. But no one else in our 3 groups could have been the right person at the right time (sounds like finding a a car repairman during the 9am church service when a van has broken down...).
Amazing how God works. We're sitting on the front row this week watching how He is at work, and how He is using each one of us.
Our group finished the night off with our middle-of-the-week Free Night. Wanting to take in the authentic San Francisco experience, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf.
We grabbed a group dinner at the Boudin Sourdough Bread Factor right on the water. Bread bowls were in abundance. Clam Chowder was the soup of choice. The smell of the sourdough wafted through the air.
Following that, we walked a little further down to Pier 39, giving our group a chance to walk around and grab some mementos of their experience in this city. All that, plus a scoop of ice cream seemed to do us well.
We are ready for Thursday & Friday.
Pray for our strength and endurance to be fully present in these final two days of serving and activities. We long for Saturday, because it means we will be home with family and friends, but may our hearts not leave this city before we do.
Until tomorrow...
Brenton
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