It is crazy to think that I have been here for less than a month because it seems like SO much longer! I have absolutely loved this past week because it was so rewarding and eye-opening.
Sunday: I went to church in the morning with the usual crew and then we came back to chill at the housing site before our staff meeting. For our staff meeting, we just talked about our groups who are coming and our schedules for the upcoming week and we did a lot of praying as well which was much needed. We were so stinkin excited to get our first groups! After our meeting, we had some time to kill before our groups arrived. One group ended up coming about two hours late so the two groups who had come on time, we went ahead and did orientation and then we went and had dinner at New Delhi. I had to navigate my group to the restaurant and I got us desparately lost…like thirty minutes late to dinner lost. Then, we all came back to the housing site again and did a cultural orientation game that was hilarious for us hosts to watch our groups engage in! Then we all just chatted and did a general debrief over what we had done. I had a kind of small group because Lily, Caitlin and I were cohosting and the group was split in two with Lily and Caitlin sharing a serving group and I had my own serving group. My group was like 6 people strong but it was good, I really liked them. Anyway, then us hosts got together and just hung out and chatted and prayed together and just really took in the fact that this was really happening. We had all gotten into bed after talking about how much we missed Brittany, Nicole, and Scott because we had basically spent every minute with them since we had gotten to Philly and then all of a sudden, we heard Scott holler down that he had something for us; he had bought us each a donut which I thought was super nice! Also, he got the centipede off of my bed so I really appreciated that too. He’s a pal.
Monday: I started my day by taking my group to their serving sites and helped them get plugged in with different jobs. Their first site was an assisted living facility for wheelchair-bound people. Two of my group just went and visited some of the residents’ rooms while three helped with arts and crafts and the last one helped with a yoga class. I remember leaving and my group was telling me how much fun they had and how even though they had no clue that facilities like this existed. Before we as hosts had gone to visit this place, I had no clue that there were places like it either! Then it was lunch time so we had our lunches at a little park in West Philly. After lunch, we headed back to the housing site because my group was scheduled to do Hands of Hope that night and I had forgotten to have them pack extra lunches. While at the housing site, it was nice to see my fellow cohosts and come up with a better idea of how to do what was required of us for the rest of the day. I soon left the housing site with my group to go volunteer at an after school program in the city. I know my whole group had a ton of fun because I was able to serve with them and see their joy in the experience! While there, I met a little girl who looked just like I would imagine that Lily looked when she was that age. It was so funny. My group just had a blast at this site. Then we had Puerto Rican food for dinner at a local restaurant which was awesome! We met up with the other half of the group to have dinner. My half of the group was scheduled to do another ministry called Hands of Hope where we passed out lunches to homeless people. Then we met up with the rest of my group at the Rocky steps to debrief together. When we were done with that, we all came back to the housing site and all of us hosts went to our rooms to hang out. Then it was off to bed!
Tuesday: This was an interesting day. We started our day at Helping Hands Rescue Mission. We helped them to assemble some care packages as well as organizing their food pantry they have set up for the homeless. This was one of my groups favorite things to do because as we were working, the pastor who works there with them gave us all some super solid advice. He was just very wise! We ate our lunches there with him and he gave a little sermon all throughout our lunch time. Then we left and came back to the housing site for a little bit. Then it was off to our after school program! We showed up and there was a sign on the door saying that it was closed due to extreme heat so we left. We ended up doing a picture scavenger hunt on a historic street here in Philly which was a ton of fun! Then it was Vietnamese food for dinner at Viet Huong. A few people in my group were really nervous about having this kind of food becuase they had never had anything like it but I just really encouraged them to try it and step out of their comfort zone. It might not have been their favorite food, but they definitely broadened their horizons in that aspect! Next, it was the other half of the group’s turn to do the Hands of Hope ministry so I took my group to Love Park because they really wanted to see the statue and Dilworth Park so we headed over there while the other group passed out lunches. Then we all met up and did our debrief there in Love Park. I absolutely loved it. Then it was back to the housing site and quickly to bed.
Wednesday: The weather today was perfect. It was in the seventies, low humidity, few clouds, just all around perfect which made us serving at our first site that much more fun! We worked with a ministry called Ray of Hope which is where can do anything from street clean up to helping rehab houses to pulling weeds. We ended up doing street cleanup with a group from the church of the Latter Day Saints. We helped clean up a park, an entire block,a dn a playground. the group from the LDS church helped replace the basketball nets on the playground. Afterwords, I took my group back to the housing site for lunch before we headed back to our after school program. The after school program was not closed today so we were all pumped! I did have my site visit with my boss, Brittany, which was so refreshing. I definitly missed seeing her. We just drank some tea and chatted and it made me so happy because it’s someone who isn’t involved in this specific situation but understands how it feels because she had been a host before. Next, I went back to my group and gathered them up for dinner that night. We had Thai food at my favorite restaurant, Pattaya. It is always delicious. That was our last activity scheduled aside from debrief so our full group went to a nearby park for that as well as their devotions because they hadn’t gotten the chance to do it that morning. We finished kind of early and once we got back to the housing site, it was straight to bed for all of us because we were exhausted.
Thursday: this was my group’s last full day of serving. We started by serving at a “wet” shelter that morning which my group LOVED. They cut up soap for the guys who would stay there that night and even though it was such a small, menial task, they loved it so so much. Then they got to serve the men who were there for lunch which is something else that they loved doing. My group had lunch at the shelter with the men and then it was off to do our afternoon activities. I took them on the prayer tour which I was very proud of myself for doing and not messing up too terribly (I took one wrong turn but I fixed it so quickly that they didn’t catch on). I did have three of the six fall asleep but I am just goin to go with the fact that they were tired and not that I was boring haha. City Search was our next activity which is just an opportunity for the groups to get to take in the historic sites here in Philly. Then we headed off to our first worship night of the summer! There were Philly Cheese Steaks there to eat for dinner before we hopped in to do worship. Caitlin and Fran led worship which was pretty cool and then I got up to talk. I had planned to talk abotu the differences between grace and mercy but when Nicole was introducing me, she basically said that I was going to be talking about abandoning expectations and how I’ve done that in my life. So in my head, I was just like okay, I guess I’m sharing my testimony! So I got up there and shared and it went pretty well. I got some really great feedback. Then we had some students share stories from this past week. Two of my group shared; one said that I was the highlight of her week, just by being myself and not being scared to share it with my group. The other shared about how much her heart had been affected by this week since it was her first mission trip. I just didn’t realize how much she had been changed and that just really touched me. I loved my group even if we had some struggles, they were rock stars. After worship night was over, we all headed back here to the housing site and just hung out for awhile. Worship just always changes something in my heart and it grew my love for not only my group but also this city. I can’t wait to see what else is accomplished here before the end of the summer.
Friday: I got up early this morning to see my group off and then I went right back to bed because the week had exhausted me. I finally got up around noon and began to get ready for the day. I had some lunch and then was recruited to help move some stuff from this building to another so I helped with that. It was myself, Laura, Faith, Caitlin, Scott and Faith and Laura’s group that all helped to get stuff moved. We were done in about three hours and once we were done, I was even more exhausted so I showered and just spent the day hanging out with Lily. We did all of our paperwork and she taught me how to do the whip and the naenae and just a few other dances as well. We also went to Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s. We just had a good time together. Then I watched some Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix and just lazed around for a bit. To end the day, Fran, Scott and I just sat around and chatted until 1am about hosting and life and everything and Scott gave us some more good advice. Then, we were all really exhausted so it was definitely bed time.
Saturday: This was a pretty chill day. I got up to see the last couple of groups off with the other hosts. It was definitely bittersweet because the groups that we had all bonded so well with were now gone but at the same time, we had the housing site back to ourselves. Basically, we did nothing yesterday. I went back to sleep for a little bit then I got up, showered, straightened my hair, and watched some. After that, I decided to teach myself how to play guitar so I was watching Youtube videos to teach me a couple chords and how to strum and a few other things. I feel like I could really rock it by the end of the summer!! I then just started watching Youtube videos for entertainment and eventually, I had Laura, Fran and Faith all watching random videos with me for about an hour. It was a ton of fun and I love havign some bondign time with them. After we did that for about an hour or so, we all headed to bed because we wanted to try to be well rested by the time the groups get here Sunday.
Stay tuned for the next installation of CSM Philly life 2k15!
Sunday: I went to church in the morning with the usual crew and then we came back to chill at the housing site before our staff meeting. For our staff meeting, we just talked about our groups who are coming and our schedules for the upcoming week and we did a lot of praying as well which was much needed. We were so stinkin excited to get our first groups! After our meeting, we had some time to kill before our groups arrived. One group ended up coming about two hours late so the two groups who had come on time, we went ahead and did orientation and then we went and had dinner at New Delhi. I had to navigate my group to the restaurant and I got us desparately lost…like thirty minutes late to dinner lost. Then, we all came back to the housing site again and did a cultural orientation game that was hilarious for us hosts to watch our groups engage in! Then we all just chatted and did a general debrief over what we had done. I had a kind of small group because Lily, Caitlin and I were cohosting and the group was split in two with Lily and Caitlin sharing a serving group and I had my own serving group. My group was like 6 people strong but it was good, I really liked them. Anyway, then us hosts got together and just hung out and chatted and prayed together and just really took in the fact that this was really happening. We had all gotten into bed after talking about how much we missed Brittany, Nicole, and Scott because we had basically spent every minute with them since we had gotten to Philly and then all of a sudden, we heard Scott holler down that he had something for us; he had bought us each a donut which I thought was super nice! Also, he got the centipede off of my bed so I really appreciated that too. He’s a pal.
Monday: I started my day by taking my group to their serving sites and helped them get plugged in with different jobs. Their first site was an assisted living facility for wheelchair-bound people. Two of my group just went and visited some of the residents’ rooms while three helped with arts and crafts and the last one helped with a yoga class. I remember leaving and my group was telling me how much fun they had and how even though they had no clue that facilities like this existed. Before we as hosts had gone to visit this place, I had no clue that there were places like it either! Then it was lunch time so we had our lunches at a little park in West Philly. After lunch, we headed back to the housing site because my group was scheduled to do Hands of Hope that night and I had forgotten to have them pack extra lunches. While at the housing site, it was nice to see my fellow cohosts and come up with a better idea of how to do what was required of us for the rest of the day. I soon left the housing site with my group to go volunteer at an after school program in the city. I know my whole group had a ton of fun because I was able to serve with them and see their joy in the experience! While there, I met a little girl who looked just like I would imagine that Lily looked when she was that age. It was so funny. My group just had a blast at this site. Then we had Puerto Rican food for dinner at a local restaurant which was awesome! We met up with the other half of the group to have dinner. My half of the group was scheduled to do another ministry called Hands of Hope where we passed out lunches to homeless people. Then we met up with the rest of my group at the Rocky steps to debrief together. When we were done with that, we all came back to the housing site and all of us hosts went to our rooms to hang out. Then it was off to bed!
Tuesday: This was an interesting day. We started our day at Helping Hands Rescue Mission. We helped them to assemble some care packages as well as organizing their food pantry they have set up for the homeless. This was one of my groups favorite things to do because as we were working, the pastor who works there with them gave us all some super solid advice. He was just very wise! We ate our lunches there with him and he gave a little sermon all throughout our lunch time. Then we left and came back to the housing site for a little bit. Then it was off to our after school program! We showed up and there was a sign on the door saying that it was closed due to extreme heat so we left. We ended up doing a picture scavenger hunt on a historic street here in Philly which was a ton of fun! Then it was Vietnamese food for dinner at Viet Huong. A few people in my group were really nervous about having this kind of food becuase they had never had anything like it but I just really encouraged them to try it and step out of their comfort zone. It might not have been their favorite food, but they definitely broadened their horizons in that aspect! Next, it was the other half of the group’s turn to do the Hands of Hope ministry so I took my group to Love Park because they really wanted to see the statue and Dilworth Park so we headed over there while the other group passed out lunches. Then we all met up and did our debrief there in Love Park. I absolutely loved it. Then it was back to the housing site and quickly to bed.
Wednesday: The weather today was perfect. It was in the seventies, low humidity, few clouds, just all around perfect which made us serving at our first site that much more fun! We worked with a ministry called Ray of Hope which is where can do anything from street clean up to helping rehab houses to pulling weeds. We ended up doing street cleanup with a group from the church of the Latter Day Saints. We helped clean up a park, an entire block,a dn a playground. the group from the LDS church helped replace the basketball nets on the playground. Afterwords, I took my group back to the housing site for lunch before we headed back to our after school program. The after school program was not closed today so we were all pumped! I did have my site visit with my boss, Brittany, which was so refreshing. I definitly missed seeing her. We just drank some tea and chatted and it made me so happy because it’s someone who isn’t involved in this specific situation but understands how it feels because she had been a host before. Next, I went back to my group and gathered them up for dinner that night. We had Thai food at my favorite restaurant, Pattaya. It is always delicious. That was our last activity scheduled aside from debrief so our full group went to a nearby park for that as well as their devotions because they hadn’t gotten the chance to do it that morning. We finished kind of early and once we got back to the housing site, it was straight to bed for all of us because we were exhausted.
Thursday: this was my group’s last full day of serving. We started by serving at a “wet” shelter that morning which my group LOVED. They cut up soap for the guys who would stay there that night and even though it was such a small, menial task, they loved it so so much. Then they got to serve the men who were there for lunch which is something else that they loved doing. My group had lunch at the shelter with the men and then it was off to do our afternoon activities. I took them on the prayer tour which I was very proud of myself for doing and not messing up too terribly (I took one wrong turn but I fixed it so quickly that they didn’t catch on). I did have three of the six fall asleep but I am just goin to go with the fact that they were tired and not that I was boring haha. City Search was our next activity which is just an opportunity for the groups to get to take in the historic sites here in Philly. Then we headed off to our first worship night of the summer! There were Philly Cheese Steaks there to eat for dinner before we hopped in to do worship. Caitlin and Fran led worship which was pretty cool and then I got up to talk. I had planned to talk abotu the differences between grace and mercy but when Nicole was introducing me, she basically said that I was going to be talking about abandoning expectations and how I’ve done that in my life. So in my head, I was just like okay, I guess I’m sharing my testimony! So I got up there and shared and it went pretty well. I got some really great feedback. Then we had some students share stories from this past week. Two of my group shared; one said that I was the highlight of her week, just by being myself and not being scared to share it with my group. The other shared about how much her heart had been affected by this week since it was her first mission trip. I just didn’t realize how much she had been changed and that just really touched me. I loved my group even if we had some struggles, they were rock stars. After worship night was over, we all headed back here to the housing site and just hung out for awhile. Worship just always changes something in my heart and it grew my love for not only my group but also this city. I can’t wait to see what else is accomplished here before the end of the summer.
Friday: I got up early this morning to see my group off and then I went right back to bed because the week had exhausted me. I finally got up around noon and began to get ready for the day. I had some lunch and then was recruited to help move some stuff from this building to another so I helped with that. It was myself, Laura, Faith, Caitlin, Scott and Faith and Laura’s group that all helped to get stuff moved. We were done in about three hours and once we were done, I was even more exhausted so I showered and just spent the day hanging out with Lily. We did all of our paperwork and she taught me how to do the whip and the naenae and just a few other dances as well. We also went to Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s. We just had a good time together. Then I watched some Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix and just lazed around for a bit. To end the day, Fran, Scott and I just sat around and chatted until 1am about hosting and life and everything and Scott gave us some more good advice. Then, we were all really exhausted so it was definitely bed time.
Saturday: This was a pretty chill day. I got up to see the last couple of groups off with the other hosts. It was definitely bittersweet because the groups that we had all bonded so well with were now gone but at the same time, we had the housing site back to ourselves. Basically, we did nothing yesterday. I went back to sleep for a little bit then I got up, showered, straightened my hair, and watched some. After that, I decided to teach myself how to play guitar so I was watching Youtube videos to teach me a couple chords and how to strum and a few other things. I feel like I could really rock it by the end of the summer!! I then just started watching Youtube videos for entertainment and eventually, I had Laura, Fran and Faith all watching random videos with me for about an hour. It was a ton of fun and I love havign some bondign time with them. After we did that for about an hour or so, we all headed to bed because we wanted to try to be well rested by the time the groups get here Sunday.
Stay tuned for the next installation of CSM Philly life 2k15!