This week was definitely one of the most memorable. It was originally supposed to be my week off but the week before, Boss Brittany called me up and was like "hey, you think you would maybe want to go to Washington D.C. next week and guest host because they need someone?!" and I of course was just like "yes, I would love to!" Sooooo, week 7: Washington D.C. Not only did I get to go to Washington D.C. for the first time in my life, but I also got to go with Caitlin, another Philly host who had a week off, because in D.C. some stuff happened so one of their hosts had to go home and Caitlin and I got to cohost for the third time together.
Sunday morning, I got to hop on the megabus and ride 3 hours to D.C. which was a new experience. I have never been on a megabus before but I rode on the top level and it was actually pretty sweet! I met all the D.C. hosts at the team meeting and they were all so sweet! At the meeting, I found out that I would be cohosting with Francesca (aka Fran) and Caitlin. Now let me tell you a bit about Fran; she's one of the sweetest people I have ever met but at the same time, she will not take anyone's crap. That night, before the group showed up (they were late), Fran and I grabbed dinner at Checker's, which I had never been before, and she gave me the low down on all of my ministry sites for the week, good debrief spots, and a bunch of other tips. She was definitely a saving grace that week and I am so grateful for her. Also, she's in Philly doing Mission Year now which is awesome.And Leah, man she was a pal. Her and I got to spend quite a bit of time together and it was so cool to hear about her life and whatnot. She's so stinking genuine and caring but she also lays down the law like it's her job. Now, she's fighting to help raise awareness to save this planet. She's definitely an inspiration to me. Fran, Leah, and Caitlin were seriously the best girls to live with that week. I didn't forget about Jonah! I never could! Jonah saved Caitlin, Leah and I from a kind of belligerent homeless man and he was just always there for encouragement. He is a really good example of a man after God's own heart and he's spreading the Good News in Hawaii now. How cool is that?!
Anyway, our group showed up, three 15 passenger vans, 34 people, and a lot of eager hearts that I can only thank God for.
If I were to go into detail about the whole week, this post would literally be like 27 pages long so instead, I will just give an overview. First, it was amazing to be able to experience another city with CSM. I got to go on the prayer tour instead of giving it and it was amazing. I got to see all the awesome things like the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument. My serving group actually got to have lunch at the Washington Monument and we watched a storm roll in, which we tried so hard to not get rained on but we did, we got soaked and it was awesome.
Navigating in D.C was kind of hard because I was allowed to use my GPS but we all know how reliable those are and I would get questions from Jim like "is this the place?" and I would totally play it off like "yeah it is!" I would get questions from the students about what certain buildings were and all that and I must say that I think I did pretty well thinking on my feet. The students didn't even realize that D.C. wasn't my original city until almost halfway through the week so I would say that I was pretty convincing. ;)
My group was absolutely amazing. There was some minor drama amongst some of the kids but Jim and Amanda, my INCREDIBLE leaders, took care of it and the kids worked really hard to serve the city.
This week was such a challenging and exhausting week but I learned so much. I learned not to take anything for granted. I had always heard about the belief system in Haiti with the witch doctors and voodoo and what not but it never hit me how real that was until I met a man from Haiti and had a long, good conversation with him about his life and his upbringing so that's another thing I learned. I learned that the elderly can be PRETTY feisty and it's actually really entertaining. I learned that D.C is on a grid system and if you don't specify the quadrant, your food may be delivered to SE instead of NE. I learned that it is very important to always check to see if you have any of the other team's van keys in your backpack before leaving for the day. One of the most important things I learned was that serving others can be done in both big and small ways. You could serve someone by letting them sleep while you clean the bathrooms without them (shoutout to Leah, Fran and Caitlin, y'all the real MVPs) or you could serve someone by taking the leftover Thai food from one of your dinners and give the containers to the homeless woman who had been camped out across the street from the housing site.If I were to list all the things I learned, this would turn into a novel so I think I'm going to start wrapping it up.
My week in Washington D.C. was absolutely amazing even with all of it's challenges (navigating a city you don't know and pretending like you know everything). Like I said before, I got to meet some of the greatest people ever and I got to see some sites that I never in a million years even dreamed I would ever see. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I am so incredibly thankful that God pushed me to take it. It was really refreshing to go to a different city, to work at different ministry sites, eat at different restaurants and go through a week almost as if I were a student on the trip. It made it that much easier for me to go into my last week hosting without feeling totally exhausted. I was pumped up and ready to work hard with my last group. Stay tuned for that post coming in the very near future!
Much Love,
Swan
Sunday morning, I got to hop on the megabus and ride 3 hours to D.C. which was a new experience. I have never been on a megabus before but I rode on the top level and it was actually pretty sweet! I met all the D.C. hosts at the team meeting and they were all so sweet! At the meeting, I found out that I would be cohosting with Francesca (aka Fran) and Caitlin. Now let me tell you a bit about Fran; she's one of the sweetest people I have ever met but at the same time, she will not take anyone's crap. That night, before the group showed up (they were late), Fran and I grabbed dinner at Checker's, which I had never been before, and she gave me the low down on all of my ministry sites for the week, good debrief spots, and a bunch of other tips. She was definitely a saving grace that week and I am so grateful for her. Also, she's in Philly doing Mission Year now which is awesome.And Leah, man she was a pal. Her and I got to spend quite a bit of time together and it was so cool to hear about her life and whatnot. She's so stinking genuine and caring but she also lays down the law like it's her job. Now, she's fighting to help raise awareness to save this planet. She's definitely an inspiration to me. Fran, Leah, and Caitlin were seriously the best girls to live with that week. I didn't forget about Jonah! I never could! Jonah saved Caitlin, Leah and I from a kind of belligerent homeless man and he was just always there for encouragement. He is a really good example of a man after God's own heart and he's spreading the Good News in Hawaii now. How cool is that?!
Anyway, our group showed up, three 15 passenger vans, 34 people, and a lot of eager hearts that I can only thank God for.
If I were to go into detail about the whole week, this post would literally be like 27 pages long so instead, I will just give an overview. First, it was amazing to be able to experience another city with CSM. I got to go on the prayer tour instead of giving it and it was amazing. I got to see all the awesome things like the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument. My serving group actually got to have lunch at the Washington Monument and we watched a storm roll in, which we tried so hard to not get rained on but we did, we got soaked and it was awesome.
Navigating in D.C was kind of hard because I was allowed to use my GPS but we all know how reliable those are and I would get questions from Jim like "is this the place?" and I would totally play it off like "yeah it is!" I would get questions from the students about what certain buildings were and all that and I must say that I think I did pretty well thinking on my feet. The students didn't even realize that D.C. wasn't my original city until almost halfway through the week so I would say that I was pretty convincing. ;)
My group was absolutely amazing. There was some minor drama amongst some of the kids but Jim and Amanda, my INCREDIBLE leaders, took care of it and the kids worked really hard to serve the city.
This week was such a challenging and exhausting week but I learned so much. I learned not to take anything for granted. I had always heard about the belief system in Haiti with the witch doctors and voodoo and what not but it never hit me how real that was until I met a man from Haiti and had a long, good conversation with him about his life and his upbringing so that's another thing I learned. I learned that the elderly can be PRETTY feisty and it's actually really entertaining. I learned that D.C is on a grid system and if you don't specify the quadrant, your food may be delivered to SE instead of NE. I learned that it is very important to always check to see if you have any of the other team's van keys in your backpack before leaving for the day. One of the most important things I learned was that serving others can be done in both big and small ways. You could serve someone by letting them sleep while you clean the bathrooms without them (shoutout to Leah, Fran and Caitlin, y'all the real MVPs) or you could serve someone by taking the leftover Thai food from one of your dinners and give the containers to the homeless woman who had been camped out across the street from the housing site.If I were to list all the things I learned, this would turn into a novel so I think I'm going to start wrapping it up.
My week in Washington D.C. was absolutely amazing even with all of it's challenges (navigating a city you don't know and pretending like you know everything). Like I said before, I got to meet some of the greatest people ever and I got to see some sites that I never in a million years even dreamed I would ever see. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I am so incredibly thankful that God pushed me to take it. It was really refreshing to go to a different city, to work at different ministry sites, eat at different restaurants and go through a week almost as if I were a student on the trip. It made it that much easier for me to go into my last week hosting without feeling totally exhausted. I was pumped up and ready to work hard with my last group. Stay tuned for that post coming in the very near future!
Much Love,
Swan