DC - Day Two

Tired. I think that's the word that best described our team yesterday. We were wiped out from driving for two days, and then driving some more for our prayer tour. Then, a full day of serving made us a pretty wiped out crew. This, combined with more driving and much getting lost and walking, contributed to some frustration within our ranks. However, once our crews got to their work sites, the mindset of everyone changed and we were reminded why we were there: to serve. And serve we did!


I tried to catch up with Team Smithsonian at their morning site, the DC Central Kitchen, an organization that provides meals for the homeless. I didn't make it - it took longer to upload pictures than I was hoping (if it keeps up that way, I may have to wait until we get back to upload all the pictures) - but they worked hard cutting all sorts of vegetables to get ready for the meals. They will have very sore arms today due to the numbers of carrots they grated. They ate lunch there and had time to kill until their next site, so they went to the Air & Space Smithsonian to walk around a bit...except that they parked so far away that they didn't have much time to do that. I drove around for a long time waiting for them to be done, then went with them to Children of Mine, a ministry to children. The woman who started it is an incredible lady. Her husband was murdered by teenagers, and instead of being bitter and vengeful, decided instead to minister to kids to keep it from happening to someone else. We cleaned a bit, and then played with kids a lot! Several of the crew were outside doing acrobatics with the kids - one little guy did back flips off of every piece of the playground - while others of us stayed inside and tutored or played school. I was the problem student, dang it! We had a blast!


From there, we went to dinner at Pollo Granjero for some Salvadoran food: beans and rice, fried plantains, and pupusa, a pastry-type thing with sausage and cheese inside. Yum! Then we met with all of the other groups at the Jefferson Memorial to debrief as a large group. Our group is really too large to debrief together, but it was cool to hear from each team what they did and experienced. Then, back to the housing, and sleep. We slept hard!

Other groups had good days as well, doing things like playing with kiddos, sorting toys, doing yardwork, and moving over 100 mattresses. You would be proud of your kids (if you are one of their parents, I mean)! They are great servants! And Mrs. Robertson, you would be especially proud of your son because he actually ate the Vietnamese food last night. WOO-HOO!!!


Here is a report from Kim, one of the Team Arlington SIMYs:

Team Arlington went to A Wider Circle, an organization whose mission is "to help people lift themselves out of poverty." We served in their warehouse moving and sorting through furniture and other household goods and then helping the clients load everything in their vehicles. Our students served with enthusiasm and cheerful hearts the entire time! We were complimented over and over about what hard-working volunteers they were. The staff expressed how grateful they were that we were there, especially around 3:00pm when several trucks showed up and we helped unload 128+ mattresses and box springs. Had we not been there it would have taken them hours to unload what we did in less than 30 minutes! Our students learned first-hand what God said in Proverbs, "The generous prosper and are satisfied; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed." After A Wider Circle we did the Eden Center Plunge which took us to the Vietnamese center of the eastern part of the US in Falls Church, VA. There we interacted with the local people, learned a little about Vietnam and ate Vietnamese food - Yummy!! BTW getting around in DC is quite a trick - keep praying for safety while driving, especially for the DC drivers while we're here. :-)

Thanks for all your prayers! Don't forget to check out the pictures - more were uploaded today.