Since I last updated, my brother has gotten married; I went on a service trip to Athens, OH; my brother went on his honeymoon; I returned to my husband for a day; and I went from Reagan to Philly to Brussels to Berlin. And here we are!
Ian and Bren's wedding was... totally Ian and Bren. There's really no better way to put it, so if you know those two, then you know what I mean when I say that. Every detail was created and tailored to their quirky, creative, beautiful personalities and it was wonderful. I do need to see a video though- when being a part of a wedding, many things become blurred. The newlyweds then headed off to Jamaica for their honeymoon, which I'm sure was fabulous.
The day after the wedding I went to Athens, Ohio with SWAT (Students With a Testimony), which is a youth group of the daughter church that my home church planted a few years back. My official title was "meal coordinator", which I absolutely loved, and I served alongside Lissy Muchler and Tim and Sarah Shutes, all of whom I went to Mexico with on a missions trip in 2006. There were 8 students that came along as well and they were either 14 or 16 years old. We worked with Good Works, Inc., which was created and based on James 1:27: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Essentially, our mission was to serve those that needed it and in various capacities, like just talking with someone who doesn't get a lot of social interaction to taking care of their lawn or fixing a leak. In this part of the country, we were serving the rural poor. Whatever it may have been, Good Works and SWAT were ready to tackle it.
Almost.
Before I went on this trip, I had never mowed a lawn, split wood with a hydraulic splitter, power-washed anything, or planned a meal for lots of people. After the trip, I mowed two lawns (that looked pretty good, if I do say so myself), split wood for 6 hours, power-washed a woman's deck to prep for staining, and planned and bought groceries to make a meal for 130 people.
All the while, I got to meet some amazing individuals. John, who taught me how to split wood, looked like he was Jed Clampett straight off of the Beverly Hillbillies. He spoke long and slow with a bit of a twang, and used words like "poosh" (push) and "golly". We bonded quickly over our mutual love for the Steelers, and worked side-by-side for 6 hours. He wasn't well-educated, but he was witty and had one-liners to die for. Another lady, Anne, is a widow, slightly disabled, unemployed and recently impoverished. She had zero furniture- she used plastic lawn chairs inside to sit on and stumps from trees for end tables. She has an entire house to herself that is unfurnished. But she was incredibly generous- she was so happy that we came over that she fed us what she had, which consisted of white bread, peanut butter and honey, and some fruit. Truly, the widow's offering. Finally, there was Sharon (whose lawn I successfully mowed). She is also a widow and has a 30 year old daughter who is developmentally disabled and has the functioning capacity of a 7 year old. Her days are spent caring for her daughter by herself with very little social interaction. But she has a heart of gold, and kept saying things like, "I thank you so much and I pray God blesses you abundantly. I mean that from the bottom of my heart." Just for mowing her lawn.
On Friday nights at Good Works, they have a community meal that is provided and cooked by the volunteers, i.e. us. We had tons of veggies, whole wheat linguine with roasted vegetables, and fresh fruit salad for dessert. The coolest part was that everyone that we served that week was able to come to the dinner, as well as those from the homeless shelter and the youth group GW runs. I met a lady named Cathy and we talked (and by "we", I mean I said like, 5 words the entire time) for the better part of 2 hours. It goes to show that 1) some people really are lonely and just want someone to talk to, and 2) everyone is more interesting than you or I could ever imagine, so it's worthwhile to strike up a conversation with someone you don't know.
I returned to DC on Saturday night, went to church with Steven, my cousin Alison and her fiancé Johan on Sunday, and headed out on Monday. More on that later!
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