First stop: Dayton Art Institute. Our mission was to find a piece of artwork that related to us, or stuck out at us. My piece? Waters of Joy. It was a statue of a girl jumping into the water. No hesitation as she jumped in, no holding back. Only total commitment. That's where I want to be. I want to jump into the waters of God's joy, hiding nothing, no stopping to think.
Prayer walk: We went to a couple different places around Dayton, but the place that affected me the most was the park beside the library. Friends, I lost it. I broke down. We all spread out and began to pray, and sadness poured all over me. I felt like I had all the sadness and pain of the world on my shoulders. I felt like God had given me a glimpse, just a teeny little glimpse, into the pain he feels all the time. And I just cried.
I don't like to cry. It makes me feel weak. It makes me feel as if I can't take everything I should be able to take. But I just couldn't help it. I sat there in that park, and all I could think about was sadness. Every night, kids like my little brothers, Nathaniel and Jameson, sleep in parks just like that one. Everyday, there are little girls like Evalyn or Lillie who are hungry because their parents can't afford food. Adults aren't the only ones affected by homelessness and poverty. The average age of a homeless person is nine. Did you know that?
Day 2 (Monday): We went to New Hope Villa on Monday morning! (New Hope Villa is a place where middle-age or older adults with physical or mental disabilities can live. New Hope Villa helps their residents get back on their feet, so that eventually the residents will be able to move into an apartment on their own.) We did a couple different things, but my favorite thing is always hanging out with the residents.
This is Fran. Her favorite season is summer, she loves sweet tea, and wrapping presents at Christmas. She likes to take care of residential cat named Miss Kitty. She has her own apartment on the second story of the New Hope Villa building. She has lived at New Hope Villa since 1999.
This is Patsy. Her favorite season is also summer, she has lemonade every day, and loves to everything except pizza. Christmas is her favorite holiday and she shares a room on the first story with another resident named Mary.
After New Hope Villa, we went to Catholic Social Services. We worked with refugees from Rwanda, South Africa, Iraq, Yemen, and the less specified "Africa". This is going to sound really cheesy, but I learned something when I was playing with a little girl who was about 7 years old. It took me about two minutes, but I finally got her name out of her; Clere. She didn't really talk much, and sometimes she didn't seem to understand what I meant when I was telling her something. Turns out she didn't know English yet. Clere taught me that we don't have to speak the same language to have fun. She taught me how to communicate with smiles and laughter. I told you it was cheesy, but honestly, it's completely true.
Day 3 (Tuesday): On Tuesday we worked with a ministry called Floral Blessings. Volunteers come in to the Widow House, and partner with Floral Blessings to make floral arrangements for the Widow House residents. After we finished putting together our arrangements, we presented them to our assigned resident. A couple residents were asleep, a couple didn't know what was going on, but a few expressed immense gratitude. The resident that struck our group the most was probably Geanie.
Right when we were about to leave, Geanie started talking to us again. Even though we were about to be left, Mara, Alyssa, and I continued to listen to Geanie. Basically she said she thought it was awesome we were doing stuff for them. She told us that they tried to do stuff for us, but we didn't always try to do stuff for them. She showed her gratitude in a beautiful way. Her words came from her heart, and Geanie was definitely one of the sweetest people I have ever met.
Day 4 (Wednesday): Target: Dayton! bright (well, not so bright, rainy, to be accurate) and early Wednesday morning. My favorite part of the day was definitely praying with Charles. Right before the service started, we were all sitting down. Here's the conversation:
Charles: Are you the church group?
Me: Yes we are!
Charles: I wanna pray with you guys!
Us: *looking at each other*
Me: Okay, is there something specific you want prayer for...?
Charles: Nope, I just want to pray.
So we prayed together. And it was a beautiful thing. After we finished praying, Charles looks at all of us and exclaims 'I didn't think you guys would have the guts to do it!'
Day 5 (Thursday): We didn't do much on Thursday, we basically just painted a house and passed out fliers. I do have to say, though, painting was an interesting experience.
So we get to this house and we're told we're going to paint. So we get the paint and brushes out, and we start to work. The owner of the neighboring house comes out and kinda starts to stare at us... Then she comes over and tells us where her property line is. Then she says to us 'I don't want any ladders on my property, no one needs to step on my property, no flecks of paint better get on my plants or anything!' And then she called the cops on us... But when the cops got there, we could tell they thought she was crazy, too. They told us they'd seen groups of us around before and they thought we were doing a really great job and keep up the good work. So besides the crazy neighbor, painting was fun.
And there concludes my Urban Plunge week. The theme songs of our trip were Roots (http://theseedyseeds.bandcamp.com/track/my-roots-go-down) and Lean On Me. The official game was 'The Hand Game'. Our leaders were Sam Scott and Kaila Bowman. And it was the best week of Urban Plunge ever.
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