Cincinnati

Last week I was in Cincinnati with a few kids from my church. We were on a mission trip with Group Work Camps. It was a great experience. I had some great experiences.

1. I think that I found my love for the poor once again. I guess I never really trult lost it, but a few of the job sites really reminded me on a micro-level why my heart breaks on a macro-level. One site was at a community center run by a church. The kids there reminded me of when me and Jodi were running our pickle ministry when we first moved to our neighborhood. The kids were so willing to just be picked up and held and ready to snuggle with people who were total strangers.

2. Finding my love for the poor again part II. Some of the kids worked at a food pantry stocking shelves. The people that came in were allowed a certain amount of food per month. They were genuinely poor because it was kind of a hassel to get in. The organization logged a lot of info on each person who came in and what they took. I imagine that folks who must live like this spend much of their day going from place to place just to survive. It must take all day long to feed one's family.

3. I was able to help feed all the students serving on the trip. My job was hospitality coordinator. I mostly supervised the kids making dinner and cleaning up. All of the groups did well and I was proud of the food we served. Later, when one of my kids asked me about my favorite part of the week, I told them that I really enjoyed cooking for large groups of people and organizing and delegating the jobs to get the work done. Yesterday I found out about a job in Grand Rapids that would be doing those two things at a soup kitchen. I'm very excited about it and have been filling out my resume and cover letter to send out. It really would be the perfect job for me.

4. My heart was softened. Seeing the poverty in Cincinnati softened my heart. I am a firm believer in being intentional with the things you do. Going to Cincinnati was intentional but I didn't know I'd come back viewing the marginalized of Grand Rapids in a different way. Tonight we went for coffee with a student and a homeless man asked me for money for a hot-dog. Instead we were able to buy him a snadwich from 4 Friends Coffee House (which I found out is closing in a week). I don't say this to tell you what a great guy I am, but instead to tell you how far I had strayed from being compassionate about the poor of Grand Rapids. I suppose it's natural to feel hostile towards a group if you have been robbed and stolen from by that group. This is the problem with lumping human beings into groups. It's so hard to see the most beautiful of all creation when you have decided that they are eveil before you have evn met them.

5. I was partners with a Pentacostal from Canada while on the trip. We had some great discussions. I think we were both very careful with what we said and how we described our views. This was good. He taught me a lot about grouping I guess and I learned that Pentacostals are crazy but still beautiful.