Week of Hope 2010

Now that I have time (and since Olivia reminded me!)...

WEEK OF HOPE 2010 WITH GROUP WORK CAMPS WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

On Sunday we:
-Arrived at Grace United Methodist Church in Shrewsbury, PA around 3:30-ish. It was a 45 minute drive. And considering I was in the backseat of Ms. Terri's van with Olivia and Mark, it was insane. Did I mention Mark was there? Yeah, it's a wonder I didn't hurt someone... *sigh*
-Had some free time, ate pizza for dinner, then had our evening program. But, before the actual program started, the Red Shirt Staff split us up into crews of 5 or 6 people. Because Ms. Terri requested that Mt. Zion youth not be in cars with strangers, our group of 25 people was split into 5 crews of 5. My crew consisted of me (duh) Olivia, Amanda, Lindsey and Mr. Jim. After some crew-bonding activities, we started the evening program.
-To kick things off, the crews had to do a scavenger hunt type activity. Basically, the first x-amount of crew representatives to bring their item or other required activity (e.g. having a relative on the phone) got a wooden token that said Week of Hope on it. The crew with the most tokens won a bag of Starbursts. Unfortunately, our crew did not win, and neither did anyone from Mt. Zion. :(
-After the evening program, we received our work site assignments for the week. My crew and another Mt. Zion (Holly, April, Kevin, Rachel and Jessica) got to work with an amazing woman named Chrystal who had started an organization called North East Neighborhood Associations (NENA). Our job was to help her with whatever she needed help with.
-Lights out at 11.

Monday was awesome, and hot. We,
-Got up at 6:45 (but I was awake earlier than that...*sigh*)
-Split up. My crew got to work in the food pantry, while Holly's crew split into two smaller groups--Holly, Jess and April worked upstairs in the clothing bank and Rachel and Kevin cleaned the kitchen. Our job in the food pantry was to bag food, and then help the people who came in with food tickets. The way we bagged the food is that we set up, on a folding table, a grid--8 "bags" of food long, and 2 wide. The reason I say "bags" is because we put out all the food, and then bagged each little section. It was awesome, mainly because I got to see and interact with the people getting the food, as opposed to last year when we went to the food bank, all I did was bag one item, and all I heard about the people was numbers and statistics. I also got to use some of my Spanish, and Amanda taught me how to say God bless you in Spanish: Dios le bendiga. It was totally awesome.
-After we finished at our work site, we went back to the church to get clean clothes and shower stuffs, then headed to the YMCA for showers. Those showers were soooo nice (as long as you didn't get the stall with a curtain instead of a door).
-We went from the Y back to the church to hang out until dinner time (unless you had to help, which I volunteered to). After dinner was evening program, with some worship. And, the best part is that if you had an instrument and showed up to practice, you could play (or sing) that night!
-Lights out at 11.

Tuesday:
-Wake up call at 6:45.
-After breakfast and morning program, we went back to Chrystal's. But today, we all worked together, because our task was different. Since the food pantry wasn't open (it's only open Monday, Wednesday, Friday) we cleaned out a garage. A dusty, dirty, gross garage. But it wasn't as bad as the shed we cleaned on Wednesday. Blech.
-When we finished, went to the Y to shower. Tuesday was our forced, all-day free time day. They actually locked us out of the church from 4:30 to 10. Yuck. So, we all met up at the Y (while we were waiting, some of us swam) and made plans. We went to Pizza Hut for a slightly early dinner (yum!) Then went bowling. I played 2 and a half games. I didn't finish the third because I was exhausted!!!!! >_< After bowling, Ms. Terri treated us to ice cream at McDonald's, except she said she would get me a small hot chocolate because I didn't want an ice cream.
-Since there was no evening program, we went back to the church around 10 and went straight to bed. Well, I tried, but my sleeping bag was hot and stuffy so I stuck to the saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" Which is what I did. But I got too loud, so Livi, to let me know, flicked me. I then quieted down a bit.

Wednesday:
-Wake up at 6:45. Again. They played wake up songs, which were kind of funny, but only if you were tired. The rest of the time they were REALLY obnoxious.
-We went back to Chrystal's again. It was pretty fun. We split up again, but not by crews this time. We had two tasks--work in the food pantry and clean out her husband's shed-garage-thing. It was even worse than Tuesday because he didn't want us to throw ANYTHING away, and cats could get in there. And in that shed were sofas, chairs, chaise-lounge-things, sleeping bags, mattresses and other things. Including a bone. Ewewewew!! Haha. We finished before lunch time, so we helped in the food pantry the rest of the day.
-Afterward, same thing as Monday--shower at the Y, free time at the church, etc. Except we had hospitality tasks at 4:30 (cleaning the bathrooms, mopping/sweeping/vacuuming, etc.). Then dinner (spaghetti! yum!), then evening program. After that, some more free time, then lights out at 11.

Thursday:
-6:45 wake up call. This morning was INTERESTING! Olivia turned it on to Oh, Where Is My Hairbrush? from Veggie Tales. Brooke turned it off halfway through. Thinking track 4 was Party in the USA, I told Liv to turn it to track 4. It wasn't Party in the USA. Instead, it was this weird song about fish heads. I was soooo tired, so it was the funniest thing in the WORLD! lol.
-At Chrystal's, we got play with little kids for a bit. The school nearby has a free lunch program during the summer for people under 18 (!), and on Thursdays the kids meet at Chrystal's at around 11. They play games until 12-ish, so that everyone has a chance to show up, then leave for the school and eat there. On the way back, we walked around the neighborhood, dropping the kids off. After we dropped everyone off, we went back to Chrystal's. The adults (anyone over 20) ate, while Kevin and I started loading trash onto Chrystal's husband's truck so he could take it to the dump. It was a lot of fun.
-This little kid named William had attached himself to Olivia from the start. It was soooo sweet!!!! Read her OI to figure out why it was adorably sweet.
-After the Y and dinner and more hospitality tasks and evening program, we made a huge long line (everybody on the trip) and passed food donated foods down along the line to one of the staff members' cars. It was amazing. And fun!
-And AFTER all that and a prayer outside, there was a rockin' dance party down in the basement. Lights out was at 12, so it went until around 11:45-ish. It was sooo much fun!! At one point, a pretty good swing song came on, so Mark and I started dancing! But in the middle of the song, they changed it to Just Dance by Lady Gaga. But we kept dancing. It was insanely awesome :)

Friday:
-we packed
-we cleaned
-we set the girls' room back up
-then we left. the 45 minute ride home was quiet, but I STILL couldn't sleep!!!!! :/
-After I got home, I got on the computer, shopped for new quilts or bedspreads for Dany and I, then almost had a meltdown. At the almost-meltdown, I went upstairs and slept for... drum roll please!

*drum roll*

FOUR AND A HALF HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was still tired, but at least I had the energy to go to mime and be useful! It was sooo much fun! After mime, I went straight to bed. I was beat. But it was a great week. :D

Praise God!

live.love.laugh :)♥