I'm Back...

It's been a few days since my last post, so let me catch you up to date:

Wednesday we went and worked at a site called "MedShare". They package up extra medical supplies from hospitals and clinics and put them into boxes for doctors in developing countries to "order". Then they get donations from churches or other hospitals to cover the costs of the freight to ship the supplies. On this particular day we worked on separating different brands of sutures. From there we did an even more refined separating into expired/short dated/still good for awhile. Once they had been put into those three categories we separated them by size. Once they were organized by size we boxed them up; some boxes were assorted sizes, others were just one size. The group did a really good job of staying on task and getting things done efficiently and quickly. From MedShare we went to a beautiful park and had about an hour and a half to just relax, run around, play games, and eat our lunches. This also gave me the opportunity to take some time away from the group and sit by the water and enjoy God's beautiful creation.

Once we left the park we went to one of my favorite locations, the Bay Area Rescue Mission. I don't remember exactly what I told you about this site previously, but I love coming here because it is a very positive environment for kids to come and hang out after school. It's completely voluntary, but once you come you are expected to work on homework (or practice worksheets, if you don't have homework) and you are expected to attend Bible Study. This particular day the kids we worked with were especially rambunctious so it required a little more patience- when God wants to test patience, He sure does test the patience... =) But overall it was a great time, I got to work on homework with my little buddy from my last visit and even got to play some video games with him and his brother during free time. You can just see in these kids eyes that they are looking to be loved and wanted, and there at "BARM" they are; they're just like a little family.

Thursday (yesterday) we went to the San Francisco Rescue Mission- please note that this is completely different from the Bay Area Rescue Mission. The SF Rescue Mission was overall a different experience- positive in some ways, but negative in others. Long story short: we went to the wrong entrance and ended up doing construction work for about an hour before one of the pastors came and found our group and asked part of them to lead worship for a breakfast. I stayed with a couple of the students working in the construction area while the other part of the group lead the worship and one of the students even gave a message. From there my group ended up joining the rest to help clean up the area and set up for the afternoon Bible study- we ate our lunch in the area and then headed back over to the construction side to help them out more and also help the kitchen staff with dinner. Once we finished there, the group went back to the worship area to practice for worship before dinner. They ended up leading worship then the man who was scheduled to talk preached an awkward, uncomfortable, inappropriate sermon. After the inappropriate sermon we helped serve dinner and clean up- then we headed to eat dinner ourselves.

On the way to dinner I started a dialogue with the students about the sermon we had heard. Most of them felt like most of what he had to say wasn't necessarily wrong, but that it was completely inappropriate for the group of people he was talking to. The men and women in the service needed to hear about a loving God who will always take care of them, and that they have a hope and a future as promised by this same loving God. Instead they heard a soapbox speech from a man who had too much to say which included a misrepresentation of God's word. It was heartbreaking, and even the students felt frustrated by some of his content. I'm glad that out of this uncomfortable moment the students and I were able to bond over like-mindedness and understanding that what people really need to hear is about the love of God. Yes, that other stuff is important to know, but just like you don't try to teach a kindergartner trigonometry, you don't speak to baby Christians or lost people about things they won't understand until they understand the heart of God.

We saw our groups off early this morning (or not so early for my Indiana friends) and despite all of my frustrations and my broken spirit moments from the week- I grew to love and respect the students I had the privilege to lead. They are great young men and women who are going to go on to do great things for the kingdom. And I guess I look at it like this: if you don't care about something you aren't likely to get frustrated over things- my frustration was a sign that I care about these students and only want the best experience for them.

And now I'm going back to sleep- good night my friends. Love you all.