Hit on and Run over

Today I was working at the Bread Line. It's a soup kitchen that serves two meals a day, and today I worked there for both of those meals. It was quite the experience.

For starters, this somewhat creepy and very old guy started blowing kisses at me through the window before he ever even got into the building. I just shook my head no and continued on with what I was doing. When he finally got into the building, he made his way over to me and proceeded to explain to me that he wasn't going to bother me. Well okay then. But through the duration of his meal he continued to stare at me.
This other gentlemen, who informed me that he was 30 years old, tried everything in the book to get my phone number. When I explained to him that I had a boyfriend, he asked how long we had been dating, if I really loved him and if he loved me. He then told me that he wanted to try and break us up. Unfortunately for me, this guy stuck around for about an hour trying to get my number.
I must say that I don't think I have ever felt more awkward and uncomfortable while doing volunteer work. I didn't mind the work so much, but I just felt self-conscious and very uncomfortable as these grown men stared at me and said very inappropriate things to me.
And, to top it all off... this lady in an electric wheelchair ran right over me! Not only did she run over me, but she did so while I was trying to get HER some food. :) It was quite comical. Very painful, but pretty funny too. I'm still not entirely sure why she ran over me.

The somewhat creepy and very old guy returned again for the second meal. He stared at me the entire time again- and again told me that he wasn't going to bother me.

Oh the life of an intern...

A Glorious Reunion

A Glorious Reunion

This past weekend I got to see the lady I stayed with while I was in Kenya. Her name is Mary. She was in Indianapolis speaking at a church about what's going on in Mathare. I was so excited to see her. Heather, who also went to Kenya last summer, and I drove there Saturday for the service. We thought we were on time, but turns out there was a time change. So we were actually half an hour late. But it worked out to our benefit.
When we walked in the church we saw a guy that we went to college with- who happens to work there. We told him why we were there and then he asked us if we wanted to go backstage and see Mary. Of course we said yes. So he took us back where she was. As soon as we walked in, she just stared at us. Then immediately got up and her eyes starting watering. I didn't know that she had no idea we were coming. We totally surprised her.
Oh my gosh... seeing Mary again brought back a flood of memories and emotions. We just kept hugging each other. She couldn't believe I was there. She said "Oh Sarah...". And a little bit later she said "You made it back." I never got her email address, so she hasn't heard from me since I left Kenya so suddenly that night back in January. It was a glorious reunion indeed.

Some days, like Saturday, I just wish so badly that I had never left Kenya.

The Food Bank

The Food Bank

This week I have been working at the Central Illinois Food Bank. Originally I started off stocking the shelves with the various items that are donated to them. But the warehouse was so cold, and one of the ladies said that I could work in the office with her instead. Of course I agreed… anything to get out of the cold. So I have just been doing odd jobs for her. Mostly tedious tasks like filing, creating spreadsheets and logging it onto the computer, uploading the donation receipts onto the computer, stuffing envelopes… that sort of thing. I actually didn’t mind the work. It was very tedious and time consuming, but I realized that the work desperately needed to get done and they were very appreciative of my time there. Plus, the lady that I worked with was quite funny to be around, and she even gave me some really helpful information about different organizations in the area that I might be able to get a job at. I was so thankful for her help!
Today at the Food Bank I had the opportunity to go with to participate in the hunger study. I guess they go out to the different shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries and conduct surveys with some of the people that use those services. I was able to interview some of the people, which was quite the experience. The people were very candid about their answers (the majority of them anyway), and had no qualms about explaining their living situations. I was actually pretty disheartened by many of the answers as I realized the magnitude of this problem. While there may not be a ton of people that are necessarily homeless, the sad reality is that there are so many people (in the Springfield area alone) that struggle to feed and clothe themselves and their children. It was sad sitting there, listening to the answers of some of these questions. ‘Do you ever have to choose between paying for food and paying for rent?’ ‘Do you ever have to skip a meal because you don’t have money for food?’ Do your children ever have to skip a meal because you don’t have money for food?’. It’s heartbreaking to hear them answer yes to these questions and so many more like it.
I guess the saddest part of the whole thing is that people’s stereotypes of who the homeless/poor are is way off. While there are some people that become homeless because of their drug/alcohol addictions, the truth of the matter is that many people become homeless because of situations out of their control- they lose their job do to an injury, layoffs, or the company closing down and they are unable to find work some place else/Those that are poor are not poor because they are just lazy and don’t want to get a job. They may have suddenly lost a job, become ill, had a relative die and have to take care of their child(ren), etc. There are many circumstances that cause people to become homeless/poor- usually situations that are out of their control and hard to get out of.
But it was also encouraging to know that there are different organizations and agencies that will come along side these families and offer their services for free. But still, it doesn’t seem like enough. How are handouts going to break the cycle of poverty?

Feeling Appreciated

Feeling Appreciated

These past few months have had their many ups and downs. It has been a very trying and often discouraging experience, but it has also been pretty life changing in a few areas. I have a better idea of what I want to do when I graduate (which is only a month away!), which involves doing some type of community outreach with the homeless. I have been given the opportunity to have a wide range of experience working with the homeless in Springfield. I really had no idea that there were so many homeless in this area or that there were so many organizations offering their services. Plus, just getting to know the different people I have been working with has been great.

This week I have been working at Contact Ministries, which is another homeless outreach organization. This experience was much different from working at the Mission because Contact typically deals with the street homeless, whereas Inner City Mission mostly just caters to those living in the shelter. Contact also has a shelter for women with children, but when I was there I just worked downstairs with the people that came in off the street. A typical day involves giving food vouchers for the people to take to local food pantries, getting clothes and other items (household items, personal hygiene kits, etc) for those that need it and that sort of thing. I helped sort the clothes in basement (these clothes are then given to the residents in the shelter and the people in the community as they are needed). Twice a week a doctor comes in and will offer free services to those that are homeless. There are many more things that Contact Ministries does, but I didn’t really help out in any of those areas.

Working at Contact was an awesome experience. It helped me to see a totally different perspective on ministering to people- I just loved being there. And quite honestly, I didn’t want to leave. It just rekindled my passion for doing homeless ministry and having some type of outreach program for the community. I love this type of work and I’m praying that I can found a job where I can do this all the time.

I guess one of the other reasons that I really loved working at Contact was because I felt like I was actually needed. Or useful. I was busy pretty much all day long- constantly running around and doing stuff or getting things. The women I worked with were really fun to be around and I just felt like I was a part of what they were doing. They didn’t make me feel like I was in the way or that I was bothering them by asking so many questions. I just felt appreciated.

This week I will be working at the Food Bank. I’m really not sure what I’ll be doing there. When I went there a few weeks ago it really just seemed like there was a lot of stocking foods and stuff going on- but not much else. Of course, I only saw a brief part of it. So hopefully I’ll actually be doing something.

So, I’ve had a few emails from people that they can’t leave me comments on here. Sorry about that. I forgot to change my settings to allow those that don’t have a username to be able to comment. Just comment as name/url and type your name. Let me know if it works.