Today was a day of hard work but good fun.
Our groups split up right away so we dropped the other group off at the Crossing and then headed over to the DRM. When we got to the DRM Nate talked to us about his testimony and how he came to work at the DRM. He grew up in a Christian home and they traveled a lot and one of the palces they moved to was Moscow. While there he said it was frequent to see homeless people losing fingers and toes to the cold and just the pain and suffering of not having a home. He never got into drugs but he was an adrenaline junkie and ended up getting into some kind of bad accident that left him bedridden for 6 months. Through that he read a lot and was able to soul search and dig into God. He skipped a little into between now and then but he's been there for 2 1/2 months so far, and it's clear that he really has a heart for it and loves working with the guys.
Then Matt shared more of his testimony which was really cool. He shared a lot of what we had talked about during lunch that first day but he also shared what it was like to detox off of heroine. He says heroine unfortunately gives you the best feeling in the world and that you just long to always feel that way. He went into the neuroscience of it all and said that while he was detoxing he was always uncomfortable and was too hot and too cold at the same time and he couldn't sleep, and just on and on about how terrible of an ordeal it is. He's detoxed before but has ended up going back to it and so hopefully this time is different for him and we continue to keep him in our prayers.
We finished up all of that and headed downstairs to organize the pantry and prepare lunch. They had just gotten a couple donations so we were in charge of moving boxes of cans into the pantry and re-organizing it to fit all of the new food. Boxes of cans are not very light and it was pretty hard work getting them in there and organizing everything but now they'll be able to see all of the food that they have so they can utilize it. And it was fun to get to bond with the other girls some more while putting like 5 million cans of green beans on the shelves.
We did that all morning and then ate lunch with the PC's and got to know them some more. I ate with Ronald who was a older member that loved to talk. He was from Ohio and liked talking to us about how life has changed in Detroit and a bunch of other things. He really enjoyed us talking to him and just hanging out, I imagine that the guys don't really get to do that a whole lot.
Normally we would help serve lunch but today another group of volunteers had come in and I thought it was really cool because most of them were mentally challenged. Anyone can do anything that they want and seeing these people spreading God's love around when they often don't receive their own fair share of it was really cool!
So instead we set to work organizing bread. They receive a ton of bread from grocery stores or Panera or just donations from people so we had quite the task in front of us. We had to organize this mountain, literally, of bread into sliced, unsliced, rolls, and bagels. We had a "system" of throwing the bread at someone and telling them what it was and continuing that until we got too fast that it was just hitting them, but we didn't stop ;) One time Stef thought the bread was too hard so she hit Amber with it and Amber agreed and hit me with it, it was definitely too hard.
When we finally finished tackling all the bread Matt came up to us and showed us these chocolate Santas that he had found somewhere. The chocolate wasn't done very well on them or something cause they were creepy! He grabbed one of them and took a bit out of his head and quickly decided they were also stale and not worthy of being eaten so he did what anyone would do, grab a knife and stab their face. Funniest thing ever! And so we decided that we all needed to get in on smashing these Santas, but not before Alicia suggested that we have a photoshoot with them. So we each grabbed a Santa or Christmas tree and headed out to the street. First plan of action was to get a picture of them crossing the road; this was carefully accomplished in between red lights but we still almost got run over. Then there were pictures of them creeping in a tree, chilling on a barbed wire fence and creeping behind people.
We grabbed some big rocks and took them to the back alley, the same one that's used as a bathroom and drug dealing area, and got ready to smash them. Matt tried throwing his rock at his Santa but that didn't work very well so he grabbed a board and smashed it to pieces on top of a dumpster. We all proceeded to do the same thing while yelling at the Santas for not getting us the Barbie dream house we wanted or the pony we've been asking for since we were 4. It was a great time and all the pictures and video of the smashing are on Facebook so check 'em out.
Still running on a ton of energy we headed over to the Crossing and car danced and jammed out all the way. The other group had been cleaning the whole time and their energy seemed to be low so hopefully our high levels of craziness cheered them up, we sure had plenty to share.
We set out to finish up work on the semi and were finally able to make some headway and get it done! The change from the beginning of not being able to see half way back to now having a walkway down the middle and complete organization was really awesome and we inventoried everything so they can use more of the stuff that they have.
The other group got to work with the kids in the Reading and Writing club so we tried to find some jobs to do. They didn't really need us so we thought we would go and get some groceries but the traffic was far too heavy and we ended up just going to a mall. When I say mall I could probably say city because this place was intense! The stores were all outside and there were so many of them, and there were also little booths set up on the sidewalks and a fire pit! It was overwhelming but we didn't have time to stop so we just went to the target that was there. Well, come to find out it's a super target and we were still running on crazy amounts of energy so we had a ball there, and somehow managed to accomplish something.
We finished enjoying our craziness and then headed back to the Crossing to eat dinner. When we had first gotten there there was an older lady in a wheelchair who was admiring us from afar and smiling and laughing along with us. Me and another girl went up to her to talk but she said she had a really sore throat and couldn't talk, well I saw her again right before we left and asked her if she had gotten some tea or something for it and she just beamed and seemed so happy that I had remembered her and was checking up on her again. She was so sweet and I gave her a little hug and told her that I hoped she would start feeling better.
When we got back to CCU everyone gathered their clothes and me Mackenzie and Lacey volunteered to be in charge of doing the laundry at the laundromat. I love doing laundry, well I love the smell and sound of laundry so it was fun. We each took our bibles and our journals and just hung out. We talked about our weeks and life and different religions and faith and how some people get more focused on rules than on having a personal relationship with Christ. It was quite fun. Unfortunately it took our laundry forever to dry but they had free drying on Wednesdays so praise God for that!
We got back to CCU and instead of doing our usual devotions Alicia and Lindsay decided we needed a break and a time to just chill so they got ice cream, nachos, and the movie Baby Mama. It was cool to just hang out and bond and not be go go going the whole time.
It was a jam packed day of fun, laughter, craziness and most importantly God.
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