Friday, March 13, 2009

JenniferBowman

Jennifer Bowman

3-11-09

Nashville Day 5

Today we all went back to the rescue mission and it was pretty sad to me that it was our last day. Once we all got there we knew what the different tasks were that needed done so we split up and went to work. I was super excited to be able to go back to the classroom to help tutor and teach math. This is truly something that I have enjoyed so much. The students in the class are so appreciative that we want to spend our time helping them when we could be out doing so many other things with our time. They were struggling with some of the problems today and I was glad that I was able to explain things in a way that was easy for them to understand. The math that they are doing is some of the stuff that I learned in junior high, but some of them haven’t even seen math problems in so many years that the simple things are very difficult. Everyone seemed to find a place to fit in today with the jobs that they were doing and everyone seemed to really be a help where they were. It has shown me that no matter what skills we have each of us can be used in some way to help out.

After our lunch those of us that were helping in the classrooms went back up with Mike to help out with paperwork and other small projects in the computer lab. This was a good time because we were able to help him get caught up on a lot of things that he never would have been able to finish alone. The best thing however during this time would be when a man named Frank came in to talk to us. He walked in singing which helped brighten our day because his voice was so beautiful. He was one of the kindest people that I have ever met. He talked to us for a while and told us some about his life and we told him about our time here in Nashville. When he decided that he needed to leave he stood up and prayed for us. This was one of the greatest things ever. He must have prayed for a good twenty minutes. He prayed for our safety, our time in school, he asked God’s blessing on us, and prayed that we would not get into the kinds of things that he did. It just really showed his compassion for us and made me feel like we should be praying for him instead of us praying for him. But all in all it was a great experience even though we were doing monotonous tasks it was good to know that we were helping.

At the end of our day at the mission they told us that they had a meal for us. So I was thinking that we were just going to eat with the men at the facility like we have been all week. Little did I know that a group of men had been working this afternoon to make us a very nice meal to thank us for our service. They had put up tables in their conference room and set the tables very nicely for our group. The food that they had prepared was so great. They had things like parmesan chicken, gumbo, fried shrimp, mozzarella sticks, and nice cakes. The food was really great but I felt terrible eating it while there were people eating food downstairs that were eating food that did not look good at all. It was their way of saying thank you to us for our work but we really just wanted to say thanks to them for all of their hospitality.

This whole experience has been so great and I am truly thankful that I had the opportunity to come. I have learned so much about homelessness and I feel like I have gained a sense of what their life is like. I have been blessed so much by the people that I have talked to and been around. It has been something that I will remember for quite a while. I am definitely excited to go back home and tell my friends about my experiences so that I can try to erase their stereotypes about the homeless.

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