JenniferHellems

Jennifer Hellems

SOWK 350

Dr. Campbell

Journal Entry 4

Tuesday March 10, 2009

Today we went down to the Music City Mission. At this place we helped with a few tasks and learned a little bit about the place. Music City wasn’t like the other missions we went to because it wasn’t a shelter nor did it serve food.

At Music City they accept donations of clothing, food, and other odds and ends. The stuff that is donated is sorted through and they only keep the good stuff, nothing that is old or rag like. Music City is sponsored by the Nazarene church of Rodan. The people that work there do not get paid and it is strictly a volunteer based service.

We sorted through a bunch of clothes and still had so much more upstairs. We also carried some pretty heavy things from upstairs in the mission to downstairs in the church. That was pretty hard work and some people were outside doing some yard work. Some people went through the large bags of rice and pinto beans and divied them up into zip-lock bags. They also worked on flour and sugar. One of the men that worked their explained to me that all the food is donated or bought with donated money. Most of it is bought in bulk and is divied and then handed out. They only hand out food and clothes. Everything they have they give away for free.

The only time I really was frustrated today was when me and a couple girls were dividing up the clothes and we had a nice neat system working. We knew what to keep and what tot get rid of. There was only so many people that could fit in the area and work together productively. Well a few of the other girls were finished with what they were doing so they came over and started picking clothes up and throwing them around, going through things we had already been through, and not knowing what to get rid of or what to keep. I was just really frustrated because it was hard to work with so many people.

While I was moving things into the church one of the other girls and I noticed a child in the back seat of a black ford explorer crying. Her mother was inside with a puppy and had been there for a while. I finished taking stuff downstairs and checking on the child each time I went by. When I was finished I walked back in and told the preacher of the church about it. He talked to the secretary and the lady left. I’m not sure if anything was said to her, but she did leave. It wasn’t super hot outside, but it the temperature was close to 80 today. I was not impressed with that woman’s parenting skills.

I felt really good when we left today because I knew as a whole accomplished a lot of things! I could tell that brother Bob and his dad were really happy with us and what we did for them. Tomorrow is another day at the Nashville Rescue Mission.