JessicaKIrk

Kirk, Jessica

3-9-09

Alternative Spring Break in Nashville

Day Three

Today we went to the Nashville Rescue Mission as our service project for the day. The Nashville Rescue Mission is huge and almost feels like a maze trying to navigate your way through it can be overwhelming. It is amazing how it shelters and feeds 600 homeless men each night, and everything is through donations from money to pay the bills to the food that they serve.

Today I chose to work in the kitchen because it was the best opportunity to have contact with the homeless people that live, work, and visit the Nashville Rescue Mission. Although unfortunately I didn't have as much contact as I would have liked to have had with them. We had been slaving away all day in the kitchen and when it finally comes time to serve the food a Baptist Church arrives and stills or thunder so to speak. We was looking forward serving then the food, but instead got stuck chopping up garlic which was a little disappointing and frustration.

Overall the experience was very rewarding and interesting. I got met a lot of interesting people at the mission one man who was very funny, upfront, and honest. He told us the true ins and outs of the mission, and not just the tourist version. He graduated from the program two years ago and stayed to help contribute back to the mission that had helped save his life. There was quite a few people I met at the mission who all had really interesting stories that would make some cry and others laugh. Laughing is something that you would think would be a rare commodity in that type of situation, but in actuality everyone is laughing and joking which made me more comfortable with them.

I met someone who is really inspiring. His name is Willie and he works at the
Nashville Rescue Mission. Just by looking and talking to him you would never know that his daughter has been missing since last Friday. He was just so strong and had so much Faith in God that he was able to keep himself composed in a time of hardship that many people would fall apart, but you could see the pain in his eyes and heat it in his voice as he told us the story of his missing daughter. As he told us about her I started to cry because he was so strong and had so much faith in God, and just asked us to pray for her.