JessicaKirk

Kirk, Jessica

3-10-09

Alternative Spring Break in Nashville

Day four

Today my group went to the Music City Rescue Mission. This mission was different from the others we had previously visited. This mission offered free food, clothes, and even furniture to those who came and asked for help. The main thing that set this mission apart from the others was that it not only saw homeless people but also refuges from places such as Darfur. Pastor Bob said at one point they had people from five different continents in the mission.

Today's experience was rewarding in the fact that we had contact with women and children. At the other places we had no contact with women and children who mainly stayed at another compound which requires a background check to get be able to visit. Its easy to look at a grown man and claim to sympathize with them, but to see a woman and her child its heartbreaking to think about what they must go through each day.

One thing that was frustrating to day was these two women who was there with their children getting supplies from the mission. What made this frustrating though was that the women had maybe three garbage bags of clothes between them and still browsing through the racks of clothes looking for more to take home. I understand needing new clothes every now and then, but Im sure there are other people who need it more; not to mention both women had really nice purses that definitely weren't cheap and not from a mission.

The only story that really stands out to me is the story about when we was bagging beans and rice. Pastor Bob gave us blue tubs to put the rice and bean bags into, so we filled all of the containers up to the top. Later Eric comes over and with him he has three huge clear tubs with lids and tells us that Bob wants them in those because thay have lids. Well after we filled them Pastor Bob comes over and tells us "No those are for clothes only". We ended up switching the tubs like two or three times before we finally got it right.