A Frat House for Jesus

How many hours did you work today? Know how many I worked? Almost 13! But I enjoyed it! I really like that I'm not stuck in an office (at least for the majority of the time). When you're out and about, doing things and seeing people, time goes by much more swiftly.

I didn't even set foot in the office today because Jenny and I drove straight to Gray Hawk (Jackson Co) a little before 8. It's about an hour drive. We spent the rest of the day working with the Jackson and Owsley caseworkers plus a couple other CAP volunteers from Educational and Recreational Programming. Jackson's School Readiness Distribution was today. They do theirs a little differently. Most of the volunteers shopped with a family, so I walked around a lot this morning, riffling through clothes, trying to find the right sizes and the styles the kids wanted. It was much more difficult than it probably sounds! It was nice to be one-on-one with the families. There were some really sweet families there today.

In the afternoon we boxed up the remaining clothes (way too many men's clothes!) and Julia came by with her sisters. Julia is the McCreary Family Advocacy caseworker. So now I've met all the Family Advocacy caseworkers in the Cumberland Valley region, except for one who works out of Clay. I'll meet her in a week or so when we have our big Family Advocacy meeting for both regions at Natural Bridge.

Jen's out of town currently so Jenny was hosting a group this evening. We made dinner (Mom, you wouldn't believe how much cooking I've done in the past 3 weeks) and facilitated a group discussion. The group of younger teens had been working with Elderly Services in the surrounding counties. Some of them really seemed to have been struck by their experiences. However, we also had a couple people - one girl in particular - who were extremely disrespectful and rude! This one girl kept interrupting and was getting on Facebook on her phone, and even told her mother and grandmother (grandmother!!) to be quiet. I was shocked! Jenny and I kept looking at each other like "What the heck?!?" It was awkward and uncomfortable... But, like I said, there were some kids who seemed genuine about their experiences and shared those with us.

Before dinner I was talking to one of the adults about how I came to CAP and she told me that her mother, who is 70, became a missionary after her father died just about 7 years ago. She'd always wanted to do it, and finally she had the opportunity. I said it was great that she knew what she wanted to do and knew her passion, because I don't know mine exactly. The woman said I'd find it one day, but I hope I don't have to wait until I'm 70!

During dinner the kids kept asking me questions. Basically it all boiled down to: Why are you here? It was a slightly challenging conversation to have. Although I feel like I've "explained myself" several times to different people, this time I was really listening to my answers and getting some insight into things. I told them about how I had this plan for the rest of my life (essentially) but I began to realize that I wasn't sure I wanted to live that life. I wanted adventure. Life here is an adventure everyday. But I was terrified because I was on this track and was scared of the unknown. I'm glad I got off that track because I've been learning and growing so much here and in ways I didn't even think about until I came. I didn't realize this was a "weird" or "unusual" thing to do until people started to say so.

One big misconception from the kids was our living situation. I honestly think they thought we lived in shacks without running water. When explaining our community living I told them it was like living in a frat house.... for Jesus.

And because I didn't blog on Wednesday, here's what happened:
In the afternoon, Ross (a Housing crew leader from Jackson) came to Rockcastle and Jenny, Robyn, Ross, and I went to Jim and Reecie's house (the elderly couple that can't hear and gave us blackberries) to assess what Housing may be able to help them with. It was a nice visit, and Reecie even gave one of her quilt's to Ross (His wife had a baby not long ago.) And of course Robyn and Ross each left with their own gallon of blackberries!

I'm hoping to get hearing aids for Jim and Reecie through the Starkey Foundation. I heard about it because of my Aural Rehab class (so there WAS a point to going to class all those long nights!) There is a bit of cost involved (I have no idea where the money's going to come from) and a lot of moving pieces, so there's no guarantee, but I'm really really hoping I'll be able to help them out! Say a little prayer that God will provide!!