Spring Break. Pay it Forward.
Dropping off the face of the internet for a week leaves one with a ton of reading... especially over at LJ's
christianity.
I just had the most amazing week ever on spring break. A student-led group on my campus called Students Today Leaders Forever (STLF) organized and led a tour of six western US cities performing service work in each community.
It was amazing, and I learned a lot about myself and the world, and had a ton of fun and met a bunch of new friends along the way... Here's the breakdown of the tour I was on over the last nine days:
March 7th: Departure from Bemidji, MN headed west toward Dickinson, ND where we camped out in a United Methodist Church.
March 8th: Cleanup of Dickinson's 3 Cemeteries, along with a couple of other projects and then departure for Gardiner, MT where we camped out in the basement of Gardiner's Baptist Fellowship (the ladies got bunks.. nice.)
March 9th: Sunrise Service/Fellowship, and then off to projects: Large group built a fence, and two smaller groups helped make sandbags out of the gravel from the sidewalk, and insulate one woman's trailer-house... lunch was chili at the church, and then departure to Jackson Hole, Wyoming's Teton Science Center (Dormitories)
March 10th: Helped cleanup the science center/ various household tasks to prepare the center for it's larges group of incoming students, departure to Riverton, Wyoming's St. Margarets School
March 11th: Visited the homes of Senior Citizens who needed yard work done... Jesica and I got to meet a man named Jack and his wife Mary who were so happy to have their lawn raked and their wood stacked... lunch at the senior center, and then departed for Roosevelt, Utah. We crashed at the Roosevelt Community and Senior center.
March 12th: Service projects spread out across town... I started out sweeping with some contractors in the city's hospital, but then moved over to the nursing home to chat with some older folks. (incredibly hard for me to do) Departed for Denver in the afternoon, and crashed at the Holiday Inn Denver Central.
March 13th: Denver service project was working at Denver's SHARE food bank along with two other colleges: WIU and ISU. tons of fun (literally, in onions.) Toured downtown Denver, (which, was not so tourist friendly...) and then celebrated the group's efforts back at the hotel.
March 14th: Left Denver early in the morning to meet up with ISU and WIU buses again at Omaha NE, for a night of fun before heading home at the CommonGround Community Center in Elkhorn, a Suburb of Omaha...
March 15th: Traveled all day from Omaha back to Bemidji. (slept, and had a good time on the bus)
The trip made me think a lot about how I had been acting, how I wanted to act, and the person that I wanted to be. And the funny thing is that even though God was merely mentioned at a few of the places where we stayed, it made me realize that God has put us here to serve one another... in any way we can. I tried to bring God along with me in my pocket, but I finally saw that he was right there with me through all of what I did and that there's no room for such a large, loving God in my pocket.
The trip was hard for me, not only because it challenged me to step away from my comfort zone of apathy, but because it drummed up some emotions I hadn't really dealt with, considering the day we left was also the day last year when Grandma Doris passed.
Working in the cemetery, working with the elderly and the seniors made me realize how little I appreciate the elders in my family, made me realize that at any age, people have something to teach others.
The biggest thing I saw was that the society we live in doesn't give a damn about the old or the helpless or the broken and homeless.
I care. I believe I can make a difference. It's not because I'm a Christian. It's because I'm a human too. No one deserves less because of an economic, capitalistic society that overlooks the golden rule.
If you ever get the chance to pay it forward, in some way or another, do it... you won't regret it. I don't, and I'm going on the trip again next spring, but in the meantime, I'm going to look for any possible way to keep growing, to keep others on fire for change, and to change this place we live in one small action at a time.
christianity.
I just had the most amazing week ever on spring break. A student-led group on my campus called Students Today Leaders Forever (STLF) organized and led a tour of six western US cities performing service work in each community.
It was amazing, and I learned a lot about myself and the world, and had a ton of fun and met a bunch of new friends along the way... Here's the breakdown of the tour I was on over the last nine days:
March 7th: Departure from Bemidji, MN headed west toward Dickinson, ND where we camped out in a United Methodist Church.
March 8th: Cleanup of Dickinson's 3 Cemeteries, along with a couple of other projects and then departure for Gardiner, MT where we camped out in the basement of Gardiner's Baptist Fellowship (the ladies got bunks.. nice.)
March 9th: Sunrise Service/Fellowship, and then off to projects: Large group built a fence, and two smaller groups helped make sandbags out of the gravel from the sidewalk, and insulate one woman's trailer-house... lunch was chili at the church, and then departure to Jackson Hole, Wyoming's Teton Science Center (Dormitories)
March 10th: Helped cleanup the science center/ various household tasks to prepare the center for it's larges group of incoming students, departure to Riverton, Wyoming's St. Margarets School
March 11th: Visited the homes of Senior Citizens who needed yard work done... Jesica and I got to meet a man named Jack and his wife Mary who were so happy to have their lawn raked and their wood stacked... lunch at the senior center, and then departed for Roosevelt, Utah. We crashed at the Roosevelt Community and Senior center.
March 12th: Service projects spread out across town... I started out sweeping with some contractors in the city's hospital, but then moved over to the nursing home to chat with some older folks. (incredibly hard for me to do) Departed for Denver in the afternoon, and crashed at the Holiday Inn Denver Central.
March 13th: Denver service project was working at Denver's SHARE food bank along with two other colleges: WIU and ISU. tons of fun (literally, in onions.) Toured downtown Denver, (which, was not so tourist friendly...) and then celebrated the group's efforts back at the hotel.
March 14th: Left Denver early in the morning to meet up with ISU and WIU buses again at Omaha NE, for a night of fun before heading home at the CommonGround Community Center in Elkhorn, a Suburb of Omaha...
March 15th: Traveled all day from Omaha back to Bemidji. (slept, and had a good time on the bus)
The trip made me think a lot about how I had been acting, how I wanted to act, and the person that I wanted to be. And the funny thing is that even though God was merely mentioned at a few of the places where we stayed, it made me realize that God has put us here to serve one another... in any way we can. I tried to bring God along with me in my pocket, but I finally saw that he was right there with me through all of what I did and that there's no room for such a large, loving God in my pocket.
The trip was hard for me, not only because it challenged me to step away from my comfort zone of apathy, but because it drummed up some emotions I hadn't really dealt with, considering the day we left was also the day last year when Grandma Doris passed.
Working in the cemetery, working with the elderly and the seniors made me realize how little I appreciate the elders in my family, made me realize that at any age, people have something to teach others.
The biggest thing I saw was that the society we live in doesn't give a damn about the old or the helpless or the broken and homeless.
I care. I believe I can make a difference. It's not because I'm a Christian. It's because I'm a human too. No one deserves less because of an economic, capitalistic society that overlooks the golden rule.
If you ever get the chance to pay it forward, in some way or another, do it... you won't regret it. I don't, and I'm going on the trip again next spring, but in the meantime, I'm going to look for any possible way to keep growing, to keep others on fire for change, and to change this place we live in one small action at a time.