The only thing I would change about this week would have been
letting us stay for another week or at least a few more days. Besides that,
there is nothing I would change. I love getting to serve others who have given
their lives to obeying the Lord’s call in whatever aspects that may entail.
This week we went to Kansas City and volunteered with the
HOPE organization, located in one of the roughest parts of the city. It was
odd, because as we pulled in to the area, honestly it didn’t look that bad.
Last year I went to school in one of the poorest cities in Georgia and at some
point it was posting pretty highly on violent crime and death rates. It was
bad, and it looked bad, but here it looked almost peaceful. Once we got to the
center, the man who had started HOPE took us out in a bus to show us the area.
He started telling us stories of violence and hurt that I
couldn’t even fully imagine. It became clear very quickly to me how broken this
place was. They didn’t have a grocery store in the area. They have one doctor
serving thousands upon thousands of people. In the high schools in the area
only 5 kids have a chance to graduate from college.
Hearing that breaks my heart, and while I’ve been around
poverty before, it’s easy for me to forget how much I’ve seen.
We were able to help out by cleaning up a beautiful old
cathedral owned by the HOPE center. Also a few of us went down the street and
helped in some of the finishing stages of preparing a house that a family who
wants to invest in the community is going to be moving into.
I think being at Kansas City this week has really shown me
places that I need to step up and take more action. I have been trying to find
a place to plug into with lacrosse, but I got distracted and haven’t followed
through with that. I want to find a way to give to people who have less than
me, and when I say that I don’t mean from a materialistic point of view. I mean
that 'from a spiritual perspective. I think at times people – myself included-
get so focused on meeting people’s physical needs that we can forget about why
we’re helping them - to show them God’s love. There are a lot of people out
there who do really great things to help the underprivileged, but people need
salvation of their souls as well.
So yah, I’m going to try and find a way to make that happen
because it’s something I have always wanted to do and love doing but just
sometimes struggle finding a way to use my strengths to do something.
