Week One

Yesterday, the group from Kansas left to return home. The two Minnesota groups are staying one more week and will be joined by yet another group from Minnesota. The MN folks drive here and they like to get maximal return on their mileage.

Highlights from my first week include:
Monday--My first Vespers' planning meeting with two representatives from each group during dinner. Every one said yes to each dispensed responsibility. A remarkable pianist and choir director appeared to handle music, as well as two clergy members to handle Communion. The hymns were lined up and the Order of Worship explained. A MN volunteer agreed to do the Meditation. I was left with pencils, hymnals, suggestion books and remnants of supper strewn asunder at the conclusion as people in excited discussion went their merry way. It was energizing!
Tuesday--As one of my tasks is to do outreach in the community, I took interested volunteers to Mickey Mouse Head Start here in Baldwin. I had been told by the director we would be working with two twenty-student classes of three to five-year olds. Upon our arrival, the Center was so quiet, we thought the children were elsewhere. Then the Director appeared and
we were parceled out to classrooms. Marjie from MN hadn't been sure what she was going to do
until a three-year old African American little girl came over and took her hand and led her
into a classroom. Problem solved.
Wednesday--It was tour and work day at Chez Hope, the domestic violence shelter for women and
children in Franklin, next door to Baldwin. Chez Hope deserves a post all it's own, so suffice
it to say we had an informative, hope-filled morning.
Thursday--On this, the second anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti (to which UMCOR Sager
Brown fulfilled it's promise of aid), our volunteers in the community spent their morning
assisting teachers in first-grade classrooms at Raintree Elementary School, except for Marilyn from (you guessed it!) MN who taught a fourth grade class a lesson in American Sign Language. In the evening, Lloyd from MN did a Meditation on "Pebble in a Pond" and spoke about how we never know where our ripples will end.
Friday--With many newly-packaged and boxed kits ready to leave the Depot to help a world in need, neighborhood housing repairs in progress and community volunteer experiences fresh in our minds, it was time to bid a fond farewell to some. New folks arrive on Sunday and we will again begin to be busy in Baldwin.