“I’m not interested in whether you’ve stood with the great. I am interested in whether you’ve sat with the broken.” The Age of Enlightenment
You know that nursery rhyme we all learned as kids, “rain, rain go away come back again some other day” I think I heard it be chanted by volunteers and residents alike today throughout the area. We had to endure yet another wet and soggy day. The creeks are getting more full each day, but luckily, in Wyoming County at least, the banks have been able to contain all the water.
The volunteers split into three work crews again today. One group went to St. Vincent de Paul to help sort clothes and assist any client that was to come in and pick up furniture donations. Unfortunately because of the weather, people weren’t coming in to get furniture, but the the volunteers did a wonderful job of sorting all the donated clothes that were in plastic bags in the warehouse.
The two home repair groups made a quick stop on the way to the sites at the Methodist Church in Mullens to help move some furniture around. Not only were we happy to help, we also received a tour of their facilities and of their church, a beautiful space.
After finishing up with the furniture moving the two groups drove to the Bud/Alpoca Bottom area for their two sites. The Alpoca Bottom site is a continuation of the project we started last week. We are nearing the finish of the project, but we have had a lot of waiting for mud and paint to dry before moving onto the next. Tomorrow it looks like will be the day that we are all wrapped up there.
The other site, in Bud, was a new site. The volunteers worked for a man who has three teen-aged sons living with him in his trailer. Today the volunteers replaced his front door since his old one no longer stays on its hinges when you open it, he told us due to numerous break-ins. The volunteers also began to replace several windows that were leaking water. Unfortunately, the windows required the volunteers to be outside for most of the installation, so the rain hampered their efforts. We will be returning tomorrow to work on the windows.
Tonight we had delicious fajitas for dinner. Both the chicken and the veggie fajitas were delicious, as were the asparagus spears they were served with. Yum, yum, yummy!
As the evening drew to a close we gathered to reflect on how we can as individuals share our struggles and challenges with others to hopefully help them in their own struggles. It was a good reminder that we can all be examples and that everyone as something to share and something to learn.