So far our Washington D.C. 1 trip has been a phenomenal experience. Our trip is focusing on homelessness and poverty and we are serving in two locations. In the mornings we serve at D.C. Central Kitchen helping prepare the 5,000 meals the organization distributes daily. Not only does D.C. Central Kitchen provide meals to people who are food insecure, they also offer a culinary job training program to those who are unemployed. In the afternoons and evenings we serve at the Central Union Mission where we clean, prepare meals, and serve meals to the homeless. The Central Union Mission is a men's shelter that can serve as a long-term or short-term place for homeless men to stay and be fed. The shelter also has a ready to work program and a spiritual transformation program, both of which are designed to help the men get back on their feet and provide guaranteed shelter and food throughout their participation in the program.
We drove over 1,000 miles and 15 hours to get to Washington D.C., but the trip was more fun than we could have ever imagined. Ryan teaching everyone how to play Hey Cow!, Amanda showing off her dance moves in the backseat, and the millions of throwbacks we jammed to made it an absolute blast!
On Sunday, our first day in D.C., we had the privilege of doing some sight seeing! We visited several monuments, the American History Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We also visited the National Archives and one of our site leaders, Charlie Koors, almost passed out from excitement when he saw the constitution. Sunday evening we served our first meal at the Central Union Mission and it was a great start to this week's service. We are staying at Calvary Baptist Church in China Town and are camping out on the floor while preparing meals in the microwave.
The rest of this week has been full of meaningful, hilarious, and exhausting moments. This morning the D.C. sky poured down snow on us as we trekked to the D.C. Central Kitchen. Many of us did not come properly prepared for the weather and jackets became a quickly coveted item. Then we helped prepared deer stew at the Central Union Mission with MU Chancellor Loftin and had to pick bones out of the deer meat! Preston started piecing the bones together and explaining the anatomy of the dead deer, everyone (including the chancellor) had their hands dug in deep pulling out the gross parts, and Anne Marie had to leave the room to keep from being sick because she's a drama queen. All in all though our time serving with Chancellor Loftin was a fantastic experience. After our day of service we decided to try some of the China Town Chinese food and stopped at the first Chinese restaurant on our block. We walked in and only one man was in the entire building, the kitchen looked like it had been ransacked and consisted of an at-home rice cooker, and it smelled like bug spray. On the announcement that there were 12 of us, the one man working took us through a dark hallway to the back of the restaurant into a garage type room with several tables and seated us. At this point Darren almost passed out from fear that we would be kidnapped and Anne Marie was convinced everyone would get food poisoning. We quickly fled for the street.
As we continue to return to the same places every day we grow our relationships with the people we are serving with and for. Our two sites have shown us wonderful hospitality and appreciation. The greatest joy we all find is sitting down with someone we are serving and listening to his or her story or simply talking about NBA basketball. When the men at Central Union Mission wave to us as we walk out the door at the end of day our hearts are truly touched. We also feel truly blessed to have met each other. Everyone on our trip is unique, funny, and endowed with a will to serve. Not a moment goes by where we don't laugh and during the harder moments people always have someone to lean on. We could not have asked for better places to serve or better people to serve with.
Things we are still looking forward to this week are meeting Senator Claire McCaskill on Thursday and continuing to build relationships with the people we have the privilege to serve.
Peace. Love. MABDC!
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