Monday: Soup Kitchen and Face Painting

F.A.T.

That stands for Flexible--Attitude--Teachable.


(After breakfast, we heard from one of the leaders of NYSUM, who spoke to all the groups staying here. It ended up being a 30-40 message, which made us late for the prep class for the next ministry site.)

We're learned the first aspect of FAT very quickly this morning. We went to a soup kitchen, where we would lead chapel and serve soup. Unfortuantely, it was closed. The person who ran it was sent to hospital the night before and it seems that her presence was necessary for the soup kitchen to run. It's sad to think a ministry depends so much on one person being there (church isn't like that is it?) While we waited for Robert to figure out an alternative, we sang a song outside the van.

An alternative was found and we went to another soup kitchen. Another group was there, but eventually there was plenty to do for us. While we did not lead a chapel service (it was not part of this ministry), we could see a soup kitchen at work. We served 100 people today. This soup kitchen is famous for its menu. They cook everything fresh--no canned stuff here. (It has a professional chef). They serve soup, salad, then main course and then desert. In order to add even more dignity to the clients, all food is served to them, with real plates and cutlery. They also offer other services to the people. (After the clients were served, we could eat the same meal and it was the best meal we've had so far on this trip.) Hopefully, we all became aware of the need for this type of ministry.

We returned to NYSUM by mid-afternoon and had a short rest before dinner at 5 (I wasn't too hungry). For our evening activity we went to Jamicia House, a residence for single moms, families and others that need temporary housing. There was a double booking as a lady was also there to do some musical lessons. We joined her from 6:30 to 7:00. After that we had an hour for our crafts and fun games for about the 15-20 kids who were there. There was play-dough for the younger kids, face painting, card tricks, crafts, and balloon popping. It was a fun night. Even I got my face painted--a tiger--pictures were taken! The parents enjoyed the crafts so much all the material were left with them to continue to work with. (The playdough was also given to the kids). At 8:30 we headed back to NYSUM. It was a fun evening.