-Jesse Smith-
Picture taken just after he learned to write his name in cursive for the first time.
This picture, without a doubt captures my favorite moment from mission trip. Which is only a bit ironic because this was also the worst day for me on the trip. As I said in yesterday's post, I have a fear of old people. So when my work group was sent to help in a nursing home I was anything but excited. But I put on my brave face, and I got through it. The first day we went my friend Katy and I played the Wii with a woman named Marge, and let me tell you she owned at The Price is Right! However, the second day we went back I didn't hold up as well.
It was a Wednesday which meant that they were going to have a worship service. So the 11 people in my work group went to all five floors and gathered up all of the residents who wanted to attend the service. We ended up getting about 45 people for the service to gather in a room that was not large enough. (Keep in mind, they were all in wheelchairs/hospital beds.) This nursing home only had two elevators and could only fit three wheelchairs in each, so the whole process of getting all of the people into the service took about 35 minutes. So while the rest of our work group finished up getting the people, Sara and I and one more youth stayed in the room with the patients and started singing hymns with them. Which was an emotional task to begin with. Well, just our luck.. the preacher was running late. So the nurses were scrambling around trying to keep everyone as comfortable as they could. Meanwhile, Sara and I got moved up to the very front of the room into these two chairs that were facing the entire room, looking at all of these people. To say that I was out of my comfort zone would be an understatement.
Sara doesn't have a problem with the elderly, but you couldn't help but get emotional when you looked at this group. You could see the pain and tiredness in there faces. And for the whole hour and a half we had to sit at the front of that room, and smile. Because that's what we were there to do, to spread our love. But as soon as that service was over and we got everyone back into their rooms, I lost it. I wasn't able to hold it together. And it wasn't exactly because I was scared, but I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with the sadness that was looming over this place. Well, then things got even better... The next work place we were supposed to go to cancelled on us, and they asked us to go to yet another nursing home.
BUT, this is where everything turns around.
The leaders in our group wanted to take Sara and I back to the church where we were staying because they knew we had a rough day and they didn't want us to push ourselves. But they must not know her and I very well. We had our moment to be sad and to cry, but then we moved on and were ready to go and help out where we were needed. So we headed out for the next nursing home. And let me tell you it was a COMPLETE 180. The residents in this place were mobile, and happy! They wanted their nails done, and they wanted them to be done now!! haha
But Katy and I were given the task of teaching a few of the residents how to read and write.
I was SO nervous when they told us that! I want to go into the teaching profession, but I'm used to working with 3-4 year olds, not 79 year-olds. I didn't want to offend them, or make them feel bad about themselves. But it turned out to be the best experience I had all week.
I worked with a woman named Wanda, who has been working on her reading and writing for a few months and is doing wonderful! Then there was Jesse Smith, oh what to say about this wonderful, crazy man. He walked into the room and was telling jokes, and then pulled me aside and confessed that he didn't know how to write his name but told me that he didn't want to burden me. Let me tell you, Jesse Smith was anything but a burden. And after about an hour he did learn to write his first name all by himself. And I am expecting a letter to come in the mail with a full page of his name sometime in the next month.
I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job of explaining how extremely difficult and yet amazing this day was. I think it was just something that you had to experience for yourself. But if there is anything I hope that you can take away from my ramblings, it is that I hope that in times when we are scared that we just have to find a way to look past that fear. Because when we do, amazing things can happen. Beautiful people like Jesse Smith can come into our lives, for one day only.. and yet, change it forever.
Don't let your fears limit you.
"It takes a lot of courage to release
the familiar and seemingly secure,
to embrace the new.
But there is no real security in what
is no longer meaningful. There is more
security in adventurous and exciting,
for in movement there is life,
and in change there is power."
-Alan Cohen
LIVE.LAUGH.LOVE WASTEFULLY.
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