Mission Waco

So we loaded up in vans and headed out to Waco, Texas. It was a trying and tiring experience but well worth it on so many levels. The youth had little idea of what all was about to take place...

 All smiles as we stopped for a yummy dinner...

 Got all our stuff taken away including our clothes and made to sleep outside. Thankfully we were able to keep a few things of our own. I kept my blanket, my glasses and a rubber band for my hair. We had 13 or so of us bundled on top of 3 or 4 sleeping bags in the middle of a grass/dirt area outside. To say I was uncomfortable was an understatement. It was seriously hot, hard, and ants and other bugs and sounds and lights were everywhere. VASTLY different from my "normal" bedtime essentials.

 We woke up with the sun. I say woke up because somehow I did actually sleep that night for atleast an hour or so. :) Woohoo. Made it through the night.

 I love my old small group girls! They are such a joy to me. I miss them all so much!!!

 Finding the water on Saturday was the greatest thing EVER. If I was truly homeless that would be an essential part of my day to cool off. We had an hours long scavenger hunt the rest of the afternoon where we had to find lunch (which my group had chips and salsa and water with ICE!) with $5 we made off of finding 2 stuffed animals that we sold to some guy. We were hauling around cans (we had about 100) and we were sunburnt and hot and gross with ACHING feet after walking miles!

 Back to sleeping on the dirty outside ground for bed though. My feet were killing me and so was my back and I slept a little better that night until it started raining. Where do homeless people go when it rains? No where. So we didn't either. Thankfully it wasn't too bad of a downpour or anything. It was nice to cool off with, and I was too lazy to move. We were the only 4 people that survived outside in the rain, everyone else in the grass area went for cover.

 The next day was church day and it was awesome. We walked several miles to the Church Under the Bridge in Waco. It's a church for the homeless. It was neat to see the different people there and their openness (or lack of) in talking with a complete stranger.

After church we got to eat really good food for the first time since we arrived. It was delicious and we were so very thankful for it!

I was terrified to go on the trip in the first place as this was Jeff's third or fourth time there and yet my first. But I was thrilled do it with my small group of girls and to experience something so foreign to everything I've ever known. Being homeless is hard. It's hot, tiring, smelly, gross, and you are desperate. In desperate times, people do desperate things. It opened my eyes greatly to the things of this world that SO many people live with everyday. I am beyond blessed and humbled by how much I have and take for granted every day. I learned so much about life and about myself. I even surprised myself and told Jeff if I could do that, I could certainly go camping....we'll see if I ever do though :)