Heading home. . .:]

Hey again! :]]
This trip is now coming to an end and everyone is very excited to bring what they learned home with them to Portland.
Yesterday was a longgg, but fun day.
First we went to do landscaping at St. Jude's. Mckenna and I were really getting sun and we wanted to stay out of it. The lady there told us that we could clean out their shed because of its HUMONGOUS mess. We started simple and tried to make things more organized. But then, as the lady came back to look at what we had accomplished she said, "This is amazing. Honestly, it is sooo much easier to get things done with everything sorted out. This will make things go MUCH quicker.
After we had finished, she came and found us while we were eating pizza and told us how amazed she was by the difference. I cannot believe how much of a difference we made just by cleaning a shed. :] What a change.
At St. Jude's, after landscaping, we got a chance to become close and personal with some of the children and teens staying there. I had the chance to experience the difference in our cultures and the way that we live. I met two young girls, 17 year old, that had just had children. When i asked one of them what they named their child they told me. Then i asked why they named it that, she said, "That's what his father wanted him to be named." I'm not sure if the father was still around, but by the way that she said that, it kinda just touched me. You can see the movies and tv shows the impact of teenage pregnancy, but you barely get the chance to talk to someone that has experienced it.
We also played with the kids. Elizabeth, I'm not sure if she has mentioned, but she met a young girl, 4 years old, named E*****. While Lizzie was playing with her, she noticed some bruises on her arm. Lizzie and i asked her what was wrong and how she got it. . .her answer: My mommy. When we were doing devotions, Lizzie told the group of this story and our whole group was hit pretty hard. Complete Silence. Tears came and it was hard to believe. I could not understand why someone would do that to suchhh a gift like E*****.
Later we went to a soup kitchen and fed the homeless.
My job was to go around with salt, pepper, and hot sauce and offer it to people to put on the meals. After a while of going around, I realized that people started getting seconds. And even more and more. It was interesting to watch people fight for more grapes on their plate, and complaining about no butter for their potato. People began to talk to me when we went around and when i told them we were from Oregon, almost everyone of them told us that they used to work there or lived there in the past. I was blown away by the things that we could talk about and the conversations we had.

Our group has gotten closer than ever before. I feel like i can tell this group anything, and that theyre going to be there for me no matter what. I cannot wait to get back home and share with our congregation the experiences that have touched my life. I have been blessed to be a part of SLY and getting the chance to meet some amazing people. I wish that everyone joined us in the journey to understanding our faith and carrying out God's word.

~Megan :]