Today was a great day for me. I think I work up earlier than I ever had before. 3am rolled around and outta bed I rolled still not fully awake. I finished packing and slowly walked out of the house. My dad drove me to the airport and said good bye with all the sadness a dad could, "Bye Hailey, I love you, Happy Birthday." As he walked away it started to sink in how much of a journey I was embarking on. No parents, just amazing leaders leading me on a journey that will change who I am forever. My brain still hasn't fully grasped the situation. I realized that by helping the worlds most needy people I will find parts of me I never knew existed. Every person here is going to grow, and change into even more amazing people. I love each and every one of them.
Today we got to tour a smallish food delivering center. I got to see the hope in these peoples eyes. They knew that even through this heat, they were going to live a little bit longer. After that we spent FOUR HOURS entering information for the HMIS. The HMIS links all the service groups together to better help the homeless people. We entered 371 homeless peoples information into it today. We worked hard, and in the end we helped people more then we thought possible on our first day. We have been up 18 hours, we are pretty much running off of sugar, and caffeine. At 10 o'clock we went to Ben and Jerry's ice cream to celebrate my birthday. I would never had thought of a better way to spend my birthday, then by giving back.
Many people write these blog postings. All of us belong to a group called SLY (St. Luke Youth) and we are on a mission. Our mission took us to the city in the middle of the desert where there are a lot of homeless people. Our group is going to try and make their lives a little bit better. We think that our friends, family and other people out there should hear the stories of these people, and how they have changed our lives forever. Here is our story.
Happy Birthday, Hailey!
ReplyDeleteHope you are having a great time, my friend.
Susan Johnson