Un Mundo Diferente

So I guess I never really finished writing about Japan, but suffice it to say it was the trip of a lifetime and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Now it seems summer is in full bloom. Since moving back home I have been flitting about on little weekend adventures such as watching the Arkansas super-regional baseball game in Waco, visiting Erin's awesome lake house in Hot Springs, weddings in Fayetteville and Six Flagstimes funtimes. But despite all these fun times on the weekends, I found myself really lacking with things to do during the week. There's always coffee and pool time with my wonderful Kaycie, but I spent a lot of time just hanging around the house watching How I Met Your Mother and playing Words with Friends. Then one night I was at The Porch, which is this ministry for people in their 20s and 30s and the pastor was talking about time being our most valuable asset. You can have all the money in the world and all the skills in the world but once you run out of time, that's it. And we are only on this earth for a little while. So he emphasized the importance of using our time intentionally and making the most of every opportunity we have to serve others and share our faith. And as much as I love words with friends, it doesn't exactly provide with much outside interaction. SO I started looking for places to volunteer, that way I would be able to interact with new people and serve my community and I came across the Samaritan Inn. The Samaritan Inn is the only homeless program in all of Collin County, which is a very, very large county in the Dallas metroplex. I had volunteered with them in high school and after attending an informational meeting this year, I knew that was where I wanted to spend my time. They not only provide homeless people with a place to stay and food to eat, but they provide budgeting and parenting classes along with GED courses and job training. They're really committed to helping people change their life style and become self-sufficient.

So although I would love to spend much more time at this wonderful organization, they've only needed me a couple of times a week. But each time I am happy to help and hope that in some small way I can make a difference. It has been a really eye-opening experience. Even in my own town, there's a whole other world out there. I have been very blessed to never know poverty, even through hard times. But interacting with people who are my age or younger, have multiple children already and are homeless, that's a whole other life. Then there are people who used to be lawyers or nurses and for whatever reason lost their jobs and can't make ends meet. Or people who are trying as hard as they can to escape generational poverty and have nowhere else to go. All in my city. So this experience continually reminds me of how much God has blessed my life and how much I can and should be doing to bless the lives of others. Sometimes I forget and only think about places like Africa or third-world countries or giant, impoverished cities in the U.S., but there is so much to do even in a suburban city like McKinney, TX. Our world is so hurt. The least I can do is volunteer my time to help fix it, bit by bit.