Im back! Denver was such a blast and I couldn't have imagined a better place to serve than my favorite city in the entire world! Here is what I did over the week!
Sunday: We left my town in the morning around 8:30 central time and headed to Denver in three 15 passenger vans and 1 expedition. There was a total of 40 people on our trip. We stopped in Colby, KS for lunch and then continued on to Denver! We reached Denver at around 5:30 mountain time and unpacked at the CSM housing site. CSM (Center for Student Missions) is the organization that was our host for the week. The girls slept on bunks with foam mattresses and the guys slept in a church across the street on the floor. Each place we slept had advantages and disadvantages. The girls got 4 showers but the guys had 1; the guys had AC and the girls didn't. Not having AC did suck but we managed to make it through! We met with our CSM hosts and we went over the rules and guidelines for the trip. After this meeting we went to a Vietnamese Restaurant in Lower Downtown Colorado. Part of the program at CSM is that we try ethnic food for dinner every night. At the Vietnamese Restaurant we had Pho, a Vietnamese traditional soup. I thought the soup was very good and they gave you a ton of it too! After dinner we got in the vans and headed on the Denver Prayer Tour where we go to some of the sites we will be serving at and other landmarks in Denver. On the prayer tour we pray for the sites we see and some of the problems we will encounter on that site. This tour lasted 2 hours but it was very useful for our future days to come.
Monday: My group started our day off at Safari Thrift ( a thrift store for African and Asian refugees). Safari Thrift not only serves as a thrift store but also as a learning center for refugees to come and learn english and so on. For our service we were in charge of sorting all of the donated clothes and teaching one of the refugees small english. His name was Mohad and he is from Somalia. My friends and I helped Mohad sort clothes and learn simple english such as identifying what a shirt is and what pants look like. It was a very good feeling to help a refugee learn english. After Safari Thrift we went on a Plunge which is where you are sent out into the city with cards that tell you where to go; think of it sorta like a scavenger hunt. We went to the five points area of Denver which has an intersection of 5 streets and also is known to be a spot for drugs and gangs. The plunge took us to places such as the Denver Public Library, Denver Fire Station and Agape Church which has a program for the homeless. Part of the plunge was we were given 5 dollars to meet someone's need. My group found a woman sleeping under a tree and we thought she could use the $5. We slipped the $5 dollars in her hand so when she would wake up she maybe would have had her prayers answered. After the plunge we went to the Denver Senior Support Services where we served dinner and spent a few hours listening to the seniors. They has really inspiring stories and some sad stories. For dinner that night we went to a Lebanese Restaurant. We ate a wrap that had Pita bread, beef and lamb, hummus, cucumbers and tomatoes. IT WAS DELICIOUS! :D
Tuesday: My group started off our day at Volunteers of America Senior Center. My and my friend were in charge of running BINGO and other members of our group played with the Seniors. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip! The people get so into the game! its so funny! After we went to have lunch in a park that was by a river than ran through down town. I think the river was man made because people were rafting in the river! Our guys decided it was a great idea to jump in the river and be dragged by the current. Across the river was a Starbucks and of course I had to stop in a get a drink! Later in the day we went on the "Meet a Need" activity. Our host gave our group $10 and we had to go find people and ask how we could meet their needs. We helped 7 people that day! We bough socks, water, food etc. One homeless lady we met had just lost her son and it was the anniversary of his passing that day. Her purse, money and I.D had been stolen the night before and all she wanted to do was jump in front of a bus and end the pain she said. My group and I talked to her for about an hour and told her the God has better plans for her and that her son was in a better place. At that point we has used all of our money on the last 6 people but to meet her need we just enlightened her on Christ and that was more than enough for her. Over the trip we saw her multiple times and she says we were a blessing to the city. Word got around fast that our church was in Denver and we were helping. After the meet a need we went to another Volunteers of America site. This site was a rescue mission and we served dinner for 200 homeless people. For out dinner that night we had good ole mexican food! We ate stuffed sopapillias (yes I know I spelled that wrong). I have never had them before and it was very good! To end the day we went to a local favorite ice cream places called Little Man's Ice Cream. Once again, very good as well!
Wednesday: We started our day off at the Denver Rescue Mission @ 5:00am! We served breakfast to about 300 homeless people from all ages. We actually ran out of food and had to make more! We then headed down for a tour of Lower Downtown Denver (Lo Do). We learned about how the Ball Park brought lots of business to Lo Do but also kicked out a lot of housing sites for the homeless. In the middle of the day our entire youth group went a had some ice cream! That night we had community night where our youth group all got together and played water games and had a nice BBQ! After dinner we had worship.
Thursday: In the morning we went to the Denver Voice. The Denver Voice is a newspaper for the homeless that is sold by the homeless. The DV is a chance for the homeless to have a job and spread their word. Later that night we went on an activity called Emergon. We were put in a scenario where we were a teen runaway and had to survive in the city for a night. We were given $2 dollars for dinner and we ran through the city for 5 hours. It was tough but we made it!
Friday: Before we left for home we drove to Ft. Collins and went white water rafting! It was a blast! After that we started to head home and it was the longest drive ever! We finally got home at around 1-2 am. I came home and crashed!!
The trip was very eye opening and I had the time of my life!
-Karissa
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