CSM D.C.: Day Three

Today our group is serving with an organization called Food and Friends. This organization serves people in the DC, Virginia, and Maryland area who have life-challenging illnesses such as cancer, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and HIV/AIDS. Kelly and I are currently delivering food packages such as soup and frozen meals to the doorsteps of the clients. Overall the trip is going great J. After our last stop we will return back to the facility to help the other people in our group prepare meals.

This afternoon we will run VBS again. The children who attend are so enthusiastic and really brighten up our days. They love to hang on us, play with our hair, and sit up on our shoulders. They truly display God’s love through their desire to be with us.

One thing we’ve learned in these past two days is how much in common every single person is. We all want to be loved and talked to. We’ve learned that the problems come when people are ignored or picked on because of differences. The children at VBS are just like the children at Floris UMC, but people sometimes treat them different. Getting to know them has taught us that it’s not fair to judge and make generalizations about people just because they live in different situations than us.

Hopefully our next three days will be as great as the last three. J

-Kelly and Emily

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Currently, we are driving to our lunch stop at Anacostia Park. The van rides in the District of Columbia are very bumpy. Due to our long, busy days, students nap sometimes during the car rides.

Last night, the seniors convinced our leaders to take us roller skating (free at Anacostia Park!) after a long morning of work. We also suggested an ice cream run tonight which was exuberantly accepted by the leaders. This morning, the van group prepared and packed meals at Food and Friends. The organization’s food packing system ran very smoothly and was easy to catch onto. Our morning went by very quickly since we were always busy and having a grand time.

This afternoon we will spend time with children in Anacostia at Vacation Bible School (VBS). The kids are very excited and eager to play with us everyday. These kids live in the Woodlands housing project. This is a completely different atmosphere than we are used to being in, the children are not fazed by any crime in the community. A lot of the older children accompany their younger brothers, sisters, and cousins to make sure that they are safe. We teach around seventy kids a day. The kids enjoy a lot of individual attention from the students because some do not receive much at home. For example, one three year old came to VBS the second day with her siblings looking all over for “Daphne,” meaning Stephanie. Once Stephanie arrived the girl felt a lot more comfortable and was ready to have fun.

We interrogated Kera (our CSM leader) to find out our dinner destination tonight, which is Indian food. Yesterday we enjoyed an Ethnic plunge at Eden Center, a Vietnamese shopping center located in Falls Church, Virginia. Mr. Berlin especially enjoyed bubble tea and fish eyes (which turned out to actually be fruit gummies)!

We are having a fabulous time and miss you all. Love you!

Ttyt (talk to you tomorrow),

Kate Almen, Jen Mathews, Stephanie Poppe

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Working at VBS (Vacation Bible School) for the first day was just a little more than awkward. For starters we didn’t know the kids and they really didn’t know us. Some of the volunteers were noticeably uncomfortable around the kids, but some were up and leading the group as if they did this sort of thing every day. Nearing the end the uncomfortable volunteers eased up a little as they adapted to the situation.
The next day showed for lots of improvement. All the volunteers were working there hardest to finish the task at hand, even the ones who seemed uncomfortable the first day. From my perspective everyone, especially the VBS kids, were considerably more comfortable.
Each of the little kids we were teaching began to cling to one person in particular. In a way, they were picking favorites, but nobody seemed to mind. The one kid who I really clung to me was named Jay Jay. He was 5 years old and was probably the shyest of all the kids. At first, he rarely talked except for the occasional “I want to get on your neck,” or “I want to sit on your lap,” but by the second day he was talking to me like he knew me his whole life. He was still very quiet around everybody else, but I could occasionally get him to talk to the others.
Anthony Barbee
~ Anthony “Tiger” Barbee
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Today, we went to two different places. The first group went to Food and Friends. There are 3000 people that F&F bring food to. We were packing bags with prepared meals to meet the specifications of individuals in the program. Majority of these people are not just sick, but dying of diseases like HIV/AIDS. It felt like every bag we packed represented the life of one of these dying people.


The second group went to Asbury UMC, functioning as an assisted living home for the elderly. Getting a rough and quiet start with the residents, things slowly picked up leading into the morning exercises and into game time. One of the exercises was to ask a woman “What time is it?” She responded routinely, “Time to get your roll on!!” and all the residents started to do an old school disco arm roll. When the game came along, many people went from giving blank stares to being aggressive competitors. The excitement in the room was overwhelming. As the game went on, the people got more intent and focused, as well as comfortable around our CSM students. But, sadly when the residents’ lunch time came, the students left the church and said goodbye to the residents.

At VBS today, we received a slightly smaller crowd, but the connections between the students and the children remained the same. We sang songs, played with some beach balls, and learned about sharing in our message. Some girls even got braids in their hair from the kids. Wrapping up the day with a craft and a nutritious and delicious snack, we left the kids for another night.


God Bless,Bradley Mason, Will Morgan-Palmer and Kevin Cronin