This is the Service Over Self building in Memphis that we stayed in. It was huge. It had a big kitchen and eating area, chapel, game room, guys dormitory and girls dormitory. I think they can house up to 200 students at one time.
This is the house we did external home repair on. All that white paint in the front and there was a lot on the sides and the whole back of the house as well, we scraped, primed, and painted.
This is the motel room where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. The National Civil Rights Museum has been built as a huge addition to it.
This is Jacob the boy who lived at the house we worked on. He was really fun.
This is our group with Big Dog in the middle who I told most of you about.
Spring time!
Tulips :)
Check out our sweet tattoos ....
Here are a couple of pictures since the weather has turned nice. By the way, you can click on them and view them much larger. So, I am very sorry for not uploading any pictures since my birthday. The important things that have happened since then are Dance 35 and my spring break mission trip. Other than that, it has been the usual... homework, hanging out with friends, figuring out everything for study abroad next fall, etc. And now I have one week of finals and I am done with Hope College for NINE MONTHS. It has not really hit me yet at all. I apologize again for not keeping up with this... but I PROMISE next year in Scotland I will update weekly because this will be my main form of communication to let you know what's going on!!
So, I think I have grown the most this year than I ever have in my life. I have lost some friends and had to make new ones. I have been challenged academically and took on that challenge more than ever before. I have had to learn to manage my time with 15 hours of dance rehearsal a week, work, friends, and my studies. I worked on my communication skills begging alumni for money when I worked at the Hope Fund phone-a-thon. I enhanced my office skills being an office assistant. I worked on my teaching assisting skills which I did this semester for a Health Dynamics class. I learned all about at-risk kids volunteering at a pre-school here in Holland. I've experienced the broken households these precious three to five years olds come from and have experienced extreme helplessness knowing there's not much I can do. My heart has broken for them knowing the large chance of what they're going to grow up to be like due to the families they come from. I've talked to homeless men, a prostitute, some crack addicts, criminals and have been scared and happy and cried with them and laughed with them and had open and honest conversations with them. All my ideas and pre-conceptions have not come crumbling down, but my ideas have been transformed. More than ever I was reminded of how BLESSED I am! How lucky I am! How privileged I am. How if I stay exactly where I am and the hurting and broken and under-served stay exactly where they are, NOTHING will ever be changed. It will be a continuous cycle. I have been ASSURED that God has given me the tool of physical therapy to serve communities who don't have proper medical facilities. I have been scared for things, but above all else I have learned to trust God because He has the plan and His plan is so much better than anything I can imagine. As I finish finals I am looking forward to new experiences of attending Oakton Community College and taking Physics 1 and 2 (by the way, the head of the Physics department here at Hope told me I was brave for taking both this summer... that worries me a tad!) , learning how to work in Inpatient at the hospital and working outpatient some time as well, possibly volunteering at Children's Memorial Hospital and/or Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. I am excited to have more experience in the physical therapy field and to be home before I am off to Europe The second week of September!
Thanks for listening to me babble. Thanks for the love that my family has sent me while I have been here in Holland. It's been a really good year.
