Week 1, Day 3

Day three down!  

Although it was a bit cloudy and cool out today, we had a great time serving the veterans living at the Ohio Veterans Home. After breakfast this morning, we drove over to OVH to help with their Wednesday summer picnic. Many of the veterans that live in the nursing home on sight can't get around well and must be in wheelchairs or on walkers, so our students spent the morning wheeling them from their rooms out to the pagoda on the grounds for a picnic. It was an amazing way to start conversation with a person that has so many intriguing and exciting life experiences and stories to share.  

After taking the vets out to the picnic, our students and some other volunteers got to serve them lunch, standing in line to grab a tray and fill it and take it to a veteran at their table. Once everyone was served, we sat with them at the tables and got to have some fellowship and laughter with them during the meal. When they were ready to leave the picnic after lunch, we wheeled and/or accompanied them back inside where many students sat with them for upwards of 30-45 minutes just to talk about life. It was a truly unique experience for our students and we have some great stories to tell!

Once the picnic and our conversations were complete we ate lunch on the grounds as a group and even got to take a closer look at the Wurlitzer that they had out for the festivities!

Once we returned from the Ohio Veteran's Home, the group still had about an hour to spare and so we had a trash-pickup contest in the neighborhood downtown around the church. Each group had an hour to find as much trash to collect and dispose of, and between the three groups we collected three huge trash bags full for the dumpster. Along the way, we found a few friends to help...

(We call this "Gull in Street" by Tyler Wolfcale, budding photog)

Tonight we're going to enjoy some delicious pulled pork BBQ for dinner and then have a fun movie night together. Tomorrow morning we'll get up for our final day of work, which will be only a few blocks away working with the local Lutheran church for a farmer's market they put on twice a month.  

Please continue to pray for us to have renewed energy and refreshing sleep as we head into the latter part of our week, and for safe travels as Brian comes out to join us tomorrow.