To serve or to be served: that is the question

When I was offered the internship for this summer, I was filled with many emotions - excitement, surprise, joy, fear of the unknown... I wasn't told a whole lot about what my summer would look like, but I made the commitment to spend a summer doing community service. While I thought that this would be an opportunity demonstrate generosity towards others, I didn't know how much generosity would be shown towards me. It's not about my happiness, my generosity or my joyful acceptance of people's gratitude for my service. Just as I am serving, I am also being served on a daily basis in so many ways.

Let me illustrate this a bit with some examples:
-The generosity of my host parents is indescribable and this brief list does not adequately demonstrate it. Essentially every day I eat lunch and dinner with Jerry & Alice. I borrow Jerry's bike every day to ride to and from work. They let me borrow their car when I need to drive to night ESL classes. Jerry has the patience and trust in me to teach me how to drive manual on his car. They are always willing to answer my questions about anything from the CLRC to how to navigate the DC metro system.
-I've been included in many family affairs, such as big family dinners and Father's Day celebration with food, games and laughter. I was invited to go the pool with my host parents' daughter & her family, playing games as if we were always family.
-A very generous worker insisted on buying me breakfast from Starbucks the other morning. Even though he has shared about his personal struggle to make ends meet, he demonstrated his kindness through this small act. [Mark 12:41-44? Giving generously out of poverty...]
-A member of Wellspring church has offered to take me into DC for a ladies night out to do whatever I want.
God is truly a God who provides in abundance. To be honest, I have sometimes wanted to refuse to accept these generosities, but had to remind myself that I need to be willing to receive from others. It sure isn't easy, but I'm learning!



Yesterday was Wellspring's daylong church retreat. We had it here at Jerry & Alice's house and there were about 10 of us altogether. It was a fun day filled with food, fellowship, worship and even some dancing - essentially like a family reunion, regardless of the fact that 5 of them actually are family (Jerry, Alice, their daughter Maria, son-in-law Alan & granddaughter Anna). When I first arrived about a month ago, I found it challenging to plop myself right down in such a small congregation that was pretty different from any church I've ever been to. I'm slowly but surely starting to feel more like a part of this family and enjoying the people and mission of the church.

This is at the retreat (also in part of my humble abode in the basement of their house). We were attempting to build super tall towers out of straws and competing with each other - Anna & me versus other pairs. We had some fun together being creative!

In the picture are George (parishioner), Alice (host mom), Anna (extended host family) and me.