Finally more people are here!

What an incredible week!  I can honestly say that every day was not only a good day, but a great day.  I a so happy to be down here with Up with People, I know this is absolutely where I'm supposed  to be :)

My last post was only a little over a week ago, but it feels like a month ago...so much has happened!!

Last Friday, the ten of us who are taking classes got the opportunity to go on our first CI, or Community Impact.  We went to Lighthouse Ministries, a Christian homeless shelter and personal rehabilitation center in downtown Lakeland.  The shelter takes in residents, and helps them by providing education, job opportunities, and counseling, as well as meals and daycare, as a lot of the residents are women with children.  

Mom, I know you were probably wishing I was home to help take down our Christmas decorations, but you should know that I definitely did more than I would have at home!! Even with 11 of us (10 students plus our Leadership professor, who was able to come along), it took us all morning to un-decorate the place. We probably took down more than 50 strands of lights, at least 3 fake trees, a blow-up snowman and all of his blow-up friends, and anything else you can imagine.  

Working hard....

   
   

Or hardly working?

   

We found some great princess dresses at the thrift
store...Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, the
Wicked Witch, and Cinderella!

Only some of the Christmas lights we took down!

We really had a great time working together and it felt great to help out Lighthouse Ministries, since this would have taken the staff even longer than it did us, and they were able to spend that time on more necessary tasks.  They were very appreciative of our work, I think everyone was done with Christmas...it's hard to stay in the Christmas spirit when it's 80 degrees outside!!

Misa, Abby, Amy, Mallory, Ambrea, Amilee, McKenzie, Tara, Claudia, and  Frank

We got the chance to meet one of the residents and hear her testimony.  It was truly a moving story to hear how many times she had come clean and then fell back into addiction again.  After a few cycles of that, and a few months in jail, she finally found Lighthouse Ministries and has been able to begin to turn her life around.  We got a tour of the facilities as well, and heard more about their ministry, which was really nice to know that we were helping such a wonderful place.

 

There was a beautiful wall mural...the idea is that at first, the there are many paths that are crooked and in shadow, but then they reach the lighthouse, and the path widens and becomes more lit, and then eventually there is only one path that leads to the cross.

Then in the afternoon, the rest of the cast arrived, which was the most exciting and happy and overwhelming experience!! Everyone was so excited to meet everyone else, and as each busload arrived, there were more people to greet and shake hands with and kiss (only the Mexicans!) I had such a headache after a few hours of constant smiling...but it was so worth it :) Over this whole week I've gotten to talk to more people and it is just so fun to hear everyone's story...where they're from, why they're here, their goals, dreams...

    

So excited to be here...and this is only about half of the cast (plus some staff)!

We took a well-deserved sleep-in day on Saturday, and on Sunday I went to church with my roommate from the Philippines and my host aunt, since our host parents went to the beach for the weekend. After church, Host Aunt Noreen took us to a great little bistro on one of the many lakes in Lakeland, with a great view of the beautiful swans, which were originally donated to Lakeland by Queen Elizabeth.  

Nikka, McKenzie, Host Aunt Noreen, Me, and Misa in front of Lake Mirror

Later that afternoon, we had a welcoming ceremony, which of course was a lot of introductions and applause, but the best part was when some of the staff and the second semester students performed a few songs from the show...very moving, very inspiring songs. And when everyone started to sing together, I cried a little (thanks, Italian genes)...it was so special to be able to experience a little piece of the show that I am so lucky to be a part of.