This month has been a crazy one with SEND. If you're unsure of what SEND is, you can learn about it by clicking on the SEND tab above this post. Anyway, this month for our Mission Weekend, we traveled to Holland, MI to visit the Rescue Mission there. The Holland Rescue Mission is a place where people who are experiencing homelessness can go to get shelter and food. They also offer a Gateway program which is where the residents go through classes for a year to help them become active members in society. This program also requires that the men attend church and also volunteer their time at the church they attend.
As a part of our time at the Rescue Mission, we spent the night with the residents. The men in our group slept at the men's Mission and the women spent the night in the Family Rescue Mission. It was an interesting experience to say the least. There were sixty bunks in all in the room I slept in. Not all of the bunks were filled, but it was still a very interesting experience sleeping in a room with forty plus men. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well, but it was still something I would do over again if given the chance.
We spent time at the Family Mission providing child care for the women and the girls spent time painting the nails of the residents. We also served meals at both the men's and women's missions. It was awesome because even though we were serving the residents, they wanted to serve us as much as they could.
While I was spending time with the men, I was able to have conversations with a couple of the residents. One of them was Tom, a man who ended up at the mission because he attempted suicide. It was his choice to be there, and it was awesome seeing that he wanted to make changes in his life. We spent hours talking and I feel like I got to know him quite a bit. I think he was pretty lonely because he spent a lot of time talking, but it's okay. Part of being a missionary I've learned is taking the time to respect people and if someone wants to talk, it's best to just listen.
The theme of the current unit in SEND is relationships. We've spent some time learning about the five love languages. It's pretty awesome to learn that people express and receive love in different ways. I know that my love languages are physical touch and quality time. This means that I like to touch and be touched by people that I enjoy. It also means that I enjoy spending meaningful time with those that I love.
The other three love languages are gifts, acts of service, and words of affirmation. Gifts is best summed up by giving and getting gifts makes someone with this love language feel loved. Acts of service is where you like to serve others and be served by them. Words of affirmation can be described by saying nice things to each other. With the love languages, it is important to remember that we're all different, so learning how someone else shows and accepts love is an important thing to learning about those around you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post! Keep checking back to get the latest update!
