SF Mission Trip - Day 4

Today was another ADVENTUROUS day. We all split up and headed off to our work sites, my group went to the Salvation Army and we worked with Korean kids. I was with K-2nd graders. We helped them with math, played with them, sang songs, and watched aaaslightly awkward yet funny movie. It was great! Something I experienced that was super cool was how open the kids were to complete strangers. It was amazing to be able to connect with them and share a day in San Francisco. -Brittany Hastings


For me, today started off just like any day in Gig Harbor. Rain! My team and I packed about 30 pb&j sandwiches to give out to people we saw on the streets. We had some pretty amazing talks with some individuals and learned some amazing stories. After we were done handing out the food, and completely soaked, we walked to Project Open Hand. This is an organization that started out delivering food to bed ridden aids victims but has recently spread to anyone stuck at home because of an illness. At Project Open Hand we packed potatoes, rice, and beans. It was cool to see how much food we were handling knowing that that night it would be delivered to someone in desperate need. It was a great opportunity to pray over all the food we touched. It was fantastic :) -Kayla Stelle



My team had the chance to go to Laguna Honda Hospital. It was a hospital in which seniors lived. We got to bring them to the "exploratorium" The seniors we worked with were all Chinese, and my lady was Miss Elizabeth. As I was pushing her around and showing her the exhibits, she did not respond. She only ever said two things: "I'm cold" and "what am I doing?"It broke my heart. I began to wonder if anyone every payed attention to her since it would be just as easy to ignore her. (Since she does not respond anyway) It made me think about how many people have no one to care for them or simply be with them. It was hard to talk to Miss Elizabeth, but I made sure I was present with her. It breaks my heart when I think if people like Miss Elizabeth that have no one to be "present" with them. - Francesca Bisciglia 




So today my group went on the urban plunge, which is when you explore the city, in the china town part of Oakland. We went to this park and while we were sitting watching people, this cute old Chinese women walked right up to me and said, "teach me" as she shoved a piece of paper with 'America the Beautiful' on it in my face. I was startled and had no idea what to do, but i took the piece of paper from her and she sat next to me and started to sing the song. Over the next 30 minutes I sat with this cute old lady and taught her every word of 'America the Beautiful' (Which I myself didn't know) so she would be able to sing it on the 4th of July. At the end of this long and heart warming process she said, "You are my teacher. Thank you teacher Tyler". It was amazing to see how much me teaching her that song made her day. She laughed and smiled the entire time, and I couldn't help but be extremely happy that she had asked me to teach her. Lee Yin Tel Pae ( that was her name) made my day and helped me see that anyone, no matter what age, can be a teacher to somebody. - Tyler Stolz