Mother's Day Luncheon

Hi!

I must apologize, yet again, for my delay in posting. Bah! More posts coming soon!

A few weeks ago, my lovely sissy and her new hubby came up for a visit! They drove up after finishing their last final of 3rd year vet school to central Illinois where Aaron's family lives. They came up because his family was having a post-wedding towel shower for Amy on Saturday! Anyway, they arrived in Chicago Friday afternoon and we hit the ground running! We took a quick driving tour of the neighborhood and drove by Spencer, then went to the Conservatory! Then we headed downtown to say hi to the bean and get deep dish pizza! After a Potbelly shake, we went back to my place and played some games for a while, one of our favorite pasttimes. The next morning, we just had time for a quick breakfast before they had to hit the road for Amy's shower! It made for a very quick visit but it was filled with good conversation and togetherness and I'm very thankful to have such supportive siblings! :)

Then, on Saturday after Amy and Aaron left, I had the opportunity to speak at Oak Lawn Community Church's Mother's Day Luncheon. They initially invited Linda to speak, but she had a conflict and so they asked me! The luncheon is an annual event that lots of mothers and daughters come to, many of them from the Oak Lawn Community, some church members, some not. It's just a chance to get together, fellowship, and honor mothers.

I arrived and saw that the church was decorated for the occasion:

They even put my name on the flyer-Eek!

The event started with a pot luck lunch (Yay!)...

Then I spoke for the main program, we had a sing along, prayer, fellowship, and then dismissal. I wasn't really sure what to say to these ladies- I'd met some of them through working at the food pantry, but hadn't met most of them. It was a little intimidating coming up with something relevant to share with all of them, but Linda and Alice assured me that they would just be blessed to hear my story and about YAV/DOOR. So basically I just shared my story with them- how I grew up, highlights that shaped me, what made me decide to do a year of service. Then of course I shared some stories from this year.

I talked about the ups and downs, and what I’ve learned. I’ve learned about how service really isn’t about me at all, and that I may not drastically change any lives this year but it’s worth it if I can just help one person. I tried to pass that along and encourage the audience to embrace that any way that it applied to their lives. 

Honestly, some people (or most people) were probably bored by what I had to say haha. BUT like I’ve said, if even one person benefited from that, then it was worth it! And, I know that some of them really appreciated hearing me speak. I received many compliments and words of encouragement. I think it was a good thing for me to share my story for many reasons. It caused me to stop and reflect on memorable highlights from this year, but also the big picture and how I’ve changed overall. I believe in the power of stories and believe that mine may not be extraordinary, but it is worth telling because it is a testimony to our great God! Boom.

The next week, I was invited to go on a field trip with a 5^th grade class to the Old Town School of Folk Music. Before the program started, Sharell was complaining about it, saying he didn’t want to learn about “stupid ballet” and stuff like that. I told him he didn’t have to like it, but we were just here to learn about different styles of music and dance because they’re important to our culture. The program started and it was actually pretty cool. Not just for me, but for the kids too. They went through 3 different kinds of dance which were all awesome, the last one was called “be boy” which was like gymnastics/dancing where the dancers did tricks like flips and spinning on their heads. It was cool. And the performance was really interactive so some of our kids got to go onstage and show off their skills. Some of our kids were really talented! It’s cool to see them showcase their skills and get affirmation from peers and adults. It showed me another side of their personalities and abilities, and was really awesome. 

After the show, we headed across the street to a restaurant that opened up just for our class. It was a nice restaurant too. The staff was incredibly friendly and hospitable and treated the kids like royalty. It was cool because many of them had probably never experienced that kind of service (and from white people no less). Some of the girls I sat with were glowing with excitement. You could tell they felt like queens. It was such a cool experience and I’m so thankful that I was selected as a chaperone. It is one day I will not soon forget.

 After school in Kansas got out, a group from K-State Wesley came to do a mission trip with DOOR for a week! Wesley was one of my main activities at K-State so I knew most of the group and was so excited to have them. I didn’t get to hang out with them a lot during the days, but was able to show them around a little bit in the evenings. I loved hearing their stories after each day of work! I was able to join them for reflections on the last night which was so cool to hear what they learned throughout the week. It was great to get a glimpse of what DOOR groups experience even after just one short week in the city. I’m so thankful that this group of people that supported me so much in college continued that by bringing a group up to Chicago to see part of my experience this year!

Photo from Leah Smarsh