After a final team meeting last Thursday at our apartment, we are set. Jackie, Lance, and Jessica Bishop, John Cross, and Scott and I will leave at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 18, for Salt Lake City, Utah. This is the furthest west I will ever have been. Ruth Campisi will drive out to join us on Wednesday for the remainder of the week.
Linda from Crossroads Urban Center has sent us our itinerary. On Sunday morning we will worship at Christ United Methodist Church. (That is the church where we are staying.) In the afternoon, we will go to Antelope Island State Park to see the Great Salt Lake. Very little else is open, apparently. They are serious about honoring the Sabbath! Anyway, after a day in the car, it will be nice to hike and swim and enjoy the outdoors.
On Monday we will work at Crossroads Urban Center. Our work will include distributing food and maintenance projects. We will also learn a little about Crossroads's mission and the people they serve. Linda will coordinate a "social justice" lunch for us. We will see what that is.
On Tuesday we will work at the food bank and the food co-op. On Wednesday morning we will work at Crossroads delivering food, and in the afternoon we will work at the UMCOR depot. We will go back to the depot on Thursday morning, and on Thursday afternoon we will have some free time. We will tour Temple Square and sit in on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's open rehearsal. Thursday is also Scott's birthday!
Friday is a big holiday in Salt Lake City. We will help out at the food co-op and will also enjoy the parade (one of the longest in the world), fireworks, and other festivities. On Saturday morning we will help at the food co-op with food distribution, and we will leave after lunch.
At our meeting, we agreed that Jackie would be our head chef, with Jessica as sous-chef, and the rest of us as line cooks and dishwashers. We will be able to prepare most of our meals at the church and will bring brown-bag lunches to the work site. Jackie will prepare a menu and shopping list. We hope Jessica will bake us some of her gooey triple-fudge brownies!
I am very excited about doing hands-on work to help hungry people and learning more about social justice in action. I am also looking forward to visiting a new place, to learning new things and seeing new sites. I always like to travel, and this is a trip with a purpose--not just to help needy people for a week, but to grow in faith and in understanding of the different ways to help and serve others.
Now I just need to get some laundry done and pack my bags....
-- Rebecca
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