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"And who is my neighbor?" - Luke 10:29-37

We've been busy. Up early to prepare breakfast, cleaning our home for the week, packing lunches, doing yard work and gardening, organizing food shelves, moving boxes/supplies/donations/food, painting, dancing, conversing, playing, laughing, crying, falling, singing, dwelling, praying. And then we do it all again the next day. It's wonderful. But it is so busy. One of the girls shared with me last night that while her body is really tired, it's her mind she's having the hardest time calming down each evening. She feels like gears continue to turn and once she gets one set of gears to slow down another cranks up and she's off to reflect on another part of her day.

We get to experience so many fun moments when we spend a week together in close quarters, sleeping mat to mat on a church basement floor, packed in and out of full vans. We giggle and joke our way through the down time because it can get really tough when the quiet comes and our minds remind us of where we've been, who we have met. For many, as we've painted fingernails and played games, or simply sat in quiet closeness to a nursing home resident, this has been the first time we've come face to face with the reality of aging and the possibility of doing that alone. For others, it is the first time entering the home of someone who struggles to maintain that home and has no one to call for assistance. And for a few, it is the first time we've met someone our own age who doesn't have a safe place to go to after school, who doesn't have an adult who makes sure they are fed and clothed. It's hard. And so we play and laugh and dance when we get a moment. Because thinking about who we've met gets those gears going and they are hard to stop.

"And who is my neighbor?"