Hey everybody!
I spent last week in Philadelphia, at a soup kitchen in Kensington. The Saint Francis Inn. It serves the poor, homeless, addicted and others in the Kensington area. It's non traditional in the sense that it serves its guests restaurant style. It was my second time there and I loved it, although food service, I continue to discover, is not my charism. That's fine. I still had a ball interacting with many of the people I had the pleasure of meeting or seeing again. Some remembered me from my last visit in May of 2009, and others did not, even though I remembered them. That was hard, to have been shaped by individuals who do not remember ever having met you.
Some of the highlights:
Teaching Michael, who is about 3, to fist pound. He remembered and would do it in subsequent days.
Talking with Barry, one of the few guests who remembered having met me last May, about how much he is grateful for the Inn, but also how much more needs to be done.
Hanging out at the Inn's thrift store with Heaven, a little girl of 3.
Winning a water chugging contest. :-)
Going on pick-ups with Brother Fred, and getting to discuss the big issues.
I could write a lot, and if you'd like to know more, please let me know, but for now I will leave it at that.
Except for this: God answers prayers.
This is how I know: Last May, I met Rick at the Inn (pictured above). He had once been a guest of the Inn, but got clean and was a cook at the Inn for a long time. Because of his past, he had developed issues with his liver, and needed a liver transplant. He was on the list last May when I met him. I have been praying for his health and for a new liver since then. When I returned to the Inn last week, I found out that he had received a new liver on May 10 of this month, and is recovering well thus far. If he had not received it then, he would likely have been dead within a week. Although I was not able to see him because of this, I am glad to know he is doing as well as can be expected, and I am a firm believer that God answers prayers.
Now, I am getting ready to go to Harvard. I can hardly believe it, even now, even though I have known for three months that I will be there this summer. It's still not real to me, no more real than anything else in the future.
As for the current moment, I am catching up with old friends and reading good books. Eventually, I'll need to read scientific journal articles as well, but I am putting that off as long as it is practical to do so. Novels are so much more fun!
Currently reading: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. Both are fabulous.
"I'll show you a place high on a desert plain where the streets have no name."
- Rachel
