Kansas City, MO - Day 7

Day number 7 in the Kansas City countdown. Over half-way done with the trip.

This day began very early . . . 6:00 am. Yep, that's right. I got up at 6:00 so I could have breakfast before we had to leave at 6:45. This time we went to Hope Faith Ministries (http://www.hopefaithministries.org/), an organization that feeds and clothes the homeless of Kansas City. They have only been around for about three years but have grown tremendously and existed by total faith of their director Desiree. We were led by Andy Holtberg, one of the members of staff (and coincidentally a former pastor from my church). He guided through the building they had just bought that would serve as their new facility providing not only food and clothing but also other resources to help the homeless find jobs and provide for basic health needs. It was a truly impressive vision that they had. Then we were split into two groups, one of which that would go to their old facility and one that would stay at the new one. I was a part of the group that went to the old facility. Once there, we were met by Drey, one of the staff members, who split us into groups to help pass out food or sort clothing. Michelle, Aaron, and I were taken to work in the kitchen helping Leeland with distributing food. In the kitchen, we put an assortment of breakfast food on a plate and handed it to those who had given us a ticket proving that they had been allowed to eat. We had so much fun back there and were very sorry when we were taken downstairs to help with clothes. It ended up being a time for the group of us just to hang out and socialize with a little bit of work of making emergency clothing bags for some of the homeless eating up above us. Then we came out to eat lunch with the other half of the group from the new facility, where they had been sorting clothes for the new wardrobe sections of the building, and sat with the homeless who were eating lunch as well. I didn't end up talking much with the people around me but it was amazing at just how many people had been served by this one small kitchen. After lunch, we all gathered outside and Sean asked some of us to stay help with the rest of the lunch hour. I ended up a part of that group and got to go back to the kitchen to work with Michelle and Leeland. We had a great time just talking with the other volunteers there and serving the homeless who came by. Once the facility closed after lunch, we came back to the hotel where we chilled until dinner time. For dinner, we went to a barbeque restaurant called Jack Stack. I ended up talking mostly with Eden, Zach, and Katie Sottile. It was a ton of fun. I ordered a chicken kabob and at one point took a bite and pulled a whole chunk of chicken off . . . with the majority of it hanging out of my mouth. It was really funny. Then we all came back where we did devotions with our roommates and then went to sleep.