Prepared to Serve at Manna

We started the day at the camp again, as we did each day this week. We had lunch quickly and then left to go to Manna, a non-profit organization that cooks and delivers nutritious, medically-appropriate meals and provides nutrition counseling to neighbors who are battling life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, renal disease and HIV/AIDS. The team packaged over 1,000 meals as well as putting together English muffin sandwiches and various other tasks. I don’t know the name of the woman on the right, but our team is (from left to right): Suzy, Anna, Shelly, Katie, Sara, Hannah, Dorothy, (and in front) Barry and Nate.

An Evening Off in Philadelphia

In the evening, we had a little free time. We went to a little pizza parlor in downtown Philly and enjoyed fresh pizza while watching that last 20 minutes of so of the Argentina vs. Netherlands soccer match. Unfortunately, neither team was able to win, so they flipped a coin and it went to Argentina.

After dinner we went to a miniature golf course in Franklin Square. Here, part of our team poses on a replica of the famous Philadelphia LOVE sculpture in the golf course. From the left, Hannah, Dorothy, Anna, Suzy, and Katie at the bottom.

Anna and Shelly with Water Balloons

I took more pictures today than yesterday but didn’t get a lot that I was happy with. I was also distracted by a fall that I took while playing with the third graders at camp this morning. It hurt a bit, but I didn’t think much of it until about two hours later when I noticed a bit of blood in my eye. Since it was similar to what happened after my first cataract surgery, five years ago, I knew what it was immediately. I didn’t do much the rest of the day, taking a few pictures but mostly just sitting while the others worked.

Our afternoon was spent at a Salvation Army site, doing odd jobs. They included organizing a few storage rooms, which needed it pretty badly, as well as filling this small wheel barrow with water balloons for an upcoming event.

Cooking Burgers and Dogs

Each morning in Philadelphia we worked at a summer camp for little kids (across the river in Camden, actually). Each afternoon we had a different opportunity to serve in the city. Today we visited the Mary Jane Home Enrichment Center, run by Mrs. Williams. She had us set up a grill and table from which we served hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages to anyone who wanted them. I enjoyed chatting with a few local men who stopped by for a meal.

In this picture, Nate took over the grill for a little while (so I cold take pictures). Shelly was in charge of getting buns ready and passed on to the others, who served them to our visitors. It doesn’t look too busy, but it got going shortly after this was taken. We fixed about 40 burgers and at least that many dogs and sausages, putting some chicken on at the end, because there were still people there asking for food.

Anna, Fiona, and Kimia

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I took the youth group camping (along with some other adults, I’m very happy to say). On Saturday we had a pretty leisurely time, canoeing, fishing (and a few folks learned to clean and fillet a fish), swimming, walking, etc.

Anna and Kimia took the canoe out with Fiona in between them. It wasn’t long after this that people started swimming. At that point, the canoe was upside down most of the time. But this is before that, when it was being used for it’s advertised purpose.

Gwen and Her Serious S’more

The youth group went on a camping trip this evening and, as far as I could tell, everyone had a good time. We got to our site in Pennsylvania in the late evening and got all the tents up before dark but it was dark by the time dinner was ready. After dinner, most people roasted marshmallows and made s’mores of various descriptions (some foregoing the chocolate, some the graham crackers, etc.).

Gwendolyn made the s’more to end all s’mores, with seven marshmallows, two chocolate bars and two entire graham crackers. Fortunately, she is young and fit and can afford the calories.

To answer the question you are thinking, yes, she ate the entire thing.

Abbie and Dorothy

It was the night of the annual Erick’s Hope benefit dinner this evening, at Mama Lucia’s. It’s a pretty good excuse to have a nice meal and the fact that we get to see a lot of friends doesn’t hurt. Normally we have our youth group Bible study on Wednesday evenings but I decided to encourage the youth to support Erick’s Hope, along with their families (and a lot of them did). This was the first time we’ve actually met Dorothy’s friend, Abbie, who joined us for dinner and shared this awesome pizza with Dorothy.