Moving Together as One

It is always interesting to see how strangers greet each other and how those friendships often grown. Last night, we had almost the entire group of 35 together and it looks like a very promising year. This will be my 11th year on this trip, and it is always interesting to see good people become friends. Who would have every thought Mary Grace Barry and Molly Milford would become besties? Or Darcy Neier developing a real mentor in Mary Grace Graf. These friendships are real because they get forged through the sweat of sanding a wall for the 4th time or watching with our new the tragedy of poverty when it is right over the porch railing. It is these friendships where we really are two sides of the same coin that give us the experience to learn how to talk and to listen when we meet people who at first seem much different than us. This is where Father Boyle talks about the Theology of the Feet. Too often we pat ourselves on the back because we feel sorry and have sympathy for those that struggle. This is our heart. We might even join in a conversation to think about and find ways to help those that need our help. We might send money or a check or buy cookies at a bake sale. These are all good, this is our head. But starting tomorrow, we will move not only with our hearts and our heads, but our feet. Our feet will be in the Micah Center talking and listening to the stories of those that are hungry and homeless. Our feet will be in a house, building up walls and attaching door knobs for a young mother who wants to turn this house into a home for family. If we do this right, people will see that we are standing with those that have been endlessly excluded. We will be standing with the disposable, so maybe it will be just a little harder to throw people away. In the middle of the communities of the Gulf Coast of Mississippi we will stand no matter what the result. We will give our best and stride over the obstacles in our way. We hope to lean into the intractable problems of the poor with our shoulders strong and push that boulder up the hill. We hope to do this with the tenderest heart we can find and just be a little part of the big picture that always is the slow work of God. And through this week we will, "seek the BOUNDLESS compassion to stand in awe of the burdens the poor have to carry, and NOT in judgment of how they carry them. Check back each night for more stories from your daughters.