NOTES from Youth Group Leader:
The Youth trip to Springfield to serve at St. John's Breadline began at 8:00 am Sunday, August 18th. It included 3 girls and 3 adults and all the girls were safely home or in the care of their parents by 9:00 pm.
We arrived at St. John's Breadline for our 10:00 am - 2:00 pm shift. We delivered our (7) gallon cans of vegetables that we each donated to the breadline. (The teens were asked to do this and not one forgot.)
Greg, the head cook for the day gave us our instructions. Three worked in the serving line while three of us worked in the area where they give away donated items that they can choose from to take home. We donned our aprons and head gear and headed to our stations. Greg made sure that the girls felt safe and comfortable since most of the guest they serve there live very different lives than the girls do. We were asked to lead the blessing before serving began at 10:30 am to which I was happy to comply. I asked Greg how may they normally serve? He said somewhere between 250-300 and he hopes those numbers go down soon.
After we finished our shift we headed for a picnic area at the old train depot across from the Lincoln Library & Museum. As we shared our ham & turkey sandwiches we talked about the experience. The positives and negatives, what some of these comments were: the people seemed happy; people were polite and said "thank you"; thought there would be more kids; the girls never felt uncomfortable; there was some rough language; they did notice that some would work you to get more than they were entitled to, but the generosity of the girls hearts would have given them whatever they wanted; they are people who are proud and don't want to be felt sorry for, but respected for who they are, many times refusing help.
From lunch we headed to the Cathedral for a 3:00 pm tour. Our tour guide must have had a conflict as they did not show. In the Cathedral there are brochures that outline the different things in the cathedral so we sat in the front pews and followed that brochure, while a gentleman lay across a pew and slept peacefully. After our self-guided tour, we walked around the Cathedral grounds waiting for the 5:00 pm Mass to begin. As we asked we walked we talked. One of the girls asked what our favorite part of the Mass was? My response was, the service music leading up to Holy Communion; one said the honor of being an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, also the "Holy, Holy". When we asked the girls their favorite parts, some comments were: Holy Communion and the Profession of Faith. ----- Pretty cool that this topic came from them.
The 5:00 pm Mass was celebrated by Fr. Zach Edgar who has visited Fr. Jeff's parishes in the past. We visited with him a few minutes after Mass. He knew we were to be there for a tour and apologized that our tour guide wasn't there. We assured him it was no problem.
From there we headed for Jacksonville Dairy Queen for our supper and ice cream treat. No one seemed to be in a big rush to get home; again we enjoyed conversation, good fun and laughing. Not a single complaint was heard during this long day.
As an epilogue: During our ride to Springfield, I tied to tell the girls what they might expect at the breadline and told them that St. John's Breadline was always glad when I brought a group of young people over (from Confirmation classes I taught) because they were good workers and I was sure they would be too. I was let to know that, "We volunteered for this, we were not forced!" Point well taken.
God truly blessed this day.
Click here to return to Youth Group main page
The Youth trip to Springfield to serve at St. John's Breadline began at 8:00 am Sunday, August 18th. It included 3 girls and 3 adults and all the girls were safely home or in the care of their parents by 9:00 pm.
We arrived at St. John's Breadline for our 10:00 am - 2:00 pm shift. We delivered our (7) gallon cans of vegetables that we each donated to the breadline. (The teens were asked to do this and not one forgot.)
Greg, the head cook for the day gave us our instructions. Three worked in the serving line while three of us worked in the area where they give away donated items that they can choose from to take home. We donned our aprons and head gear and headed to our stations. Greg made sure that the girls felt safe and comfortable since most of the guest they serve there live very different lives than the girls do. We were asked to lead the blessing before serving began at 10:30 am to which I was happy to comply. I asked Greg how may they normally serve? He said somewhere between 250-300 and he hopes those numbers go down soon.
After we finished our shift we headed for a picnic area at the old train depot across from the Lincoln Library & Museum. As we shared our ham & turkey sandwiches we talked about the experience. The positives and negatives, what some of these comments were: the people seemed happy; people were polite and said "thank you"; thought there would be more kids; the girls never felt uncomfortable; there was some rough language; they did notice that some would work you to get more than they were entitled to, but the generosity of the girls hearts would have given them whatever they wanted; they are people who are proud and don't want to be felt sorry for, but respected for who they are, many times refusing help.
From lunch we headed to the Cathedral for a 3:00 pm tour. Our tour guide must have had a conflict as they did not show. In the Cathedral there are brochures that outline the different things in the cathedral so we sat in the front pews and followed that brochure, while a gentleman lay across a pew and slept peacefully. After our self-guided tour, we walked around the Cathedral grounds waiting for the 5:00 pm Mass to begin. As we asked we walked we talked. One of the girls asked what our favorite part of the Mass was? My response was, the service music leading up to Holy Communion; one said the honor of being an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, also the "Holy, Holy". When we asked the girls their favorite parts, some comments were: Holy Communion and the Profession of Faith. ----- Pretty cool that this topic came from them.
The 5:00 pm Mass was celebrated by Fr. Zach Edgar who has visited Fr. Jeff's parishes in the past. We visited with him a few minutes after Mass. He knew we were to be there for a tour and apologized that our tour guide wasn't there. We assured him it was no problem.
From there we headed for Jacksonville Dairy Queen for our supper and ice cream treat. No one seemed to be in a big rush to get home; again we enjoyed conversation, good fun and laughing. Not a single complaint was heard during this long day.
As an epilogue: During our ride to Springfield, I tied to tell the girls what they might expect at the breadline and told them that St. John's Breadline was always glad when I brought a group of young people over (from Confirmation classes I taught) because they were good workers and I was sure they would be too. I was let to know that, "We volunteered for this, we were not forced!" Point well taken.
God truly blessed this day.
Click here to return to Youth Group main page