So... A good friend of mine and I have been running a soup kitchen of sorts, called 'Zoumi', for about 8 months now... It was started by our church (http://www.allistoncf.com/) MANY years ago, and has been taken over by various people throughout the years since...
I used to go to Zoumi back in high school, when one of the guys from our church ran it, and I remember how much I LOVED going... It was such an awesome thing to be able to walk over at lunch time to this little church down-town, and have a bowl of DELICIOUS (and free) soup while sitting with so many different kinds of people, whom you wouldn't necessarily sit with otherwise.
I think it's so great when people of all different ages fellowship together not as 'leaders' and 'youth' or 'teachers' and 'students'... Just as people, hanging out while eating good food. You don't see that so often any more, and I think it's a really good thing... And more important than it's made out to be. So often nowadays, young people don't even know how to talk to older people, and vice versa... Which is sad, really. Because there's so much to learn from different generations. I'm only 20, and I admit, I'm already not the best at talking to pre-teens and teenagers... You don't realize how quickly you change, and how quickly you forget what it's like to be where they are until you're sitting at a table of 14 year old girls, trying to keep up with conversations about boys and sleepovers... It was a little bit daunting the first couple of days, but quickly it became normal, comfortable and fun...
I'm sort of sad I won't be seeing those kids twice a week any more, laughing at their silliness and getting to know their hearts. I'll miss them.
And then there are some people older than me who would come in, who sometimes were a little bit of the 'interesting' sort... And at first, that was even more daunting than the table of teenagers. But that, too, soon became normal. Not always comfortable or fun... But normal. And some people who would come in would really test your patience... Asking for things that weren't really necessary, not eating any of their food, being slightly obnoxious, or coming in RIGHT before we were planning on ending for the day. But those people, too, became less frustrating over time, and eventually I even had some good talks and laughs with them... And I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'll miss them, too. Maybe not a lot, but in a certain kind of way.
I think if there's one thing I took away from Zoumi that I wasn't so great at before, it's the ability to have a conversation with nearly every kind of person.
Not necessarily a comfortable conversation, but a fairly smooth one... Also the ability to make food in extremely large quantities, which I have a feeling will be a useful skill to have later on in life. And I think I'm a little bit more conscious of the fact that every person is the way they are for a reason, so judging people is probably not a very good idea... Nothing comes from nothing, so if someone is a little bit difficult to be around, they've probably had a bit of a difficult life... So even when you might not feel like it, you treat them with love and kindness. And you remember them, their face, their name, and the things they struggle with, and you pray for them, because even if you don't have much power to change the difficult things going on in their life and their heart... You can still pray... And prayer is a mighty and powerful thing.
Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.I used to go to Zoumi back in high school, when one of the guys from our church ran it, and I remember how much I LOVED going... It was such an awesome thing to be able to walk over at lunch time to this little church down-town, and have a bowl of DELICIOUS (and free) soup while sitting with so many different kinds of people, whom you wouldn't necessarily sit with otherwise.
I think it's so great when people of all different ages fellowship together not as 'leaders' and 'youth' or 'teachers' and 'students'... Just as people, hanging out while eating good food. You don't see that so often any more, and I think it's a really good thing... And more important than it's made out to be. So often nowadays, young people don't even know how to talk to older people, and vice versa... Which is sad, really. Because there's so much to learn from different generations. I'm only 20, and I admit, I'm already not the best at talking to pre-teens and teenagers... You don't realize how quickly you change, and how quickly you forget what it's like to be where they are until you're sitting at a table of 14 year old girls, trying to keep up with conversations about boys and sleepovers... It was a little bit daunting the first couple of days, but quickly it became normal, comfortable and fun...
I'm sort of sad I won't be seeing those kids twice a week any more, laughing at their silliness and getting to know their hearts. I'll miss them.
And then there are some people older than me who would come in, who sometimes were a little bit of the 'interesting' sort... And at first, that was even more daunting than the table of teenagers. But that, too, soon became normal. Not always comfortable or fun... But normal. And some people who would come in would really test your patience... Asking for things that weren't really necessary, not eating any of their food, being slightly obnoxious, or coming in RIGHT before we were planning on ending for the day. But those people, too, became less frustrating over time, and eventually I even had some good talks and laughs with them... And I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'll miss them, too. Maybe not a lot, but in a certain kind of way.
I think if there's one thing I took away from Zoumi that I wasn't so great at before, it's the ability to have a conversation with nearly every kind of person.
Not necessarily a comfortable conversation, but a fairly smooth one... Also the ability to make food in extremely large quantities, which I have a feeling will be a useful skill to have later on in life. And I think I'm a little bit more conscious of the fact that every person is the way they are for a reason, so judging people is probably not a very good idea... Nothing comes from nothing, so if someone is a little bit difficult to be around, they've probably had a bit of a difficult life... So even when you might not feel like it, you treat them with love and kindness. And you remember them, their face, their name, and the things they struggle with, and you pray for them, because even if you don't have much power to change the difficult things going on in their life and their heart... You can still pray... And prayer is a mighty and powerful thing.
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