Week 7: St. Joseph's and St. Anthony's-Wednesday

We woke up around 7:40ish to the sound of Diana's IPhone. For breakfast we had an array of delectable delights including off brand fruity bally, crispy ricey, frosty flakey and cheerios. There was also delicious bagels. After that we scrambled into our circles because Luke had warned the previous day about how late we had been. Shame on us. Yet we learned our lesson. We said our prayers of wisdom, which was the theme for today. Wisdom! Then we were given instructions for today. One group was to go to "cash and carry"  and get groceries like rice and flour, eggs, onions, all that good stuff. While everyone else moved the food and school supplies stored under the church, into the moving truck. We went to what looked like a mini park to us. There were many families there already waiting for us. We set up tables and unloaded the truck to set up for the food bank Some youth were assigned school supply sorting. Everyone was assigned a certain box (of crayons, pencils, paper etc.) and they were passing around the many backpacks filling them up for the school aged kids. After we finished setting up, we took a much anticipated lunch break. We had gourmet, handmade, somewhat fresh, cold, sandwiches. Then we chose what stations we wanted to be at. Canned fruit, vegetables, soup, diapers, rice etc. or help pass out school supplies. You could also help families carry their boxes of food.  I took one year of Spanish at school. So i had basic knowledge. I would "Quarto sopas" which meant, "Four soups" or "no limites" meaning "no limit"(get as much as you like) I also shouted to the excited kids "Gusta nuevo mochilla?" meaning "You like your new backpack?" but it could not remember how to conjugate it.... ha ha.... we also said "de nada" when they thanked us. Later, when the rush of families were gone, we took a small snack break. Some dude named Manuel i think had made us some homemade delicious Popsicle. And im not even exaggerating it was good! They had strawberry, mango, chocolate, coconut, raspberry. They had real bits of the fruits in it!  The kids who got their backpacks were super excited! They immediately dug through them like it was Christmas. He was SOOOO happy! It was enlightening to see their happy faces! When it was time to close up, we sorted the cans by expiration date. The ones that were expired we threw away, the ones that would expire this year we gave to another food bank to donate, and the ones that would be saved to next year we kept. Then we put every thing away, and packed up to leave. When we got back we had "Tacos" but in reality they were burritos. Still the best dinner of all week. ACTUAL MEAT YES!!!! The groups did their chores after that. Then we reflected the day in our journals. then me and Amy got together and wrote this post for you.

So that was our day!

-Rubi and Amy

Week 7: St. Joseph and St. Anthony- Tuesday

Enrico:
It's night three of our Agape mission trip, and today was our migrant worker immersion day.
Seth:
That's right, and along with our immersion, we focused on one particular gift of the Holy Spirit - Reverence.
Enrico:
So our day started with an early wake-up, which was too early for most people.
Seth:
It's a good thing that we're both morning people.
Enrico:
True, but, like I said, most people aren't used to having breakfast and being completely ready to go by 6:00 A.M.
Seth:
And on our car ride to our different farms, we got to appreciate a beautiful sunrise over the mountains, which is always a plus.
Enrico:
Definitely! We only spent a couple of hours really working on our respective farms, and Seth and I didn't really get too dirty picking blueberries, but I know that lots of the other kids really got gritty.
Seth:
What was really shocking was that we had 12-14 people working hard for a couple of hours picking blueberries, and were able to pick 186 lbs of berries all together. What really shocked us was that the farm's owner mentioned that most migrant workers could pick up to 200 - 300 lbs in several hours' work all on their own!
Enrico:
What made it even more striking was that we had the luxury to try the berries that we were picking and were able to have conversations with each other while we were working.
Seth:
Also, we learned that most migrant berry pickers are only paid 25 cents for every pound that they pick.
Enrico:
We learned how difficult this could be when we had to take our day's "wages" and subtract many other costs before having money for food. We were given 4 dollars to buy dinner for 3 to 4 family members!
Seth:
Having to do that really made real how difficult it is to have to manage every kind of expense in life with a minimum amount of wages for hard work with a family life.
Enrico:
Of course, we were also pleasantly surprised by how flexible our meal plan was, because of the many cheap, albeit unhealthy, food choices that we made.
Seth:
And our reward for all this hard work was getting to play for a couple of hours with the migrant worker's children at their camp. The work was difficult, but passed quickly, especially because at the end of the day, we had beautiful, happy children who were so happy to see us, and whose smiles brightened everyone's days.
Enrico:
This was definitely the highlight of our day, and also really emphasized the gift of reverence, as the camp really became a way to make Christ present in our lives as a reward for our solidarity and hard work.
Seth:
Now that we're here, it's awesome to look back and see how Christ was truly there for every aspect of our days and, through our prayerful solidarity, realizing how He must bless the migrant workers' lives.
Enrico:
From the comfort that He must give to the diligent workers in the fields, the wisdom that He graces upon them as they pay for family expenses, and the joy that He gifts them with when they spend precious time with their families.
Seth:
Immersion day with a focus on the gift of reverence was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. And we're writing this blog to try to get this out there that all of these lives are actually real and precious, and if more people pay attention, then we can do a lot of good right here in our own backyard.
Enrico:
So, in conclusion, the Lord has blessed us freely and abundantly, allowing us to share in the solidarity of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ's body. Peace be with you!

Week 7: St. Anthony's and St. Joseph's-Monday

For our first full day of AGAPE, we went out to grocery stores and tabled for food donations for the local migrant families. Our group had a great time being positive and received good feedback and many donations. In the early afternoon, we were able to go to the migrant community and play with the young kids who aren't able to act like kids all of the time because of their parent's are constantly gone working in the fields. We did relay races, we played soccer with them, sang and acted camp songs, and made friendship bracelets. Once we got back to Sacred Heart we immediately were put into a migrant family food bank simulation where we had to choose a certain amount of food and create a dinner from the food we choose at the food bank. That was not as fun as the other activities. Because we had to figure out to cook the food and then eat it, which did not end well for any of us.

Week 7: St. Anthony's and St. Joseph's- Sunday

This is Lena and Joe, two students from St. Joseph's:

(Lena) We are at the Agape Service project, and we find it enjoyable. The Icebreakers that the camp directors used included what our favorite pizza flavor was, "Slap Clap" game, and reflection with an assigned group. There are two parishes in the program, one is the aforementioned St. Joseph, and the other is Saint Anthony's. Both schools have their own groups, ways, and friends, but we are slowly starting to warm up to each other. Many others were sharing why they signed up, their strengths and weaknesses, and what had they given up for the week. In Agape, young adults will learn about migrant workers and their perils, as well as learning to serve and make meals for themselves. It is a truly educating experience


(Joe) Bonding with the other kids has been a blast so far. As I was in the car riding to the parish I was thinking about howwhe would learn the struggles of migrant workers. I thought, "Would we have to starve?", "How many hours will we be working?", "Am I even going to be able to behave like a normal child?" All of these thoughts raced through my mind as the car pulled into the parish. My parents had tried to make me as prepared as possible. They had packed literally everything you could possibly pack for this trip. But one thing I was never prepared for was having to be social to new people that I was going to meet. You can't pack for something like that. I learned that I was going to have to make meals for a "family" of 5 one day with only $5. When I learned that, at first I was a little nervous, but then I thought "I'll just buy DiGiorno's."

Week 6: Holy Redeemer- Wednesday

VBS: When we arrived at the camp we started with songs. Then we played sharks and minnows. We also made presents for the parents of the kids(thank you cards, snack bags, and warm fuzzies. Afterwards we talked about how Jesus walked on water. Then we did crafts, for example, painting fish, making and coloring boats, and making bracelets. Then we played water balloon volleyball. Lastly, we finished the crafts and we went to the food bank when it only had a few hours left.

Food Bank: We arrived at the food bank site in the morning and started setting it up. To do this we started moving tables over to the site and arranging them to create the shape of it. Next, we started unloading food, diapers, clothing, toys, boxes and bags from a rental truck. We had it loaded before we left Sacred Heart. After finishing with this, we started to sort food and move it to different areas of the food bank. Then the directors held a meeting, and we all figured out where in the food bank would work. Up until that point, I had been filling previously emptied Aquafina water bottles with vegetable oil from a water jug to give to the migrant workers. I was assigned to the cereal section of the food bank to serve there, and I would revert back to filling water bottles with oil if needed. So, after about 2 hours or so of setting up and 6 hours of serving the migrants at the food bank, we closed the food bank down. In the end, we served a total of 84 migrant families at the food bank; a great success.

Week 6: Holy Redeemer-Tuesday

       Today was Migrant Immersion Day at the Agape service project. We all woke up at 5:15 this morning so that we could go to a local farm to do work. Some went to a farm to pick blueberries, and others went to a local u-pick farm to weed crops. We all worked for about four hours, and we learned some challenges of consistent farm labor, but also saw the positive results of teamwork from everyone. A lot of land could be covered in just a few hours. After the farm work in the morning, everyone went to the YMCA so that we could take our first showers of the week, which was very refreshing. Then came our next scenario: each of yesterday's families was given a small portion of money with which to buy their dinner from a local grocery store, and then we had to go back and prepare it. With about $1.25 per family member, the families were not able to get the highest quality foods. After dinner, we went out to a nearby migrant camp and played with the migrant workers' kids for awhile. The children were thrilled to see us and play games with them. Even after doing anything from nail-painting to dodge ball, we were even disappointed when we had to leave. Throughout the course of the day, we also grew in our understanding of reverence, today's featured gift of the Holy Spirit.

       Before some of the missionaries went to VBS, instead of Migrant Immersion Day, we prayed a diversity rosary for the migrants and our peers who were going to work on a farm today. We, too, woke up at 5:15am, so with the time before we needed to be at the camps we made lunch for the workers (for VBS) and all the children participating in VBS at the migrant camp, prayed the rosary, and went to several stores for some supplies needed for the crafts we planned for the kids. We also prepared several skits about the Kingdom of God to make it easier for the kids to understand, and after we performed it, we helped them into several small skit groups and helped them recreate the skit to perform for us. While teaching them about the Kingdom of God, we learned that we are all princes and princesses of the kingdom and a lot of the girls were very excited about being a princess. As a worker, it was so amazing to watch their faces light up at the sound of the question "Who wants to do a craft?". The crafts we made consisted of making popsicle stick kingdoms, coffee filter and popsicle stick angles, and even painting a small pot and planting a beautiful flower in it to represent how beautiful we make God's Kingdom when we love Him and everyone around us. All in all, it was another tiring day at the migrant camps, but while it is happening the kid's seem to exude enough laughter and excitement to give all the workers energy to serve them for about 5 hours with pure joy in being able to be there with kids and make their a little more exciting than they had anticipated.  

Week 6: Holy Redeemer - Monday

   During Agape today we went around the community collecting food for the food bank. we started in the morning with walk and knock  were we went door to door collecting donations. Every group had a different neighborhood that we went through. We learned patience when people would not answer the door or tell us to leave. In the end it was a character building activity. We came back to Sacred Heart and dropped of our donations and had lunch. After lunch we then went to different grocery stores in our groups. At the grocery stores we handed out flyers and if people had something to donate they would drop in the cart. We seemed to be more successful with the grocery stores than walk and knock. Over all we gained a ton of donations. Everyone who participated was enlightened. When we put the donations in the church basement we noticed how successful we had been and ended up making 300 dollars in just cash alone. Seeing the levels of generosity throughout the community was very encouraging.

-Tara

   VBS (vacation bible school): Today was the first day ever for Agape to do a VBS at the migrant camps.  It was a great experience to interact with the all the kids and see some of the same kids from last year.  When we arrived at the camp, we walked around the buildings and sang songs from church so the families would know we had arrived.  Once we had a fair amount of kids come to where we had set up, we played multiple group games such as the name game, dodge ball, and link tag.  We performed a two-part skit consisting of the birth of Jesus and the story of Adam and Eve.  Later in the day we had the kids perform the skits by themselves with their own twist.   With Noah's guitar playing, we taught the kids a few of our favorite songs from church.  Not only did we play games, perform skits, and sing songs, we also did some crafts.  We made the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) into a triangle with popsicle sticks, a "stained glass window" with tissue paper, and made treasure boxes. We also handed out a bag to each child for them to take home and keep.  The children at this particular migrant camp care for each other as if they were their own brothers or sisters.

-Hannah

   Once everyone returned from VBS and grocery store tabling, we all helped unload the donations from the walk and knock and tabling at grocery stores, and we had a dinner activity.  The activity was separating everyone into families and having to go through a food bank.  The food bank simulation was quite difficult because the people working there only spoke German.  This gave us an idea of how migrants feel at food banks.  Also, it was pressuring to because we had a time limit to collect, cook, eat, and clean up our food.  After dinner, we played a game called walk the line.  During this game two of our leaders would read a statement.  If this statement was true for you, you would walk to the line and back.  Afterwards we watched a video about if we had a mini Earth with only 100 people living in it.  It gave facts such as how many people had which religions, which lived in poverty, etc.  If you had a bed, a closet with clothing, a refrigerator, and a roof over your head, you were wealthier than 75% of the world's population.  Overall, the focus of the day was Knowledge and Understanding. We concluded the day with reflection and a prayer.

Week 6: Holy Redeemer- Sunday

   The drive up was long, very interesting and fun. During the car ride, I had an exciting conversation with a couple of people in a different car during our hour of horrific traffic. Arriving at Sacred Heart today was great, although we were only here for a couple of hours and so far I am having a GREAT time. The experience that I had last year was amazing and I can't wait to work and sacrifice this week for the migrant workers. I have an awesome group and I am ready to get going on this fun and life changing week. I thought that the reflection questions really made me think about how I should live out this week, as well as, the things that I need to think of and work on. Also, this year we get the opportunity to put on Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the migrant workers' children of all ages.
                               Reporting from Bellingham,
                                                       Sammy From Vancouver, WA