Week 3: St. Anthony's & St. Theresa's - Sunday

I'm hoping to learn a lot of new things this week and just let us get closer to our community and God. Today we just did some icebreakers to get to know each other and have a comfortable space around us. I learned that through prayer and imagining yourself in it gives you a new perspective and gives you a better understanding of things. I want to learn more and use these in my everyday life. 

So far,  the day has been quite enjoyable. After a long ride and a short stop, we arrived. The people so far seem really nice and I hope to get to know them better. I hope this will be an experience that I can learn from and direct me in life.

Week 2: Mary Queen of Peace, St. Rose & Holy Disciples- Wednesday

Today in my fourth day of Agape, we started off with our morning prayer and daily activity where we find out what is happening throughout the day and what we need to do.  We started our day with Adoration which was a great start to prepare us, for the things we were going to be doing. I got to talk to God and explain to him how grateful I was for the experience of these past few days and what I had and didn't have. For the new people I met and the people I got to serve. After the Adoration we went to set up for the food bank, we started to set up tables and sort out the clothing that people donated. I was lucky enough to be helping out with the kids that wanted toys. I got to see how something so small like a toy could make their day into something amazing. Then I worked with my peers giving out food to the families and seeing them try to speck another language made me feel a very happy that they were trying their best to make it easier for the families. My over all experience of this Agape trip was awesome and opened my eyes to what it was really like for some of the migrant farm workers that we were serving. I am truly grateful for this new experience.

Sincerely
Diana Roman-Gomez 


Today was food bank day, and what an eventful day it was! After filling an entire moving van with donations, we went off to adoration. It was a good way for us to take a quiet moment to reflect on our experiences these past few days and prepare for the craziness of the food bank. After that, it was off to the food bank site! We literally built the food bank - we set up tables and canopies, we brought in and sorted the donations (which we had previously collected from our home churches or gotten through tabling), and we served at it as well. It was a little crazy, but also really fulfilling work. Being able to meet and interact with the people I served and the joy that the food bank brought them made the experience even more meaningful, because I could see the difference I was making. I got to serve at one of the food tables, handing out pasta and juice. To do this, we all attempted to speak Spanish to our customers (who might speak very little or no English). This in itself was a memorable experience because even though I had taken three years of Spanish at school, I was not necessarily prepared to answer every question. However, all the migrant families were very patient with and forgiving of me and my fellow volunteers, which we all appreciated. At the end of the day, we took the entire food bank down, and headed back to the hall for reflection. Overall, this experience at the food bank (and all of my experiences at Agape) were really meaningful and humbling - I've learned and served so much, which makes my heart very happy!

-Bridget Wilson
Mary, Queen of Peace

Today we served 151 families! Thank you for all your support and donations!!

Week 2: Mary Queen of Peace, St. Rose & Holy Disciples - Tuesday

"The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few" Matthew 9:37. When this quote comes to mind you don't fully understand the situation. The few laborers are the ones that provide the harvest, but not just for them but for their families, friends, and even the whole world. It takes being in their shoes and working to see why the harvest is great and also to see why the laborers are few. The migrant community that work in the fields are providing not just for their families but to the business that the product is going towards, and the stores that put them on the shelves. Not just any person could do the work and produce a well enough quota that will earn the money that will feed their families and also feed them. Lack of food, bad hygiene, and poor living conditions are some of the problems that they face and need help solving. The Holy Spirit works through them giving them the will and energy to keep going, keep moving forward because not only does their families need it, but the whole world. They do a job that can't be describe you have to experience it for yourself and see the work and suffering they go through. Beatitude "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land" depicts how soon the migrate farm working community will soon have a change for the better and change not only the land, but the world around it.
                     sincerely
                                   -Pedro Roman-Gomez

Thank you for your support! We will be having our second food bank of the summer tomorrow!

Week 2: Mary Queen of Peace, St. Rose & Holy Disciples - Monday

Today we started off by waking up at 7:15 and came up and did a reflection for the moment followed my immigration activities and learned the difficulty of becoming a citizen. After, we went to the camps to play with the kids we did arts and crafts and other games such as soccer. After we came back to the church and went tabling to collect foods for the food bank on Wednesday and ended with our final reflection.

-Maite

While I’m unsure of what other groups did this morning my group, the ducks, woke up and made breakfast. I was tasked with cutting the bananas and I made them into a formation on the plate. Afterwards we met as a group and discussed the topic of immigration which I was only somewhat aware of. We were told to get across the room by only stepping on pads that were placed randomly around the floor. After that and several questions we were asked about what we had just learned we drove to an unspecified location and played with children which was fun, there were two main groups that everyone alternated through which was the sports area (consisting of dodgeball and soccer) and a more arts favoring group (consisting of painting, drawing and nail painting). The children seemed to miss us when we left so I can only assume they were having fun with us, then we went to a grocery store and handed out flyers for a food drive to support them and even though I was just standing around handing people pieces of paper for 1 hour and 45 minutes I had a considerable amount of fun. We came back to the Agape building and proceeded to eat dinner and learn more. This takes us to where I am now, typing the word typing. Today was a lot of fun and I hope that the other days are the same, hopefully you are reading this mom and dad.

-Colin, Holy Disciples

Thank you so much to all of donations we received today! We appreciate every single item that we receive because we know someone will put them to good use. The donations used to help our brothers and sisters in Christ is what keeps hope for some of these families so we cannot say thank you enough! Come check our blog on Thursday to see how many families we serve.

                                                                    

Week 2: Mary Queen of Peace, St. Rose & Holy Disciples- Sunday

Today was Sunday, and although there were not an abundant amount of activities, we did have time for some reflection among our small groups. In our imaginative praying, we were able to experience the greatness of gods love and mercy. In addition, we explored the concept of God and his ability to work wonders in the midst of a poor spirit. It is clear through that God has come to love and raise up the poor spirited and disbelievers. Those who are open to Gods grace and mercy will experience it in the most miraculous of experiences. -Sam, Mary Queen of Peace  

My parish group arrived around 6 pm tonight, but we still accomplished quite a bit. We did not do any work-work, but we discussed what our goals for the week are, and how we can put them into action. I find it interesting how my group leader asked our participants some of the same questions that we thought of tonight, yet some of our answers changed drastically. An example of this is why we came to Agape. At first the answer was not clear to me, and I have been pondering this up until today, when the same question was asked again. I realized that I want to spread the love of Jesus, and help others to see the humanity in everyone, no matter what large influences in the world are saying. I want to help us come together as a country and not be separated by political boundaries, but instead be brought together by God's love. - Rhiannon Davies, Holy Disciples 

  Today was Sunday, we arrived earlier here at Agape. What I learned today so far that stood out to me was Humility. Although I don't know that much about it I hope to learn more by the end of my trip here. I also would like to learn about Gods mercy and how it works through people. We also discussed our goals for the week and learned a little about what we will be doing these next four days. - Isaac Mort, St. Rose Parish

Week 1: Sacred Heart Enumclaw & St. Louise - Thursday

Hey Everyone,

The mission trip activities continued today as we filled our "Celebratrion" day with fun and spiritual events! After breakfast we kicked off the day with our regular prayer reflection then we watched a touching documentary about Migrants and their journey. As a reflection for our documentary we created a poster about the film. It included a list of what suprised us, what personal actions we could do to make the situation better, and finally what we would ask of a political representative. Then we headed to a beautiful mass at Assumption Catholic Church where we listened to a great Homily. Next we headed to the community pool for some fun and games, and in my case reading. Then we headed to Sunrise camp where we played and interacted with the children and families there. We also had a delicious dinner (BBQ) and some popcicles combined with more playing. Then we headed back to the parish hall for our nightly reflections and our surprise ice cream party/talent show! Me and my fellow Agape-ers are sad to be leaving tomorrow morning, however are grateful for the new bonds we made, the new insight we gained, and the opportunity to strengthen our relationships with God!


                                                                                                                                  Sincerely,
                                                                                                                                  Charlotte and Maria

Week 1: Sacred Heart Enumclaw & St. Louise- Wednesday

Hello,  we helped serve the migrant community at a food bank today. We learned how to communicate in Spanish with many of the people there. We also went to adoration to center ourselves before going to the foodbank.

Today we went to adoration first thing in the morning. Then we went to and had a food bank for the migrant workers. There was also one guy laughing at people not speaking Spanish very well. But he was nice about it and he understood they were trying.

-Agape Youth

Today we served 232 families! This is a new record for Agape! Thank you all for your wonderful support and donations. We could not have done this without you!

 - Agape Staff

Week 1: Sacred Heart Enumclaw & St. Louise -Tuesday

Hello friends and family,

         Today we worked at the farms, made our own dinner, and went to the migrant camps. We went to two different farms; Growing Veterans and Bellingham Country Gardens. We were given little money to go buy food at the Grocery Outlet also today we were trying live in solidarity. We had three hours to prepare the meal and had to buy all the ingredients. After dinner, we went to several migrant camps to tell them we were doing a food bank on Wednesday. We then went to Sunrise Camp to play with the kids. The day was long and very exciting.