As we approach the final leg of our journey together in Winnipeg, I think it’s fair to say that we have all been changed individually by our time here. Each of us, be it through the stories of others, the work we have done here, or through learning from those who we have had the privilege of meeting, has had a moment of realization on this trip.
That said, many of us are not ready to come home. We are very blessed to have been given the opportunity to work with such an incredible group. It will be a difficult adjustment, returning to everyday routines that we have left behind in coming out here.
We narrowed our group into two ‘split pieces’ today, with one group returning to the site at Habitat, in order to clean up the build site, mostly. The group worked to get the place in order, so that the future Habitat volunteers would be able to add on a second floor to the structure. The roof and second floor are to be added within the next week, which is exciting to see how far it has come in such a short time.
The other half of the group returned once more to Anishinabe, with the goal of moving all of the that had been displaced back into its proper place, now that the floor wax had finally dried. After that, the group traveled together to Flora House, in order to help tidy up after the week, and buy some of the supplies needed for making lunches for the camp that comes in next week.
It’s truly incredible to think that the few people who work at Flora House, Heidi and Michelle, can keep up their work each week, as it comes and goes. Their tireless patience and enthusiasm for helping is something inspirational to all of us, as they are truly the ‘rocks’ of Flora House. We hope that we were able to give them a well-deserved break with this week.
After our half day of work, we returned back to the church and shared a lunch together. From there, we were allotted a bit of free time, which we collectively decided to spend at the mall. Needless to say, some of us had a bit of fun with our money, and went out to buy ‘dancing shirts’ for our dinner cruise down the river later that night.
Ah, the dinner cruise… we arrived around six o’clock in order to get on a boat to take us down the river, expecting a night of dancing and dining. Unfortunately, as we happened upon the day after the DJ of the crew had been fired, we got to dance to all of three songs. Bummer. At least the food was good, though!
As I have mentioned earlier in this blog entry, it will definitely be a change to return to my everyday life. I’m not sure I am ready to accept that our mission trip is drawing to a close; it still feels like we just landed a few hours ago. We are very privileged to have such a strong group, and it will be hard for us to go knowing just how much there is out there that we still need to do. But as always, these things start in us. We hope to come home changed, but also to change. We hope to be true missionaries to relay the stories we have been told.