Advent Day 19 – Thursday, December 14
On my middle-school mission trip to Kenosha this year, I saw God in a lot of places.
One of those places was a nursing home I served at. I have been in a nursing home before, on a past mission trip to Duluth. The nursing home that I worked at there was a lot different than the one in Kenosha. What we would do was go to the residence rooms and ask them if they wanted to talk to someone. So they did not come out of their rooms that often, except for food or small things that the nursing home put on.
But in Kenosha, the residents were out of their room almost all of the time. The people that work there were very nice and made it so much more of an enjoyable place to be. It did not feel like a hospital or someplace unpleasant. It felt like a fun place. They had games that they played every hour, like bowling, Ping-Pong, chess, and puzzles.
I saw God in the residents because you got to know them by name and they all had something that they were known for—like the woman who made it her job (in a sense) to learn all of our names and know as much about us as she could. God was there all the time. You could feel it in the way that the staff walked around and how the residents smiled. They had church services so that they could feel closer to God.
My trip to Kenosha was very eye-opening—to see how much a smile, a wave, or a high-five can mean to somebody. I can’t wait to go to Minnesota next year and help other people who are not as fortunate as we are.
Ethan Boyens