August 4 2013

135||365

It's not a beautiful picture, but it was a beautiful moment. There were so many women worshiping together!

I've always wanted a picture like this, but I never want to take out my camera.

August 3 2013

134||365

I <3 SF

August 2 2013

133||365

The sun sets on another adventure.

Rewind a few hours, though... 

We said goodbye to all of our new friends :'(

James. He's pretty awesome, to say the least :)

They're all just so good-looking that you needed four of em.

August 1 2013

132||365

As we organize the clothing.

Also, more hygiene kits, and a new task: cutting tags off clothing. Super fun.

Tonight at Club, the leaders washed our feet as a sign of humility. It is always a moving night.

July 31 2013

131||365

Today's evening activity involved climbing a mountain (a fairly short one, I don't know what they were complaining about) to this huge cross, and interesting photo subject and prop.

And what can I say, I love sun flares!

Today we stayed at Salvation Army for the work day. We started out the morning by assisting the regular volunteers for Meals that Heal, in which they take their cart of meals into the community to those who can't get out to other food programs.

Sadly, I didn't get the chance to take any pictures out here.

The afternoon produced many more hygiene kits.

leader/Youthworks Greg found a skeleton ring (on his pinky). 

[There were three Gregs: Youthworks Greg because he used to work at Youthworks; young Greg, but we all call him Mamashark for obscure reasons, and older Greg, who became known as coffee Greg because of the coffee mug invariably in his hands.]

Mamashark takes a selfie (it looks like he's picking his nose, but trust me on this one: he is bestowing peace upon the world.)

If you can see them, this is Chris (staff) and James (awesome leader with British accent, from Canada [two of the four groups were from Canada], who, according to Marcella and her crew, was a scary driver). They were having a party to the music.

Well, so were we.

Oh, did I mention? It's Geneva's sweet sixteen today!

We made an awesome shirt for her, so of course she had to wear it, and a birthday tiara, and then Greg ordered a cookie pizza thing...

July 30 2013

130||365

Any guesses?

This is a table in the break room at the food bank! We were there for the morning shift today, boxing up more carrots and stonefruit (nectarines). 

I have to add: in this room Anna and I tried an orange drink (with real pulp!) and I think it was by a Chinese brand... and one of the ingredients was White Cloudy. If anybody knows what that is, it would be appreciated if you told us! :)

Sarah and the Stonefruit (potential band name?) 

a Holy nectarine! (as Mary called it)

For the second half of the day, we headed over to Salvation Army and put together hygiene kits!

On our way to the building, we met a man named Mikey, who was missing a leg because of a train-hop gone wrong. We provided for him to get to the hospital for his prosthetic, and then we got to pray for him. It was really cool to hear his reaction when he heard that we thank God for him, and that God loves him. We introduced ourselves a couple times after that, and attempted a group hug (mostly Anna :)).

Melissa and Noah working on repackaging shower gel. 

This is Daniel.

Finally, the evening activity: Land's End! Some cool ruins, and rocks sticking out off the shore.

This is a staff member, Jeffrey. 

Matt makes himself look lonely. 

I am up on a trail, looking down on all the ants from Youthworks crawling on the cool ruins!

There were more Mayan-looking ruins farther to the left of the picture, but Geneva and I didn't have an adult or a third leg to complete our journey.

There's also a short tunnel-cave thing that you can hear the water roaring in.

July 29 2013

129||365

The SF Food Bank was our destination for the first day of service!

We sorted lots of produce--carrots and oranges today-- because not every area even has a grocery store, let alone fresh produce.

The second half of the work day held pasta-bagging... and a bubbles fight!

And you could never forget the golden gate bridge! As Chris said, it is neither golden, nor a gate, but it is still quite the view! I wonder what it's like glowing in the sun, but honestly I think the fog adds a "layer" of dimension to pictures, if not a possibly dismal tone. But do not let that fool you! It was beautiful.

It also gets really windy on that bridge, up to 60mph :)

There were many points on the trip that I've seen the skyline, but it was foggy each time, so I think this is the best I got.

July 28 2013

128||365

Now this is what I call beach weather!

The water isn't so bad once your feet are numb....

Today we are headed to Youthworks! Greg just thought he would show us the "real beach" (opposed to the bay) before we started the week.

We made it to the Youthworks site today, which was oddly only 20 minutes from the Waller Center. Last year we drove for three days...

The staff is awesome!

July 27 2013

127||365

A Visit to Alcatraz

It's actually a really cool place. Did you know the officials' families stayed on the island? They had a pretty close little community, and the kids took a ferry to school everyday!

Geneva reminisces about her visit to the Hard Rock Cafe several years ago...

Hanging out near Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39? I don't know) before Alcatraz.

A sailboat out of the gray; spotted on ferry to Alcatraz island 

Geneva is caught red-handed. 

Oh yeah, we went to a Giants v Cubs game in the evening! We got to take the Muni there (their light rail), and it was really a pretty uneventful game until the ninth inning.

July 26 2013

126||365

We are on our way to San Francisco today! The skies are blue, and it is about as warm as it will ever get in SF...

The quality isn't as good, but a great memory-maker!

Ruthie and her "new buddy"... }:-)

Ruthie finds the "world's largest gummy bears."

Excitement takes its toll...

The Waller Center (which is actually near Haight) has a gym, 

which we enjoyed to [amost] no end.