After a very busy first ten days, the second third of my sabbatical journey has been more about resting and relaxing. There were a couple of painting projects that we have now finished, but for the most part I have learned to not try to fill my time with things to get done while I have the time off to do them. Instead, I (Melissa and I together) have spent the last week and a half relaxing at home for the most part, now that she is moved in and we have started to settle into our new and improved lives together. We did make one road trip to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, but it was a relaxing day and no time constraints for what we wanted to do.
We began our service project last Friday and will continue through the end of this week, and possibly thru the 4th. We are working with the Salvation Army to prepare and serve lunch to school age children who come each day to take advantage of the program. Some parents bring not only their children, but others who wouldn’t be able to come. I have learned a lot about the needs we have here in Cleveland from talking to the employees at the Salvation Army headquarters, as well as the families we have met. When I asked Ivory, the woman who oversees the lunch program, about other opportunities for us to help in the future, the topic turned to the homeless. This is where I learned that we have many more homeless people than I would have ever imagined in my hometown. She opened the back door and pointed to a large slab of concrete across the parking lot and explained that many of them would gather there every night to sleep. I asked how many homeless we have in our town of about 45,000? I guessed 25 or 30 and she shook her head and said it is well over a hundred. This shocked me, then I realized that like most of us, we don’t spend much if any of our time in the parts of town where this is going on. We aren’t sure yet exactly what our involvement might be moving forward but I do know God is using the sabbatical to show Melissa and I where he can use us. I look forward to seeing where he will lead us.
Besides our service project, most of our time over the last ten days has been spent lounging around the pool in the afternoons, walking on the greenway in the evening, and basically doing nothing which has been amazing. I have been surprised how easy it has become to not worry about work and what I have planned for the next week, day, or hour. I think I could get use to this!!