Ms. Jenny

I've been waiting for these moments for a long time. Moments where I can give of myself to people and vise versa, moments to learn and grow, moments to cherish and love and moments to remember with every fiber of my being. I've been looking forward to this mission trip to St. Louis for a long time but I have to say, more than half of my experiences I completely unexpected.

Throughout our trip we stayed at a multilingual church on the outskirts of St. Louis. We served various people in various ways. We built houses, literally gluing bricks together with wet concrete, roofing, raking, staining, building, organizing and much more. We served different groups of people ranging from widows, homeless, the poor, the lonely and the actual church itself. We became plugged into the church and learned about the different ministries it had to offer. We learned the history of the church and St. Louis and most importantly, we talked with members of the church, specifically Ms. Jenny.

Ms. Jenny is a 90 year old woman who lives in a 5 room house by herself. She keeps her memories on her walls as they are covered in pictures and pictures from her past, she calls this her scrapbook. Ms. Jenny has never been married but had brothers and sisters and actually, a pretty large family. She told stories of discrimination and how difficult life has been for her in the past, and as she talked about the unsteadiness that surrounded her for years, it was clear that God remained and still remains the only stable concept in her life. She is someone to live by, someone who has gone through trials, lost relationships and someone who has lived on a small portion of money, yet has a relationship with God that is far grander than anything I have ever witnessed.

As our conversation with Ms. Jenny deepened, she closed her eyes and slowly began to rock back and forth and after a few long seconds of silence she finally said, " Girls, will you do me a favor? Will you just help people? Help them even if you don't know them. Help them even if they pretend they don't want help. Help them even if you are in a hurry. Help them because that is what the good Lord calls us to do." Ms. Jenny became a part of me that day and she will always live with me. I read once, " Sometimes you have to venture outside of your world in order to find yourself." God sent me out of my world to find myself by using Ms. Jenny and others to help shape me and for that I am priveleged.