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Hey Family and Friends


Hey Family and Friends!  Group leader Maddie is checking in with you all tonight!

ABST OWB day four started out with a beautiful walk to Bayview Park to experience the sunrise together as a group.  The night before a couple group leaders made individualized overnight oats (chocolate peanut butter or brown sugar blueberry flavored) for the whole group to munch on while we watched the sunrise.  It was beautiful to experience the view that Our West Bayfront residents get to experience each morning.

Following our sunrise experience, we went back First Pres (where we are staying) and we rested.  The introverts in the group really appreciated this.  We had the morning off from doing construction work at the St. Joseph House because our insulation job, that we did earlier this week, was being inspected.  After spending the morning resting and recharging, we decided to spend the afternoon exploring the city and bonding as a group.  One of our accompaniers was able to make a call and we were given a special tour of the Bicentennial Tower (Thanks, Bob!).  The group really enjoyed looking at downtown Erie and Our West Bayfront from a bird’s eye view. 

The group also was provided with a delicious dinner tonight by different members of the First Presbyterian Church.  First Pres (as we affectionately call it) offers dinner and reflection every Wednesday for their church members and the public.  Our evening was spent in community with First Pres and attending a reflection lead by Pastor Chris.  I made a special connection with a couple that attended the dinner.  I am recently engaged and discovered that a couple was present at the dinner that had been married for over 66 years!  I walked over to the couple and simply asked them what the secret is to a happy marriage.  They shared with me to never go to bed angry and that’s it’s okay to give in every once in a while.  I really enjoyed making this connection with members of the church.

Overall, our group is growing closer and closer together.  We are enjoying one another’s company and have become quite talkative.  So talkative that we have had to institute a “talking bag” during our group reflections.  Basically, if you have the talking bag you are allowed to talk but if you don’t have it, you can’t.  We are hoping that this new addition to our reflection will allow every group member’s voice to be heard. J

We are very excited to be getting back to work tomorrow at the St. Joseph House.

Until next time – peace and prayers to all!

-       Maddie Z.

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