Blog #6
To friends and family - this is Caden with the last blog post of the trip.
This week has been a life-changing adventure where each person has grown from the different experiences we have all encountered this past week. On our first day of the trip, we saw the most beautiful but mistreated people in the Erie community and it was truly an honor to serve them at Sunday Supper. Each morning we helped build the Saint Joseph Faith in Action home, which is one of the embers of hope in the Our West Bayfront/ Gannon community. I see this house as a spreading a fire that will reignite the surrounding community.
We also met with truly beautiful people who see Erie as the most marvelous place on earth and are dedicating their lives to the revitalization of Erie. Some of these people are not even original members of the city but have adopted it as there own. It is truly a sight to see. As our week progressed, our original values and perceptions of the city were challenged and changed. We all grew. This trip challenged our original view of the city, it challenged our faith in the community, and it allowed us to make an impact we can see in our everyday lives.
Today, the First Covenant parishioners made us all breakfast and we had our last outing as a team. We went to Ember and Forge, a locally owned coffee shop, where we met with the owner Hannah Kirby. Hannah is also a graduate of Gannon. We talked about what made her choose to open a coffee shop in downtown Erie and also call this area home. We talked about her role in the revitalization process of downtown Erie. She shared that her reason to stay in Erie was the same as every other person that we had met with this week. She stayed because of Erie's potential, the ability of the embers of the city to be forged into something truly better. Each person that we met with all see the possibilities in Erie. It may be hard to create the city anew, but these role models in our local community have given their lives to create a new Erie. Meeting with each person has motivated each of us to do the same.
This has truly been a life-changing experience and I will use what I've learned from my team and our adventures in the future. I leave you all with one last thought that I think sums up our ABST experience... "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Romans 12: 4-5)
To friends and family - this is Caden with the last blog post of the trip.
This week has been a life-changing adventure where each person has grown from the different experiences we have all encountered this past week. On our first day of the trip, we saw the most beautiful but mistreated people in the Erie community and it was truly an honor to serve them at Sunday Supper. Each morning we helped build the Saint Joseph Faith in Action home, which is one of the embers of hope in the Our West Bayfront/ Gannon community. I see this house as a spreading a fire that will reignite the surrounding community.
We also met with truly beautiful people who see Erie as the most marvelous place on earth and are dedicating their lives to the revitalization of Erie. Some of these people are not even original members of the city but have adopted it as there own. It is truly a sight to see. As our week progressed, our original values and perceptions of the city were challenged and changed. We all grew. This trip challenged our original view of the city, it challenged our faith in the community, and it allowed us to make an impact we can see in our everyday lives.
Today, the First Covenant parishioners made us all breakfast and we had our last outing as a team. We went to Ember and Forge, a locally owned coffee shop, where we met with the owner Hannah Kirby. Hannah is also a graduate of Gannon. We talked about what made her choose to open a coffee shop in downtown Erie and also call this area home. We talked about her role in the revitalization process of downtown Erie. She shared that her reason to stay in Erie was the same as every other person that we had met with this week. She stayed because of Erie's potential, the ability of the embers of the city to be forged into something truly better. Each person that we met with all see the possibilities in Erie. It may be hard to create the city anew, but these role models in our local community have given their lives to create a new Erie. Meeting with each person has motivated each of us to do the same.
This has truly been a life-changing experience and I will use what I've learned from my team and our adventures in the future. I leave you all with one last thought that I think sums up our ABST experience... "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Romans 12: 4-5)
Love, Faith, Community.
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