"You'll see 'im in church one mornin and ya heart be like 'bang!'"

Today was flippin' sweet.

We went back to the shelter, and I'm growing more and more fond of the place. Makes me sad that we will be leaving and who knows if I'll ever make it back out here.

This morning we were helping hand out extra food, basically a store to those who need the extra food. I met the most wonderful woman, Ira, fondly known as "Granny" by everyone else. I now have a Chicago granny. She even calls me Jennifer :) I was set beside her to hand out some veggies and fruit, and enjoyed some lovely conversation. She is an absolute gem!

The other woman beside me proceeded to keep everyone in order, and yelled more than a few times "Keep your gates shut and move the line on ya'll". Ha, and then I would hear sweet Granny say "Hey there sweetums, what can I get ya today?". I couldn't help but smile.

Again, looking into the eyes of so many different faces touched my heart. I saw the bluest blue eyes on this elderly man, yet they were filled with such a lack of hope. While others grinned their big lack-of-teeth smiles, and were so grateful and sweet. Never in my life have I been happy to hear 'Why thank ya baby" so often.

This funny older man who seems to be a common resident at the shelter continually calls us over. He is stellar. A bit of a kook I might say, however, he makes me laugh. He told a few of us gals who we will marry, mine sounds like he will be a pretty decent guy. Lindsay is gonna get a stellar ripped godly fellow named John, which I think was nice for her to hear. I was quite blessed by him though as he poured out some godly truth, and blessed us and told us to stay focused on our schooling because God has great plans for each of us. Here, a man with so little, lavishly proclaimed God's love and truth on us, and I felt overwhelming blessed.

I actually got a little choked up today. Looking at all those faces I had to hold back some tears. Knowing I'd be going back to a warm place to say, and soon to fly home to my comfy life while these others would walk out into the snowy cold weather, made me so grateful yet undeserving.

Got to cut probably 6 cows worth of meat in the kitchen too, yikes. And I am pro at washing dishes now (Rika, you'd be so proud of me).

Our crew headed into the city to skate outdoors. It was frigidly cold at first but we eventually warmed up. Skating was sweet. I actually felt quite decent compared to the shocking amount of lame skaters out there. It was fun wandering around downtown with the light snowfall. This crew is stellar and our laughs are always continuous.

Aight, ya'll, I'm gonna sign out. Peter and I are trying to work on our gangsta lingo, there is some cool talk out here.

Tomorrow I'm back to the school. I'm stoked to see some of those kiddies again.
Jen J, signing out.