2nd Saturday

 National Community Church sponsors service projects the 2nd Saturday of every month.  We meet at Ebenezer's Coffee House for fellowship then they offer 4 or 5 places that need help that day.  Things like making lunches for the homeless, interacting with at-risk youth at a center, visiting and doing crafts at a retirement home, etc.  We've been a few times and this was our second time helping out at The Southeast White House.  It's called that because it's on Pennsylvania Avenue and has similar architecture to THE white house but it's in a pocket of town that is poverty stricken.  The medium income of this working poor, African American neighborhood is $17,000 per year per family, with three-fourths of the children coming from single parent homes and over one third of the families qualifying for public assistance.
This is a safe place, "a house for all people" where youth can come for mentoring, arts and crafts, food, and other after school programs.  NCC has a strong presence there and is also in the planning stages of building a new adjacent property next door.

Tom helped put away Christmas decorations and he and I spent a couple of hours cleaning windows along side others who were deep cleaning the place after the holidays.  Others went out in the pouring rain and walked the streets picking up trash and visiting with neighbors they come in contact with.  It's always a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Once we finished there we headed to Georgetown for the Welcome Back Luncheon for the international students.  Most of them either traveled home or went on awesome trips over the holidays.  Tom's student, Zimo, went to Miami to meet up with his girlfriend who goes to school there and then went to China to visit his family.  Alexis went to Peru, Brazil and about 3 other places then ended up in NYC.  That girl is taking advantage of everything she possibly can!

This activity was a Southern celebration with fried chicken, dirty rice, coleslaw, sweet potatoes and apple pie.  Sweet tea and biscuits as well.  There was a power point that showed them which states are really considered the south, cultural examples and of course an overview of slavery.  They also tied it in to Martin Luther King's birthday which they'll have a day off school for next week.

They also had a great professional "caller" who taught us a line dance then several square dances.  He was a great teacher and I think the students had a blast!