L'arche log- day 3

Hello faithful readers! It's Anna here!! It seems the theme of this trip is adaptibility. So far nothing has been what the group planned on doing, but has been exactly what we have needed. Today we had intended on volunteering at two local charities, but due some miscommunication that did not end up happening. Instead, we learned about the closing of institutions in Canada, ate our lunches with the core members at the day program, and took the grand tour of Hamilton. Our beautiful community partner, Karen, took us to see the hidden treasures of the area. After an adventure involving waterfalls and stone bridges, we were taken to the ultimate coffee-lovers paradise. THE ORIGINAL TIME HORTONS(which has a museum attached to it)!! As a coffee enthusiast, I was like a child in Disney World. We spent a lot of time talking and learning from one another before parting ways to go to the homes we have been spending time in.

Today was filled with a lot of anxiety, uncertainity, willingness to let go of control, and most of all joy. As the student leader, and a self-proclaimed control freak, even a slight deviance of plans sends me into a panic. However, when plans fell apart and we were scrambling to figure out what to do, the place where I found intense comfort was in the craziness of the day program. It was entering into the lives of the core members that I remembered the purpose of this trip. While plans are nice and sometimes necessary that is not where we encounter authenticity. We will not discover what it means to be human through a perfect agenda, but rather embracing the imperfections and allowing them to teach us something. Moving forward, we know that our "plans" may not be flawless, but we know that's okay. In fact, coming to terms with this within ourselves opens the door to healing and allows us to be instruments of healing for others.

L'Arche Log- Day 2

Hey everyone! Nathan here. Today was our first full day here in Hamilton, and it was awesome. After waking up at a leisurely pace, we shared an informal breakfast at the Sherman House (our HQ/base of operations) with the core members and the assistants. Shortly after, we departed for Mass at a local parish named after St. Joseph. One of the core members from the Cornerstone House named Michael, got to be an altar server and he did an awesome job! He said he serves in that capacity every Sunday. I really had a great experience at Mass! I enjoyed the homily the priest gave and the music reminded me of the music at my home church. After Mass, we split up to visit several different homes. Anna and Zack went to Charbonneau, Megan and Emily stayed at Sherman, and Jeb, Kara and I went to Cornerstone. I had a great time at Cornerstone! The house assistants cooked lunch and dinner for us, and the food was amazing! I got to meet four core members: Michael, Charles, Brian and Laurence. Each one of them is beautiful in their own way. We toured their house and their rooms showed each of their personalities so well and in such an expressive way. At about 2:00ish, we went on a spontaneous trip to the Hamilton Bay and walked around awhile before stopping at a cool, hipster cafe and enjoyed some nice beverages with the core members. We returned to the houses, hung out with the core members. I colored a Star Wars coloring book with Brian as we watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a bit. Then after a scrumptious meal, we headed over to the Holton House to celebrate Mary's (one of the core members there) birthday! There was a cake, balloons, and fun fellowship. It was really cool to have almost all of the core members and assistants from the Hamilton houses in one place. And instead of singing the traditional "Happy Birthday", there was a special L'Arche birthday song we sang! We thanked God for Mary, and it was really touching. After the party, we all went our seperate ways. The Gannon crew and I all ended back up at Sherman, where we had a mini jam session and concert, which Alice really enjoyed - she didn't want to go to bed! All in all, it was a busy day spent with great people who I can't wait to get to know more. Peace, and please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

L'Arche Log- Day 1

After leaving Gannon promptly, we headed off to Canada. In the car it was decided that Taylor Swift's 1989 was the soundtrack to start our trip. We made sure to listen to Welcome to New York after we entered New York. To foster a sense of community, we played a celebrity name game for an impressively extended period of time. Jeb got frustrated because Anna kept making him name celebrities that started with "h" and "g". We made it across the border without a hitch! Since we had extra time we decided to stop at Tim Hortons for a snack. It was nice for us to continue to chat and get to know each other better. We arrived at the Sherman house and they immediately welcomed us. We talked and introduced ourselves while we waited for our Chinese food to arrive. One of our favorite moments was reading our fortune cookies at the end of dinner. One of the fortunes alluded to the idea of a smile breaking all language barriers. As some of the core members of the L'Arche home are unable to speak we all connected with this statement. After dinner we gathered in the living room and continued to chat. We discussed all different topics from sports to politics to computer games. Shortly thereafter, some of the core members started going to bed. However, two members Richard and Alice, stayed to hang out with us. We started tossing a ball back and forth and Alice became engaged in playing with us soon after. After a quick tour of the kitchen and briefing of the morning routine we headed to bed. As a group, the seven of us reflected on our day by sharing our high, low, and moment we felt closest to God. We are looking forward to our day tomorrow,  as the seven of us will be dividing up and visiting four L'Arche homes before returning to one community in the evening. To end with a Jean Vanier quote, "so to become fully human is the development of the heart and the head, and then we can become one."

We made it!

Hi everyone,
We have arrived safely at the Sherman house. We had no delays at the border and even had extra time to spare, so naturally we stopped at Tim Hortons. We are looking forward to getting to know everyone here tonight. Will post again soon!