L'Arche Log- Day 4

Hi everyone, it's Kara! Thank you for continuing to follow our blog. Today was a wonderful adventure! Due to the chance of a snowstorm, we headed out right on time to L'Arche Toronto. Emily was a great driver and despite a little bit of traffic we arrived safely. This was slightly frustrating for me as I felt frazzled because we were a little late. Our venue today was slightly different than what we've been used to this week. We were at the L'Arche Toronto Gathering Place. The building was an old church that has been converted to a facility for L'Arche. We were in their multipurpose room which they use for everything from worship to creative arts. After being welcomed immediately, we played a few "get to know you" games. Once acquainted, we did an activity in which we each chose different foam shapes to put in the center of the circle. We then discussed what bigger picture we saw in the shapes. Answers included everything from a shark to a Christmas tree to a city with a fountain. When we finished, we helped set up tables for lunch. I had the chance to talk Kynga and get to know her better. We had a great conversation about food, our heritage, and books. After lunch we watched a short video about one of the L'Arche Toronto homes. It was a beautiful video about Janet and the impact she made on her home and her assistant. We then spoke with John who is a director at L'Arche Toronto. He told us the story of Mel, a lovely gentleman who has left a lasting impression on the L'Arche community. Due to the inclement weather that was headed towards us, we decided it was time for us to head back to Hamilton. However, we couldn't leave Toronto without exploring the city! We stopped in a few shopping malls and browsed for a short time before grabbing a coffee for the car ride back. Because our plans had changed a little bit, we ate dinner out in Hamilton. We found a cool place called Salt Lick Smokehouse. We had a DELICIOUS meal and fabulous conversation! After dinner we came back to Sherman for the evening. We played "Chat Pack" which was a lot of fun. "Chat Pack" is a box of fun questions that range from "What month would you use to describe your personality?" to "What Olympic event would you like to compete in?" After this, we tossed the ball around and even one of the core members, Richard, played with us. It was incredible to see Richard become excited about playing with us. We ended our night with a reflection and discussion about our Love Languages. We are looking forward to spending an entire day tomorrow with L'Arche Hamilton. Despite the weather forecast we are not going to let the snow stop us! We are used to Erie winters after all...