My Experience at FBC!

On Tuesday, January 21st, I went with Stephanie, Jacob (my PiF team) and Jacob's dad to the First Baptist Church of Vancouver to do some volunteering work. I am not unfamiliar with working with homeless/troubled people, so I wasn't really frightened or anything. In fact, I couldn't wait! 

Actually, to be honest, I was feeling a little awkward as I was the newbie this time around. However, what I did not expect was the amount of (new) volunteers that attended on Tuesday! p

Okay, let's start chronologically. 

Jacob's dad picked up Jacob and I from school with Stephanie after (once again) winning our Reach For The Top games. We then went to Freshslice Pizza and ate our dinner there. I had a cheese pizza slice and a weird saucy pizza slice. Although we finished eating an hour before the volunteering actually started, the driving took forever. So in the end, we really got there right on time. Anyways, we arrived at the church and my team introduced me to a few people, like the pastor Bob Swan. I was also given a mini-tour of the area. After drinking delicious hot chocolate in the volunteer room, Jacob, Stephanie and I played some games on Steph's phone and just kind of hung around the room until 8 o'clock pm. We were fed some delicious breaded chicken and potatoes, and then Bob directed us down to where the homeless people would come in. We greeted the men and women who entered and I even got to hand out bed tickets! It was a pretty cool experience. After about 20 mins +/- of this, Bob took us to the cafeteria room where the people would eat. We just hung around there and talked to whoever wanted to talk to us. 

Eventually, 9 o'clock swung by and we had to leave. Jacob's dad drove me home a little bit later. 

All in all, the experience was really positive and eye - opening. However, I kind of hoped that I would be able to participate a little more... Hopefully next time we will! 

- Franci