We started out our day with warm delicious cinnamon rolls from a St. James bake sale with fresh fruit and eggs. Then we headed out to Restart. We got there pretty early, traffic wasn't as bad as we thought it might be, so we hung out in a meeting room for a bit and waited for our coordinator, Sammy. She started us out with putting letters in envelopes and giving us some background information on the organization. They really focus on transitional and permanent housing, especially for those with disabilities, whether physical or mental. They work with people to not only get apartments, but get jobs and things like social security as well. They house thousands of people every year, and they have a couple big projects in store for this year, including a new center for the youth. It's a very cool and welcoming program.
After doing the envelopes, we went downstairs and helped get things ready for lunch . I'm not sure if those served through their meal programs are strictly residents or if they're more open to the public. Either way, we had chili dogs with chips and salad and Nilla wafers. Valerie (Vee) pulled me from my duties early to make the spaghetti for dinner. We cooked two huge frozen blocks of meat in a massive rectangular sink-like stove/pan. I flipped the blocks and scraped off the cooked meat and flipped it back over and repeated for about half an hour. I thought it was kinda fun, I just had to make sure I didn't get burned from the boiling water. Then we added all sorts of veggies and spices to the brew to make for some very tasty and different spaghetti. Then I went out and had lunch with a really cool guy called Israel. He's in his early 30's and he told me about his friend's son who he kind of takes under his wing. He said the boy reminds him a lot of his younger self and he wants to make sure the boy doesn't end up going through the things he went through. Israel told me all about his music career and how he's worked with David Cook and Tech n9ne. A true Kansas City musician. We even ended up recording in the same studio, and we live on the same street, but on the opposite side of town. Pretty crazy.
Israel said he encountered a man while on a music trip to Chicago who introduced him to Christian rap. Israel was skeptical at first but he said he likes to be open to all kinds of music. He said he fell in love with Christian rap and saw that it can be about real stuff and not just the shallow unrelatable 'lame' Jesus music. It gave him something to sing about instead of all the "foolishness" he sang about before. This happened when he was in his mid teens. He didn't start recording until he was 21, but he got into some trouble which is why he is at Restart to see if he can get his life back again. He is a man of great hope, faith, energy, and smiles. I'm excited to see him tomorrow and talk about his music after I look it up tonight.
We finished up cooking the food for the next meal then headed upstairs to the donation rooms and sorted through coats, clothes and toiletries. I think this made us realize how tired we were when it got to be just us in a very warm room. We made progress though and sorted through all the toiletries. After that we headed on out back home and from there went to another sisters' house for a taco dinner. Mal (one of the candidates for sisterhood living in our house, she's super cool) made her special salsa from her garden. Mmm it was sooo good!! We even got spice cake at the end! We finished the night with a super fun game of Telestrations (a mix of telephone and pictionary). That is one funny game. I think all we ended up in tears from laughing so hard. We said our goodbyes and did a quick reflection in the car, we were all so tired that we headed straight to bed.