Geeze it's been ages!! It's been a busy month or so.

Last week, I had the joy of heading through the Ozark mountains of Arkansas to Booneville, a small town where YouthWorks is present. They are a mission organization that hosts and facilitates high school mission trips. They have 69 locations all over the country, as well as Canada and Puerto Rico. We happened to choose Booneville, AR and I'm glad we did : )

All the churches that came to work were mixed up and made into different crews. Then half the crews did work projects while the other half planned and did kids club. Halfway through the week, we switched. I was on crew 5 with kids from Fridley and from Richfield, Minnesota.

We started at Marjorie's house, scraping and repainting her carport. Marjorie is a severely arthritic old lady - I've actually never seen it so bad. Her hands were so shriveled, but she was still so capable. She was one of those people who are in pain, but you'd never know it because they refuse to complain. It was pretty clear that she decided to not let her pain dictate her life. She was joyful and so happy about life. Gosh, I was so inspired by her. Usually, I offer my help to someone in pain, but Marjorie was so capable of anything that I felt it would insult her abilities. Plus, she asked when she needed help.

The week was full of great things like that and people who inspired us to be better people.

I think I'm coming out with the realization that justice isn't all there is. Life lived for Christ has to be a balance between mercy, justice, and compassion. I think it would've been inappropriate to go to the source of why Marjorie can't paint her own carport, why arthritis exists, and what we can do about it. What she needed at that moment was not questions or inquiries, but people who cared enough to come make her house look better in ways she couldn't. I know arthritis should be studied and stopped from ever plaguing someone else, but not at the expense of some good, quality mercy.

The lovely Marjorie