What a nice day!

Tuesday is the day of the week that I leave the ILC and volunteer in Irving at Crisis Ministries (https://crisis-ministries.org/). I always enjoy being there with the "Tuesday crew"! We work hard, share stories, laugh and sometimes cry together...

This is a picture of one of the folks who is also volunteering at Crisis Ministries, Bud. This picture is from a couple of months ago, but I forgot to post it - you might notice that he has a flower behind his ear! I can't remember the occasion that brought this about, maybe just that Elizabeth had brought flowers for the lobby and thought Bud would enjoy a flower behind his ear! At any rate, he looked quite dashing!!!

Today, a friend from church, Kathleen, who grew up in Irving and attended First Baptist Church - Irving in downtown, had invited me to meet her at Big State Fountain for lunch after my volunteer time.

History of Big State Fountain

 It is a nice soda fountain with burgers and sandwiches and salads and, of course, Blue Bell Ice Cream! Kathleen remembered coming to the soda fountain (when it was just part of the drug store) between youth meetings at FBC-Irving. She also shared how friendly and helpful the pharmacy had been in more recent years. We had a delicious lunch and enjoyed chatting about lots of things!

After lunch, we were moseying down Main Street and Kathleen was sharing with me about the businesses that had been there when she was younger. We had stopped in front of the old jewelry store - the display window that would have been used to display rings or necklaces or watches was apparent in the front, and we were discussing the mosaic pattern that was on floor of the entry way. The gentleman who had an office inside came out to see if he could help us... it turns out that he runs Level Pathways (https://levelpathway.org/). Their mission:

To provide a safe, secure, and nurturing environment in which unaccompanied homeless youth attending school can live, learn, graduate and develop into productive citizens.

We appreciated hearing from Bob what they do to help homeless students with finding a place to live while the students complete high school. He shared the card pictured below that he provides to homeless students to help them know that there can be help available for them.

I had a great lunch and great visit with Kathleen, learning a bit more about Irving, and about this organization that helps homeless students in Irving! I returned to the campus and helped at the Welcome Desk for about an hour, and am now preparing to head out to my GriefShare class that is held in the neighborhood just on the other side of the road from the campus entrance. I am so thankful for friends, and for places where I can contribute my time and help.