Tired Outreach

The past few days were my annual volunteer time for an outreach group at the local tulip festival. Last year, I was only able to serve for two days due to weather and caregiver concerns. This year, I volunteered for all three days, and I can feel the extra effort.

May in Iowa is always a mixed bag of weather. The last few weeks have been chilly with highs in the 50's and 60's. However, last week's forecast predicted these three days as low 70's and partly cloudy. It ended up that Thursday was mostly sunny with a high near 80°. Friday and Saturday were cooler and cloudy with rain Friday afternoon and a tornado watch cancelling Saturday's evening parade.

This year's schedule had training sessions from around 9:00-12:00 each morning and then two-hour time blocks of each team canvassing a certain area. For me, it meant getting up early every day to start my morning routine so I could get to church on time. The first thing my team and I did after training was find lunch.

By the time we got through long lines and were actually ready to go out, it was between 12:30-1:00. That meant we only had about an hour to hand out gospel tracts and speak to people. When 2:00 came, another leader took over my group and I headed home to do my afternoon medical needs before my caregiver's shift was finished.

After winter hibernation, this was my first extended period of being active. Saturday evening, I didn't feel like eating much for supper and just wanted to rest. With the short time period, I wasn't able to give out many tracks or have conversations. Sara and I did come across a Spanish speaking couple on Friday afternoon. I had prepared by studying apologetics, world religions, and taking someone through the ten commandments, but not Spanish. The encounter caught me off guard and I managed to speak with them some, but not as much as I potentially could have.

If I'm able to volunteer next year, I may consider only doing two days and study Spanish further. Like it or not, this quad life is starting to get older and I can't bounce from little activity to super active as well as I used to. This coming week just has one school visit and I look forward to time of recovery.