Week 4 of COS Service Adventure

At the end of another week (a busy one!), I'm thinking back over the best parts of the week. Here are a few highlights:

Bike Jam! I spent a day representing Pikes Peak Urban Gardens at UCCS (University of Colorado - Colorado Springs) at an event called Bike Jam. There was sunshine, food, music, prizes, lots of bikes, lots of great people, and basically just a super fun time.

My main goal was to tell people about PPUG and get them involved, but the fun part was helping people plant their own herb seeds to take home.

And of course the spectacular view of the Rockies directly behind where I was sitting.

Last weekend the 6 of us hiked at Section 16. I can't get over how accessible the mountains are. We drove maybe 20 minutes to get here? And spent three hours hiking. (We're getting ourselves ready to hike Pikes Peak in just one week!!)

 On Wednesday we had the fun and eye-opening experience of helping serve dinner at Beth-El (our church) for our week of hosting Interfaith Hospitality Network. IHN is a nonprofit serving families struggling with homelessness. IHN sort of "adopts" up to 4 families at a time, providing them a place to hang out during the day, helping them with job searching, transportation, budgeting, and many other applicable life skills, with the goal of getting them back on their feet within 90 days. In addition, IHN partners with local churches to host these families at night. Each church hosts for a week at a time, which includes setting up beds, as well as serving them breakfast and dinner. This week was our turn.

After serving and eating dinner, we spent an hour or so doing dishes - as well as taking advantage of the chance to hang out with the adorable kids.

I continue to feel thankful for our four wonderful housemates and the gifts they bring to this program. We are loving the city and all it has to offer, and finding many ways to get to know each other better and learn more about the world. As the end of our first month together approaches, I'm looking forward to the many more to come!