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I just got back from a day of volunteering.
Today we went to a garden in a St. Louis subdivision.
There is lots of poverty and crime, many people just hanging around on the streets.
So if you walk around there, it's a bit of a rough neighborhood, yes.
But it was good to be have the chance to do this. We planted flowers there, we planted vegetables.
The guy who asked to help out told me that the garden is becoming more beautiful, more important for the community.
And how important it is for these people to have something that is really their own,
that gives their community some color as a contrast to the reality they face every day.
Right now I'm taking a class on "Intercultural city ministry."
One of the things I'm learning is how important it is, if you go to live in a certain neighborhood,
to really integrate, to be there for the people, to try to help them with your gifts and with whatever you have to offer.
So that is what we did today, and I hope I managed to contribute in some way.
For me, at any rate, this experience was very important, and I'll remember it for the future.
I just got out of chapel. We have chapel every Tuesday and Friday.
We get together with all the people on campus, or at least many of them, to worship the Lord.
Aside from the chapels, there are lots of other opportunities to pray with others.
Many groups meet in the morning to pray.
You read the Bible together. And the nice thing is - at least, I think it's a nice thing -
you go abroad and experience so many differences: different cultures, different teaching styles.
And, of course, there are differences in the way people here experience their faith.
But in the end you are all one.
You are all brothers and sisters in faith, and have that in common with each other.
And that is what binds you together. It's a really good and beautiful thing to experience.
So I'd better get going again.