Yesterday, our first adventure in serving was to Fatima Retreat House located right next to Cathedral. We met an intern named Simon, and all day we did what Simon said. As we talked during a meeting, it was decided that in all actuality, we just played a giant game of Simon says yesterday, which is 100% true. We got to talk a lot with Simon and were asking him why he was interning, and he said, "I'm not really sure, but it's a good place." After we took all the furniture out of all 63 rooms, we then washed the baseboards and vacuumed them all. We did it in about 2 hours, and so then we went to lunch outside by the Labyrinth, and when we came back we stripped the beds, flipped the mattresses, and put the sheets back on in all 63 rooms. We did that so quickly that they had us polish furniture in the chapel, lent roll the pews, clean windows, and vacuum cobwebs. After that, Simon said that we were so efficient they were going to have find more things for us to do. So, we went outside and picked up sticks, trash, and dug weeds and roots out of a rose bush. Once we accomplished all of that, we came inside to have ice cream and talk about the day. You may wonder why we have termed ourselves "The Struggle Bus", and well, the simplest answer is that we broke a few things as we were working in the rooms at Fatima. Some people broke a picture frame, a few lamps were casualties in our service, and a good old 1930s vaccuum just stopped doing its job. We also had to teach the boys a few things about flipping mattresses and making a bed. Let's just say, they had the mattress pad on top of the fitted sheet. One of the many things we did that made us laugh throughout the day was pranking each other or just trying to scare each other. The best one was when Megan hid behind the door to try and scare the boys. Well, Cody saw her and didn't say anything, but Bradley was completely oblivious to her being there. So before they left the room, she screamed "Ahh!!" and Bradley literally jumped and slammed the door in her face! So funny. All in all, it was a great day, and Fatima was so appreciative and so amazed that we completed all of that in one day, and so were we! We met a lady who volunteers all of her time to keep the grounds so beautiful at Fatima, and we also got to serve each other by working together as a team. I (Megan) am so proud of our team and how well we are meshing together! You are doing such great work, and you have already been Christ to so many people. We're off to work with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful today, so keep us in prayer as we will do the same for you!!
It was great getting to help the Fatima Retreat House accomplish so many things that would've taken them a long time to do. - Abby G
I loved being able to help with gardening and seeing tons of new bugs.- Kaitlynn M.
My week was off to a great start when I slammed the door in my retreat leaders face. I guess it only gets better from here. -Bradley B
It made me feel really accomplished that we could do so much more than expected at Fatima. We had a lot of fun doing it also! -Clare M
We were basically laughing from start to finish. I'm not sure if we were just having a lot of fun or if we were just really exhausted. -Christa P
I really enjoyed being part of the struggle bus. It was a lot of fun working with everyone to accomplish our work efficiently. -Mary M
Van 4's time at the Fatima retreat house was an extremely fun experience for me because it was a lot of breaking things and laughing the whole day. -Maggie M
I had a lot of fun and it was nice having ice cream. -Cody S
Glad all of you worked hard and had a good time. Christy Smiley (Cody's Mom)
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