Sunday, March 8, 2015

Sunday, March 8th

Greetings from the state of Michigan!

You'd think that this place would be a place of snow and ice and you know what? You are totally right. Man, everything here is still covered with snow. But the great thing about it is that you couldn't even notice the cold weather because of the warm welcome we received from the people of Flint. We met Steve, our main contact here in Flint, Saturday night and everything just became more tangible.

This is it. We're here for a week. Let's make the best of it.

We're staying in Steve's dad's house, Dave, for the duration of this trip and we started our day off relatively early. While we got dressed for church, Dave was downstairs cooking up some ham and crepes for breakfast. HAM AND CREPES. Yeah, we're pretty spoiled up here. We scarfed down our meal and rushed to St. John Vianney Parish. Upon entering the doors of the parish, I was met with two long row of pews divided by the aisle that led up to the stone altar. The red carpet made the whole room stand out. It contrasted well with the golden-brown pews and the gray, stone pillars that surrounded the building. Between the pillars was each station of the cross carved in wood and stained dark brown. Above them, the sun shone through the beautifully crafted stained glasses and each pane depicted a scene from the bible. The church was gorgeous and I just had to take a moment to pray and take it all in. Mass went on without a hitch and afterwards, we met with Fr. Tom. He was in charge of taking us on a tour around Flint.

Up until this point, we have been pampered with a spacious and homey place to stay, spoiled with ham and crepes for breakfast and a church that blows me away. The tour really opened my eyes to the problems of Flint; it was overwhelming. We went up the northern part of Flint and Fr. Tom pointed out the poverty and hardships that Flint faced. Each house occupied by tenants, a foreclosed house would be next door. Most had their power cutoff and and some of the houses were left to burn by the local firefighting department. Huge plots of land were left barren because the soil was compromised from the previous GM plants that once stood there. Fr. Tom mentioned that he has taken upon himself to become the pastor for multiple parishes because of the lack priests. One thing that stood out the most to me was a small structure at a corner of an intersection. It was nothing more than a 20x20 ft, probably no bigger than your living room, space covered by a thin sheet of aluminum. Fr. Tom mentioned that this small building is a symbol that marks the territory for a gang that lives in the area. Knowing that scared me but also brought light to the fact that Flint is in desperate need of a turn around.

Now I'm not saying that I'm here to change the world and flip Flint around over the span of a week. No, I'm here to do whatever it is that Steve, Dave and Fr. Tom asks of me. I believe that this is going to be a process that will take years to accomplish but I am happy to be a part of the improvement of Flint. If I can inspire at least one person or be inspired by some one this week, I'll say this is a successful trip.

*drops mic*
Duval Corral









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