What it is like living at DaySpring Villa you may ask? Well, after one full week here, I can tell you just a bit! However, no matter how long I stay here, I will never be able to feel what these women feel as they walk the halls of DaySpring, eat the yummy food (well, the food that is sometimes yummy), do their chores, or sleep in safety.
DaySpring Villa is a 3,000 sq ft facility with three wings. The East Wing contains various rooms such as the donations room, conference room, Curves room (which I have been frequenting often), and a few offices. The Guest Wing is of course where the guests stay. There are single rooms, dorm-like rooms with 4 guests, and family rooms that house 2 families each. The bathroom is communal and there is also a Rec Room, a Parlor, and a small kitchenette on this hall. The Staff Wing is where the live-in staff stay, including myself and the other summer missionaries. Currently 8 staff live on this hall.
My roommate Danielle and I share a room with two twin beds, two dressers, a closet and a very powerful ceiling fan that we don't know how to turn off (it's always FREEZING in here!). I am not sure that we brought enough socks :-) We share a bathroom with the other summer missionary, Emily.
Our room
All of the meals are eaten in the dining room. Breakfast is a fend-for-yourself kind of meal with a wide variety of cereals, breads, and sometimes fruit and boiled eggs. Lunch and dinner are prepared AND served by either staff or volunteers. We will go to get our food handlers permit on Tuesday so that we too can begin preparing meals, although we are already learning our way around the kitchen.
The food is SO much better than I could have anticipated. Let me tell you of just a few of the meals that we had this week.
Thursday: Battered chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, homemade biscuits, cake, and salad
Friday: Baked potatoes, spinach salad, sandwiches, fruit
Have to keep Molly away from the sweets!
Panera brings us a delivery each week, so for breakfast we can have Panera bagels or Cinnamon Raisin bread. This morning at breakfast I asked one of the guests how she was doing..."GREAT!" She answered, "I have been craving one of these cheesy bagels from Panera and I come to a shelter and they have them...crazy!" I just smiled. How good is God that we are able to provide something so good for these women who so deserve it?
This past week we worked on training: watching various domestic violence videos, going over the staff manual, reading charts, etc. This week we will begin shadowing staff and then actually begin working as House Staff the following week (or perhaps two weeks of shadowing?). This week I am on the schedule to shadow 3-11 pm on Monday and Tuesday, 1-9 pm on Wednesday and Thursday, and 7am-3pm on Friday and Saturday.
After this week, I will be able to explain much more about what it is like to work as house staff. Currently I know that it means either preparing meals or making sure that they are prepared, answering the phone that is constantly ringing, performing intakes for new guests, doing med calls, answering the door, taking donations, signing in and out cell phones and valuables...the list goes on and on :-)
I will include some pictures that perhaps will help you to better understand what goes on around here.
This is the "shop" where the women come to do a little Saturday shopping. If they have worked on their goals and completed their chores, they are allowed to shop for 20 minutes on Saturday evenings and select up to three complete outfits.
Please continue to pray for myself and the staff. The Villa is currently under-staffed and many of the staff, especially those who live here are finding themselves over-worked and a little burnt out....Summer GIRLS to the rescue!
I have been so encouraged by the Word this week and would like to share with you just a few of the verses that have been lifting me up.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Cor 15:58 (from a former summer girl)
And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
2 Cor 12:9
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