Kensington

This morning my Bible study went down to Kensington to bring a Christmas brunch and speak to the ladies there. We were quite the bunch, all meeting in the parking lot of a preschool in the burbs, and caravan-ing down to the city in a parade of mini-vans. We were hauling our kids and our pretty breakfast foods. For those of you who don't know, Kensington is what is considered one of the worst parts of Philly as far as crime, poverty, etc. It is a different world down there. We met in a row house next to the church, which the pastor there described as a former 'shooting gallery' aka drug house. I can't really think about that too much or it freaks me out. The place was completely packed with almost 30 women. We each got up and talked about our favorite Christmas traditions. As I was preparing for my part of the talk, I kept thinking about how many privileges we take for granted. I talked about our activity-oriented advent calendar, where we do things like 'drive around and see the lights' and 'go outside and look at the stars.' I assume that many of the women there don't have cars. They may walk or take the bus, train, subway, etc.. And I am not sure if it is safe to go out at night and stand around gazing up at the stars. It is a different world down there, to be sure. The other thing I have noticed in my visits down there is that when there is food, they eat like it is their only meal of the day. I imagine for some of them it might be, or at the very least, the best food they have access to. The thing I loved the most about going down there (besides I got to feed people ;) is that everyone was so interactive. When I talked, people talked back to me, and gave me uh-huh's and Amen's. It was fun. During the breakfast, a few people from our church watched our kids for us. When I picked them up, the lady told me that my kids were so cute and sweet, and that her goal was to keep Tyler from needing stitches while he was in there. She has never been around Tyler before, but she has his number! :)

As a side note: Guess what?!?! Jeff passed the FE exam! Woo!!!!!!