Saturday, February 2, 2013

Women and Children's Shelter: Day of Pampering and Fun

 This was a wonderful mission!  Twelve families came together to serve the impoverished women and children of Nashville. 
Upon arriving to the mission Branden dropped me off to get all the details worked out and find out where we were going to set up before bringing in our whole slew of children.  Walking in threw the metal detector and waiting on the doors to be unlocked I got the initial impression of how these women and children are living.   I got shuffled around until finally they decided we would be on one of the dormitory levels.  Branden and I got off the elevator first to see the area we had to work with .  We had a hallway and a dormitory room filled with cots and bunk beds.  We both looked at each other and silently thought the same thing...how are we going to make this happen in this space and make it special!  Well as you all probably know God has all the details worked out.  As all the volunteers arrived the space slowly transformed.  The women's pampering area turned into a beautiful oasis of rest and relaxation that smelled incredible!  The kids area transformed with some colorful balloons, table cloths, snacks, games and crafts! 
The goal was to pamper the women while entertaining the children.  We had two professional massage therapists volunteer their time, talent and products to serve these women.  In the pampering room we also had volunteers to do nails and tend to all the ladies needs!  The women from the shelter had a wonderful day!  Several of them as you will see in the video said they were made to feel like a million bucks and they didn't want to leave! 
The rest of the families spent their time with the children! We had a professional face painter, several games with prizes, crafts, snacks and a pinata.  All the families pitched in to fill all the needs from babysitting, to finding more chairs, to running the games and handing out prizes! 
It was an amazing day filled with lots of smiles!

Check out the video below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6zdpjWV2I0&feature=youtu.be