Our house is in the middle of two trailer parks with mostly Hispanic residents. The kids all speak English, but many of the parents only speak Spanish. The kids like to come and knock on our door to ask us to play, and if we are busy they hang out outside and watch us through the windows. Last Saturday we had a fiesta/barbecue outside our house to get to know our neighbors. Pinatas and candy + 75 children = insanity! It was lots of fun though, and I am really excited about getting to know our neighbors better. We also know an awesome woman named Melanie who lives a few trailers down from us and makes us gifts of food. Randomly in the evenings one of her children or grandchildren will come to the door and ask us if we want something she has made for us (eggplant casserole, soup, strawberry cake, etc), so she is a huge blessing and has made us feel very welcome. I'm pretty sure all the kids in the neighborhood call her grandma, so I'm not sure which ones actually are related to her for real. Outside the trailer parks are some housing project apartment buildings and small houses with mostly African American residents. We also live close enough to downtown to walk to the library and public transit train station. I like riding the train. haha.
Our church, New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist, is within walking distance from our house. The first Sunday we got soaked running back home in the rain after a thunderstorm started during the service. It is a very different church experience for me, but I am enjoying learning a new style of worship. Or sort of enjoying... Last week's service was 4 hours long.... Next week we will start working Mon-Thurs afternoons at a nearby afterschool program that the local kids attend. I will be in charge of the 1st grade class of about 10 kids, which is a little intimidating for me. Please pray that I will not be overwhelmed and that the first week will go well! We’ll also be deciding on our morning work sites soon. I am hoping to work either at the local health clinic or at a homeless or food ministry. I also would be really inteterested in volunteering at a English program for the Hispanic adults in the area.. We'll see.
We had Mission Year orientation last week and heard from several great speakers who really inspired me with their life stories of loving and serving the poor and marginalized in our society. We learned about social justice, community, race, and logistics like safety and fundraising, and got to spend some time hanging out with the teams from all the other Mission Year cities. We stayed in cabins (which they said were way better than what last years teams had to stay in) and met lots of spider friends... Joseph, Andrew, Rachael, and I went on a "nature hike" and almost got lost. And Rachael got in a spider web and screamed like someone was cutting her leg off. We also played an abundance of Dutch Blitz. Jeff (my City Director) is super good at it. We all got pretty competative. Good times. This week is city orientation, with only the Atlanta teams. We’ve been learning more about the logistics of our schedules and heard an amazing speaker on conflict resolution.
I feel like I am learning a lot, but it’s also overwhelming to take in all this information and not have any practical experience yet. I know that once we get into a schedule it will probably get easier for me. I am very excited and want you all to be able to share in my experiences and excitement as well. I would love to receive snail-mail letters from any of you, as I will have very limited access to the internet for a while, and I’ll do my best to write you back. Thank you all so much for your support and prayers in these first few weeks and continuing into this year.
Love and peace.
Kimberly Rixon
304 Veterans St
East Point, GA 30344
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