I’m forever looking for others to share their thoughts and experiences about serving with the BR, because, goodness knows, I’m sure you get tired of hearing just from me all the time! 😉 I did manage to get some insight from a couple of participants from this past weekend’s “Anniversary Ride.” Thanks to John and Kassie for reaching out and sharing!

John Nolan says:

Anniversary ride was a huge success!  And it was very nice weather compared to lately.

That youth group hit a grand slam!  They seemed a bit apprehensive at Jeff street, but by Campbell Camp and the St. John’s stops, well there they took the lead with encouragement from some of us veterans and actually worked the room to serve the men.  

I cannot say enough about that entire group, they were such a Blessing this AM.

Of course we dropped the ball on hot sauce which was called out on about 3-4 occasions but we just decided to blame you since you were not there in person.  Though I know in spirit.  (Yes, blame me… I left you guys with a bunch of hot sauce packets! hahaha)

The amount of canned goods donated, beyond our normal BR stuff by the youth group was sweet. (For those just tuning in, the Navilleton youth crew periodically executes “food scavenger hunts” to gather non-perishables for the community, and they decided to dedicate a scavenger hunt to the folks at Campbell Street, having read that they recently had a lot of their canned goods stolen.)

I cannot wait to see the video of their before ride/after ride expectations.  (He did.)

Just a great AM and I could not have spent it in a better way, as always.

Major props to all the rollers, as we still have 80 burritos left in freezer after we handed out right at 300 today. I always thought giving out 300 would be tough, but since the weather was better we rode a bit more and saw some more people. (We are ALWAYS looking for more Burrito Rollers to donate, please get involved!) 

Amazing how the more we get to know this part of our community, and trust is built, they open up and share their little secrets that allow us to target helping them more efficiently.  Learned a lot today about float patterns and other church outreaches helping them. Now know why Broadway by that McDonalds was a hot spot around 11-12 timeframe;  A church bus picks them up and takes them for lunch! But mostly worship.

We also received an email from Kassie. She was one of the participating youth from St. Mary’s Navilleton.

Kassie, “Just a junior?” I seem to recall that high school was pretty hard work! I was incredibly touched by the video from Navilleton (have you seen it yet?) and I thought that this email was phenomenal. Thanks so much for coming, along with everyone else you traveled with. From our perspective, the youth were not only a great asset to serve with, but they really inspired the Burrito Riders that rode with them that morning. We are always congnisant of how fortunate we are, how blessed really, to be able to serve and spend time with this community. That said, we love occasions like this one, where we are able to derive a real jumpstart from seeing what we get to see through fresh eyes. It’s inspiring to see someone else react with passion to something you are yourself passionate about.

What can we say? God has blessed this ministry and we love what we are able to do through these gifts of love. Come serve with us sometime!