Alternative Winter Break Midnight Mission & PATH

By Year Course in Israel

Written by Alternative Winter Break Participant Brett Kleiman from Houston, TX

As Team Rebuild headed up the street to volunteer at Midnight Mission, there was one overwhelming visual: the staggeringly high amount of homeless people lining the streets. We immediately knew how intense this day would be.

Rebuild helps serve meals (and help out in general) to over 600 homeless people in a little less than an hour. Needless to say, there were many great and inspiring stories from all of us. After the meal, we helped supply winter coats to whoever needed. It was a very worth-wile experience that was a great way to start our week of service.

After leaving Midnight Mission, we were to go to PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) and actually cook a meal for over 150 residents of the amazing homeless shelter. The 20 of us were split up into 4 groups to help cook the meal and it was such a great way to come together as a group. The meal might have not been of 5-star quality, but it was a hit for the residents and left a huge smile on all of their faces. I was one of the 6 people helping serve food for the meal and the amount of positive energy that was in that building was palpable. We all ended up mingling with the PATH people and learning a couple important and profound life lessons from people who have seen it all.

Since I was told to keep this relatively short, I will. There were so many more things I could talk about, since each experience was so great and meaningful. So of course this was an intense day, but that is what we signed up for, and we all took it in stride. These are truly the best group of people I have ever been with and I already have a sense that this will be one of the very best Young Judaea Alternative Winter Breaks that there has ever been.

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