Day 8, Medical Workers & Meadows of Hope

After breakfast and worship, everyone worked on various jobs:

• bake scones for this evening
• write notes for the care packages
• arrange fruit plates for this evening
• assemble 200 snack packages
• grill burgers for lunch

Right after lunch, the men went to Lancaster City and met Mark Nisly, a nurse who works at Lancaster General Hospital. They had coffee with him, then took the snack packages to his break room so he could pass them out to his co-workers.

Meanwhile, the ladies went to Meadows of Hope, a home for troubled girls. Along with other wholesome ways of building a healthy life, they use equine therapy. We toured the barn and admired the eight horses that the girls work with. In the house, we saw their classroom and living quarters Our tour guides, Marcus Beiler and Deb Strite, are the supervisors. They explained the program and answered our questions. They clearly love what they do!

Patrick had chipotle bowls ready for us for supper when we got back. The men divided into two groups, took scones, coffee, and fruit, and spent the evening with small groups of nurses who wanted to tell us their stories and their experiences during the pandemic.

The ladies stayed at the home base and hosted two women who came for the evening. One of them told us her story of serving in a country near Mongolia for nearly a year. She passed around a box of oriental slippers that we got to wear for the evening. She told us about the hard parts and the ways God has been faithful. Our three hours together went very fast.