Another time of transition. After almost 2
years here in Amsterdam I a starting to prepare to move on. After I get back
from running Shine in Brazil I will be moving on. To what and where, I don’t
know, but I know it’ll be something good because God leads well.
It’s another
time of so many changes. And yet while looking to the future there is a need to
be in the now and present. I am better at the latter at the moment. The ahead
seems so far away, and the present has more than enough things to resolve. Kind
of like it says in the Bible that each day has enough worries of it’s on.
Last night I did my first of many lasts. My last
shift with HOME soup- the soup project Not For Sale runs here in the Red Light
District. The past year and a half I’ve been heading out every Tuesday night;
rain or shine or snow, selling soup and salads to the women behind the windows.
It’s been such a privilege and so amazing to see soup open doors to hearts. I
will miss it.
I will miss the joy of making eye contact with
each girl, and even if we never speak, communicate that “yes, you are seen” in
a good way. I will miss wearing the orange jacket which identifies me as the “soup
lady”. I will miss numerous conversations through mimicking through a closed
window “d-o y-o-u w-a-n-t s-o-u-p t-o-d-a-y”. I will miss conversations about
life, in a place where the reality is so surreal if you stop to think about it.
And I will miss the lovely volunteers I’ve had the joy to get to know.
As I was pouring the left over soup into
plastic containers at the end of the shift last night, in between making ready
some last minutes orders of chicken soup, I was thinking that the soup means
more than just food. It means dignity. And every shift I was always reminded of
the fact that at the end of the day, the soup project never was about the soup,
it is about the people. The women we get to connect with and know and the
stories we get to share. And it’s been such a privilege to be welcomed into
their world, if only for a little while.
So there you go. I know there will be other
lasts, but for now this is the first one and I am not quite sure how I feel
about it. I am so thankful that I got to be a part of it, and sad that it is
over for me, yet at the same time I have this sense of closure; that I did what
I was meant to do, and that now other people will continue with it.