Agape 2012, Day 5: Thursday

Tonight we answered the question, "What are you going to take home with you and remember about this experience?"  The following responses were some that were shared with the whole group in our large group:

"You have to know what someone's need is before you can attempt to fulfill it."
"Giving is not giving if it is done only to quench your own thirst."
-Dyllan Freeburg

In our small group today,  I felt that I could sum up what we have learned this week when Caitlin reflected that "We should learn to live simply since others simply live."
- Jenn Hogan

Service and charity are actually rather simple and can turn into fun tasks that are extremely rewarding to the soul, music can make anything better, the ties I have made to friends and my painfully acquired sunburn.
-Jeffery Dahlquist

After a week full of service, the thing I can remember from this experience is the joy of being around the people who you love and the importance of unity. Migrant workers would work 10 hour shifts a day and not only is it the father or mother working, but the kids tag along too; if they were old enough too. Also they would send half of their paycheck to help out their family. Basically what I'm trying to point out is that family means the world to these migrant workers, they always try to help and support each other and that's something that we can all take and learn from. Also I learned that migrant workers aren't 'miserable people', they are hardworking joyful people who have as much to offer to us as we do to them, and people shouldn't downgrade or make assumptions about the workers because of  the category or occupation they have.

-Wesley Castro

The answer to the question above was, 1: that the kids working on the fields have a really hard time working trying to make enough money for them and their family, but their life here is way better than making 60 cents an hour compare to 16 cents a pound. I was able to talk to a kid name William who him and his family of four pick over 2000 pounds of strawberries in 3 days. For the 2000 pounds they got over 1500 dollars so their opportunity here is way better than in Mexico or Peru where they have very little to no chance for a good life. The family almost always send money back to their families back home. 2: The second part I answer the question was that life is precious and that you should never judge people because of the group they are put in by our society. These migrant workers are just like you and I who some even have degrees in many fields but have to work in the fields just to put food on the table. If my kid came up to me and ask for some food, I would battle zones just to get my child a better chance at life.
-Brent Leffers