Days 153-156: Happy Birthday Jakob!! (1/28-1/31/20)

Well, today is not Jakob’s birthday, but there was something planned on his birthday, hence we would celebrate it today. And there was only one thing he wanted: an escape room with the team. So, after team priorities, we headed to downtown Milwaukee for first time to the Save Milwaukee Escape Room. It was ran by a man named Schlomo, a very interesting character who was committed to the act. And, we successfully saved milwaukee! It took specifically 48 minutes to complete the room, but with ten people it was much easier. From there, we hit up a place called Kawa Ramen for lunch, also downtown, as Jakob typically goes for ramen after completing an escape room. Afterwards, we walked down to Whole Foods to pick up some desserts, which we celebrated at a host home. Jakob, if you ever read this, thank you for being an amazing brother to me and role model to the world. You are such an incredible light and joy to everyone you encounter, and don’t let anyone think differently. Love you lots broski!!. . . The thing planned on Jakob’s birthday was a service project. We hadn’t done one since Adam’s birthday back in November, but heard there were many in store for us. Today we would do our service at the House of Peace in Milwaukee, a clothes and food drive for the poor but with stable jobs/homes. The way it was ran was beautiful, and we were excited to be a part of it! Half of the team went to stock/sort food, while the others (including me) organized clothes and pick up donations at the door. We did that all afternoon, and in the evening, we went to St. Ben’s, a community meal center serving the poor and lowly of Milwaukee. Our job was not to serve them dinner, but to talk to them while eating dinner. Moriah and I teamed up, and began eating with strangers and having conversation with them. It was very intriguing, hearing about everyone’s lifestyles and stories, and honestly really refreshing talking to adults and older people rather than middle scholars and high schoolers. Just a nice change of pace is all. . . Another early morning for us, as we drove to St. John Paul II Academy in Racine, WI for a school day retreat. It was about 45 minutes away from our homes, so we had to leave real early for everything. This retreat was unique in the sense that it felt so…normal. Like the youth were good, a little bit of flexibility in the schedule, a reverent prayer ministry, and nothing crazy happened. Very interesting. After the retreat, we had team prayer, celebrated with a little Chick-Fil-A, and went to host homes, where we watched Impractical Jokers for two hours with thee host family. I forgot how good of a show it was, and it was fun introducing it to Evan and the host family, despite it not being the best show. . . On the last day of January, we went back to the House of Peace to serve all day rather than in the afternoon. In the morning, after organizing some clothes, i stocked 300 cans of green beans on a shelf. Nothing to be support proud of, just a fun fact. And after lunch, we just kind of waited for stuff to happen, yet nothing ever did happen. No donations came in, barely anyone came in to shop, it was just dull. The worker, Chu, said it was super unusual for this to happen, which is pretty unfortunate. After service, we went to Queen of the Apostles parish in Pewaukee, WI, a mile away from my host home, where we had dinner. Since we would have a retreat there tomorrow, and wanted us over to get familiar with the site. After dinner, we returned to Tim and Paula with Nels and Jakob joining us die a couple nights. This is the longest we’ve stayed with a family, and honestly the consistency is nice. They took us out to Kopp’s, an amazing custard place, and feed us sloppy joe’s for a second dinner, which we will take any day of the week.