Reflections on our Justice Journey from Kevin

Kevin here. I'm one of the adults of JC/DC from Albuquerque. It's been almost a week since our return to Albuquerque from Salt Lake City. It was an amazing week spent giving service to our Lord and the people of the Salt Lake Valley. Our travels back to Albuquerque were uneventful  The youth were really tired and slept a lot. We still shared lots of laughs and stories on our 10 hour trek back to the Land of Enchantment. Speaking of being tired, I think I've finally caught up on my sleep. :-)

As I look back on our time in Salt Lake, I am truly amazed at what we were able to do and all the people that we were able to work with and help in our time there. We split the Albuquerque and Salt Lake youth up into 3 different smaller groups and rotated our time between 3 days of service. I was one of the adults in group "A".

Monday, we started the day with worship outside lead by the youth of JC/DC (as we did every morning). After worship, as a whole group (all Albuquerque & SLC youth), we spent our time learning about suicide and bullying prevention from Dr. Supiano. She was really amazing and led the group in some amazing discussion. After lunch, we engaged in some team building activities with the help of some amazing leaders from Sky Ranch. With our team building activities under our belts, we split up into our groups to go on a scavenger hunt in Downtown Salt Lake City.

The youth engaged in team-building activities

On Tuesday, as Group A, we started our morning at Westminster College. As part of the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, our youth were interviewing veterans and video recording their stories. I think everyone was expecting to interview older people (me included). Instead, we had 2 amazing veterans in their 20s. The youth really seemed to connect with them. After the interviews, we delivered food to senior citizens via the Utah Food Bank.

The youth with one of the veterans (Third from the right)

Wednesday we drove out to Magna, UT on the far west side and spent our morning working at the Magna Community Garden. After our time at the Magna Community Garden, we made an impromptu trip up this hill near Magna to an old cemetery there. We happened to run across an older woman who was taking care of her family plot. We learned from her that she was dieing of cancer and that her days were numbered. She told us about her life, including losing her brother to polio. We then spent the afternoon playing with refugee children at the Sunnyvale Neighborhood Center. For those who don't know, Salt Lake City has a large refugee population.

The youth were getting hungry

At the Magna Community Garden with our shovel "friends"

Helping at the Sunnyvale Neighborhood Center

Thursday we started the morning at Crossroads Urban Center. They have a section of land that had gotten overgrown. We helped them cut back / remove a lot of indian tobacco that had grown up so that a group the next week could lay down new weed mat and gravel. After our time at Crossroads, we made a quick stop at The Road Home to drop off some items and then continued on to the Homeless Youth Resource Center, where we were serving dinner to homeless youth and teens. We also helped the HYRC restock their food pantry they have. Salt Lake City also has a large homeless population, which includes teens and young adults, including a number of people who identify as LGBT.

Ryan hacking his way through the overgrown weeds at Crossroads

Ben and Ryan literally "cooling off" in the walkin freezer at Crossroads

The youth of Group A serving dinner at the HYRC

Friday was our fun day. A little before lunch time, the whole combined group drove up to the Utah Olympic Park near Park City, UT and spent the afternoon enjoying the great outdoors. For the first time that week, the highs were only around 75 degrees (compared to with the high 90s and 100s we had seen all week). Up at the UOP, we got to see the Comet Bobsled (Video) ,a summer Bobsled you can ride, and the summer aerial training splash pool where people would slide down ramps on skis and "jump" into a pool (Video).

Some of the youth and adults in front of curve 11 of the bobsled course

Someone jumping in to the aerial training splash pool

Friday afternoon, for the Albuquerque youth, after saying goodbye to our new Salt Lake City friends who returned to their homes, we went back downtown to tour Mormon Temple Square and learned more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We saw both the South and North Visitors Centers, The Assembly Hall, and the Tabernacle. Returning to the church that evening, it was so quiet. No longer was there 25 + people buzzing around, but instead just the 8 of us from Albuquerque. It was a little weird. While we knew it had to come to an end, I don't think any of us ever truly spent time thinking about what that was going to feel like.

The grounds of Temple Square are amazingly beautiful 

The Assembly Hall

The organ in the Tabernacle

In the north visitors center there is a rather large statue of Jesus

Saturday, we set out on the 10.5 hour journey back home. Incase you ever wondered what the stuff of 8 people crammed into an 8 person vehicle looks like, I will leave you with this last picture. :-)