Week 5: Sunshine and Stories!

O, glorious sun! I was on day crew again this week and boy was it sunny - not a cloud in that great big sky. Of course, we all have wonky-looking tans since the sun is always either in front of us, on our right, or behind us. Our left sides are still rather pasty.

In any case, this has been a week full of little adventures. We were in Saskatoon for the weekend. It’s a really nice-looking city. On Saturday, we prayed in front of the hospital for about an hour. We didn't get any responses, just fascinated looks (which is our goal). The Churches were again extremely supportive. I went to a small Redemptoris Church with Cesar and Nellie. It was really nice. Our team ended up going to this Church for Monday morning Mass, since it was the closest and earliest.

(Alright so here come the cool stories!)

Our team went to Monday morning Mass. The night shift people were exhausted as always - nodding their heads and trying to keep awake at Mass. Of course I was fine. So the priest began with his homily and as he was speaking, I noticed a young mother was struggling with her toddler. She then proceeded towards the washroom with her toddler and baby in arms. She then turned, held her baby out and said to me “Have a baby.” I didn’t even know who this woman was. It was great! Obviously she knew I could handle holding her child for a bit. And we all had our PRO LIFE shirts on, so clearly she knew what she was doing. That was Monday.

On Tuesday, we were invited to a Pro-Life BBQ in Moose Jaw. Two hours from where we were walking. Those of us on day crew knew that our day would be shorter so we really wanted to keep up a good pace in order to get in as much distance as we could. Of course, nothing ever goes as we plan here on Crossroads. So here we were parked on the side of the road ready to switch up the shift. Lindsay and Cesar had just gotten back and it was now time for Nellie, Ben and I to walk. Nellie and I were behind the van waiting for Ben as usual. Now here comes the exciting part. Nellie had just bent down to look at the license plate of our van when all of a sudden a truck zoomed past us and we had just enough time to see the back window shatter! The crazy thing is: we never found the object that hit the window. And I am certain that whatever it was it did not bounce off the windows because I was the glass go into the van and I didn’t see anything come out. We all had our theories. Cesar was convinced that someone threw a rock and it bounced off. Alex thought it was aliens. Typical.

So anyway, needless to say we stopped our walking at this time. We weren’t able to get a new window until the next day, so the Speedy Glass Repair people just covered it with plastic.

On Wednesday, we had to walk until midnight so we could let the night crew sleep some more. They hadn’t gotten much sleep since they were the ones who had to wait for the van to be fixed. So we walked into the night, with the beautiful pink sunset behind us followed by a raging fleet of mosquitoes. So here comes the exciting part: Nellie, Cesar and I got into the car to drive it 6km up for Lindsay and Ben. The car wouldn’t start. The battery died. Thank goodness for Nellie’s membership to CAA! In half an hour, we were given a boost and we continued with our night.

On Thursday, we went to a lady’s house for breakfast in Davidson. We had contacted the Church nearby to ask if there was a Mass we could go to. I guess she was the secretary of some sort. So she and her two friends cooked us a hardy breakfast. We then proceeded to go to a Mass celebrated just for the ten of us! They also gave us a great big poster to put on the back of our RV which reads “Take my hand not my life” and there is a picture of an adorable baby.

Later on in the day, I was sitting in the van parked at the gas station. Ben and Alannah were inside getting water. Just then, a man walked over to the van. I opened the door and he asked what we were doing. So I explained it to him. And he pulled out some money, handed it to me and said “have a safe walk.” Cool, eh? Later on in the day, Ben and I were walking and we happened upon a man stuck in his car with no gas. He rolled down his window and asked us what we were doing. He asked us if we were hungry (which we weren’t because we had just eaten some food), but he managed to convince us to take some of his wife’s famous banana bread. It was actually pretty good!

On Friday, Ben and I were walking and a man slowed down and asked us “Hey! Can I donate now?” We motioned to him that our van was just a little up the road. So he stopped behind the van and he chatted with the others for a bit and told them how he was very pro the sanctity of human life!