Old People can be Cool Too

Today our church had signed up to spend the morning helping a couple elderly women w/ various errands and tasks around their house. When I visited Austin a couple months ago with Kavin, I was able to get to meet Ms. King as we spent time helping with yard work. As we were pruning bushes, cutting down branches, etc, it was cool just learning about her story. At first, she was a bit wary of us (we were three Asian people and one White man) and didn't really talk much, but seeing us working hard for so long, she slowly opened up.

Side story: when we mentioned that we were part of a local church, she asked if Jorgy was our pastor. hahaha!

Anyways, when I heard we got to help out at her house again, I was really excited to see her again. Our group was definitely a lot larger than last time, but when she saw us coming up, it was great to see how excited she was to see us. Even though it was really difficult for her to walk around and maneuver, she wanted to help us as much as she could. Her demeanor towards us was so open and warm; it was such a beautiful sight to see her getting to know the other people in the group.

After a couple hours, we had finished all the jobs she laid out for us, and some of us were just chilling w/ her on the porch. As we were talking, I had asked her about the local churches she was a part of, and then she went around asking us about our personal faith. At first it was a bit off-putting being asked all these questions which I had always considered so elementary. During our conversation, she asked me when I was "born again". As I started answering, I mentioned that, "I was born into a Christian family..." I was promptly interrupted by her mini-sermon about the importance of being able to consciously dedicate our life to Christ. (hahah!) It was pretty funny, but still really cool to see someone at her age so passionate about living for God.

I've always been wary of spending a lot of time around elderly people, probably because I don't like the idea of getting attached to them and having to deal with their eventual death, but I realize how much can be learned from just spending time with them. Hmm... maybe there is something to be said about the whole mentorship thing.