Blessed to Be a Blessing

‘Blessed to be a blessing’ is a quote that I love. I heard it at church over the summer and continue to find it more and more true in my life. And even though StreetFest 2011 wrap-up is officially complete as of October, 1, I will not soon forget this summer and how amazingly blessed I am to have had the opportunity to be a blessing to others in just a small way. For a short time following StreetFest, it was hard to see the positive outcomes. The evaluations that
flooded in were encouraging at times, but also discouraging at others- seeing what went bad, what didn’t run smoothly, what could have gone better, and so on.


BUT, Just a few days ago, a transfer student stopped in the office and asked me how he could get involved with StreetFest next year!! A transfer student! Who liked StreetFest! Who now wants to get involved! Ahh!!! This just about made my day. Ok not even just about, it DID make my day. Some days, the awesomeness of what was StreetFest 2011 still catches me off guard.

Anyways… this run-in was just one more reminder for me of how the work we do isn’t really about us and what we get from it, but rather it’s about inspiring other people to get involved – and that THAT is the best outcome. In the big picture things won't always go perfectly, and there will always be people who don’t enjoy StreetFest, but what’s more important and trumps all of that is that some people actually DO like it, or maybe even love it! Those stories are the ones that make all the work worth it, because in the long run it’s about helping people find the ‘on-ramp’ to the highway of living as a lifelong service-learner. That's what we do here at the Service-Learning Center and I will forever be glad to do so.

Now and always I am be blessed to be a blessing.

What about you?

Emily