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Monday, January 21, 2013

Chesed Mission 2013/5773: Day 5

What a great way to start off a new week here on Chesed Mission! We had a fun, action packed, chesed filled day. Our first stop was to Keren Or. Keren Or is an organization and school for children with disabilities and who are visually impaired. When we first walked in, it was very hard because we were definitely not in our comfort zone. We didn't really understand the situation that was going on. After 5 minutes, we were all able to get involved and we started dancing with all the children. All though many of the children couldn't see or hear us, they still knew we were there. It was truly an inspiring visit. Once the children went back to class, they took us to see their pool where they recieve hydrotherapy. It was beautiful.

We were then off to our next stop. We headed to Kever Shmuel. At the kever, our tour guide Daniel gave us a biblical lesson about King David and Shmuel Hanavi and their charachter traits. The view was beyond beautiful which gave us an awesome photo-op. Many of us went to pray next to the kever and the girls finished the whole book of tehilim while praying by the tomb.

We then got back on the bus and headed to a small mall to stop for a quick lunch. Our next stop was to Afikim, which is an after-school program for children that come from troubled homes. We sat with the children and interacted with them. We were given an arts and crafts project and made mezuzot. The children were adorable. We handed out backpacks at the end, took a group picture, and went back on to the bus.

On the way back to the hotel, we heard about our next event. The girls had a bat mitzvah program with girls from Sderot while the boys prayed mincha and packed bags for the rest of our trip. The bat mitzvah program was so much fun and inspirational! We sang and danced with the 20 girls from Sderot who were celebrating their bat mitzvah.  It cheered up their day and they enjoyed it. After the boys came up, the bat mitzvah girls left we were given the opportunity to meet teenagers from Sderot. We interacted with them and spoke about how their lives function daily with the dangers around them.

As night fell, we headed toward our second army base visit. We went to thank them for protecting our homeland. We sang tefilot at the base and handed out much needed supplies such as warm hats, scarves, and gloves. The soldiers were so thankful for what we gave them and they were smiling from ear to ear.

Day 5 of #TheMission was definitely one of the best. It was a full day of non-stop chesed from morning till night. I can't wait to see what the next few days will have in store.  ~Sylvia Dweck