5P21 Ministry

Since I'm currently unemployed (but I am working, I like to make that clarification) I decided that I could help out at church a little. I figured this was a good way to give back and to meet some new people. This is exactly what happened today and I had a wonderful time!

5P21 is the name of the clinic where HUMC serves lunch the third Friday of every month. The name stands for a protein that everyone has in their bodies but that is affected or mutated when a person becomes HIV positive. It's on the USC medical center campus and it also has a children's clinic counterpart just a block over. Every single day, Monday through Friday, a different organization serves lunch at the clinic where people go for testing and treatment. The patients at the clinic often have to wait all day for treatment and if they leave for lunch, they lose their "place" in line, that's where "we" come in.

I got to church at 9:30 where I was immediately put to work setting out food and then making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This is a ministry that has been going on for sometime with HUMC and runs like a well-oiled machine, or like a fifty-year old diner. The older woman in charge had very specific directions on everything to smashing the grape jelly with a fork before spreading it to how to cut and bag the sandwiches (in half, not diagonal, one per plastic baggie). Before we knew it there were 12 people in the kitchen which is apparently more people than they've ever had show up before. (This past Sunday the pastor had made a strong plea from the pulpit indicating their need for help, it worked.) So the sandwich making went fast.

But it was more than sandwich making. It was a chance for me to meet Jessie, a musician who's moving to Austin in four months to play his music. There was also Jenny, who moved to LA three weeks ago so her husband could go to Cal State for graduate school, there was Trixie, a woman in her fifties who had purple hair, there was Sarah who works at Starbucks for the health insurance (I know! I'm looking into it!), there was Ric who works in HIV/AIDS education for LAUSD, Dave who's an actor, and then there was Pauley. Yes, that Pauley (read a few blogs back if you need a refresher). And Emily who Ang and I have become friends with. It was a great time!

We had fun making sandwiches, joking about stealing spreaders, reminiscing about government cheese, and just generally enjoying each other's company. After we finished we cleaned up and headed off to the clinic. Jenny drove Emily and I and we had good conversations about our new LA experiences (all three of us have moved here in the past month) and I found out I am not the only one to fail the California drivers' exam. Jenny and her husband both failed it once (and she read the book!).

Once we got to the clinic we unloaded the food and set up in a waiting room. The volunteer coordinator, Nancy, who also works for LAUSD immediately grabbed me and asked me if I had a queasy stomach. I told her no and she took me back to the patient floor where three people were receiving IV drug treatments. We asked what they'd like to eat and after ascertaining they all wanted tuna (my Spanish does not include fish and they all spoke Spanish) we went back and made them plates. This time we added Pauley to our little group and we went back to the floor and then up to the women's floor. It was a great opportunity to interact with patients and staff and tell them about our lunch and thank them for their work.

A little while later Nancy, the volunteer coordinator (I FOUND OUT HER NAME!) (I wish I could remember her name - I know she's moving to a new apartment and has a 16 year old son and is positive, hopefully I see her again at church this week) grabbed Pauley and I again and we took food and headed off in her car to go to the children's clinic. This was a cool experience. There were only three kids in the playroom when we got there and one little boy was painting. He and I talked while I got him some lunch. His name was Abraham and he's in kindergarten but not today because he's sick. He told me Halloween's coming up and it's scary. He wants to dress up as a clown. He also told me his teacher at school is nice. All and all a good conversation! (I didn't even have to pull out my socks - I'd worn very colorful socks with a beach scene on them so if the kids wouldn't talk I could show them my socks and maybe get a smile out of them). While this was going on Pauley was holding a little press conference with staff and parents and it was pretty cool to see how happy people were to see her. Very cool actually.

Back at the adult clinic we cleaned up the food, took a picture for the pastor (she's very into technology and likes to show what people have been up to on Sunday mornings when she talks about it in the service), and headed home. But not before scoring some very cool Obama gear. I got t-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers, all courtesy of Pauley who makes and distributes the gear in support!