Little Traveler: Lourdes Mission Trip (10-day break continued)

Those doing the Lourdes mission trip were required to be in Lourdes by midnight on Saturday and were allowed to leave Friday afternoon, which gave us some time in the beginning and end to travel wherever else we wanted to go during our 10-day break. We were planning to go to Marseille at the beginning (which obviously didn't work out), and Paris after. Even though we ended up in Paris at the beginning, we didn't get to see much so we decided going after would be fine too!

So we got to Lourdes about 7 hours earlier then planned. Some of that time we spent walking around the little shops. Our dress code for the week was black pants and white shirt, but Sarah didn't have black pants so she found some in Lourdes during that time. We were pretty hungry but decided not to eat yet since it was only 4:30. So we went to drop our stuff off at the Ave Maria where we were going to be staying for the week, then go get food. We checked in with Pam for the mission trip. She and Marlene are coordinators with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality and were our mothers for the week - they were such wonderful, hard working people and everyone just loved them! Well, when we checked in, Pam was so excited to see us she just took us under her arm and we ended up getting sucked into mass, a short tour and dinner with the older volunteers from North American Lourdes Volunteers who had arrived earlier that day. Having not eaten a solid meal the whole day, it was quite a struggle waiting to eat, but during our tour we learned the poverty of St. Bernadette and at one time during the tour Pam told us Bernadette was cold, tired and hungry running down to the Grotto. Definition of how I felt during that tour :P So the whole afternoon ended up being a huge blessing even though it started out a little miserable.

On Sunday, we attended International Mass in the Underground Basilica and had an orientation meeting to give the volunteers a feel of how the week was going to look. On Monday, our group of about 28 people flew in from the United States. These people had a range of difficulties that brought them to Lourdes for spiritual and physical healing. One man brought his wife battling cancer, we had a quadriplegic, a paraplegic, and many older people many of which needed wheelchairs. The 35 students that came to volunteer in Lourdes were split into different jobs. I worked in dining service where we didn't have to cook or do dishes, but served the pilgrims at every meal and cleared their dishes up after them. In addition to meals we were always available to assist them when attending different events in Lourdes like mass, rosaries, processions, tours, Stations of the Cross, etc. At the beginning of the trip the pilgrims shared the reason they came to Lourdes and these stories were incredibly eye-opening. Each of these people had suffering to deal with that I couldn't even imagine because I hadn't experienced it for myself. Then after the trip everyone shared again the highlights and blessings of the week and every single person in that room was transformed in some way.

I think the most important lessons I learned during this mission trip was the power of service and the true meaning of suffering. Someone told me studying abroad in Austria was amazing, but that the Lourdes mission trip really made Austria amazing. I can now say I definitely agree :)

Here are some pictures!