What a day we had! I switched over to one of our other teams
that had Patty Sutton as their leader.
Today we went to a day shelter for homeless people. When we arrived we split up into teams to do
various jobs inside and outside the building.
I took two of the teens outside to clean up around the facility. It was a little hard to do this at first because
there were many homeless people already outside watching everything we do. And a lot of what we had to clean up was from
them: cigarette butts, wine bottles, beer cans, etc. It was hard for me from the stand point that
there were 3 large trashcans right in the area they hang out yet the evidence
of their vices were littered all over the ground. But the teens and I did our best and as we
were cleaning we got to talking to some of the homeless people. I eventually got them to move so that I could
clean up around the bench that some of them were sitting on. There was one guy in particular that seemed
very outgoing towards everyone but extremely intoxicated also. He reminded me of the coalminer in “Blazing
Saddles”. He meant well, but it was very
hard to understand him. Once we cleaned
up the outside we checked in with the other groups inside. There we some teens cleaning up shelves in
the back, some were helping make lunch, some were helping in the laundry area,
and some helped with serving and cleaning up lunch when all was done. This was an intense experience for me in that
there were so many homeless compacted in one area. The entire cafeteria was filled and all the other
serves were very busy with people coming in and out. Being there for the first time was hard
feeling like a complete outsider. I knew
that if I would have been here for a week or so I would feel more comfortable
getting to know some of them. But being
there for the first day I felt good about my ability to complete tasks yet
nervous about reaching out to the people. Our teens did really well with
everything that was asked of them. Just
as we were leaving the homeless facility one of the guys who was there stopped
us and prayed for us. It was a very meaningful
and touching prayer that he said for our team.
After that we went to a
church called Family Affair Ministries.
This church was having a day camp for their elementary age kids. Many of our teens had the opportunity to
spend time with the kids playing out on the playground, playing sports and also
watching them prepare for their program they were working on for their closing
program. It was a really nice church and
once again the kids were just amazingly wonderful to spend time with for the afternoon. Our teens did a great job warming up to the
kids and integrating in with them all throughout the day.
We then left and went to
dinner. The group I was with went to an
Indian restaurant. It was amazing
food. We all ate really, really well. The other groups went to a Vietnamese and
Ethiopian restaurant. They came back
with not so glowing reviews. Some of it
was good, some of it wasn’t.
For the evening all of our
teams ended up at Family Affairs Ministries church for a concert. We were the first group to arrive when the
evening already started. It began with
the pastor of the church who gave a challenge that was bold, loud and bordering
on Pentecostal. She was amazing and
extremely compelling and you knew you were in trouble if you yawned or looked
bored. Then the singer started up and
she was really, really good. At first
all of our teens were sitting together looking like the suburbanite,
middle-class, vanilla folks that stood out from the rest. But half way into the concert our teens were
dancing with all of the church kids and celebrating and worshiping
together. You began to get a picture of
what the kingdom
of God will look like one
day. It was an awesome sight. Our teens were spiritually energized from the
experience.
We came back to our home
base and had our debriefing time. There
were many stories about serving in a mobile soup kitchen, playing with kids,
working at an urban garden, and interacting with all types of people.
All the teens are in bed now
and we are getting ready for another day!
Tomorrow is our “Urban experience” exercise and it should be a great
activity for the teens to learn about the challenges of homelessness. This was a powerful experience on the New York trip so I am
looking forward to watching the teens go through this and hearing their
stories.
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