ALABAMA
For our trip to Alabama, the crazy journey really started three weeks before we left. We had to cancel our trip to South Bend because of circumstances out of our control and were left with 35 excited students and nowhere to take them! In the next three weeks, God visibly opened doors and cleared a path for our team to pile in a bus and head down to Alabama. The trip to South Bend had quickly transformed into “The Trip to the South!”
After a 15 hour bus ride, we finally arrived in Jasper, Alabama. The first thing that that told us we weren’t home anymore was the heat! In Ohio we don’t experience heat anything like what hit us there. Still, our students were thrilled to be there and eager to get to work. The next morning we all got back in that bus we were so accustomed to by then and traveled to Cordova, Alabama, a city 20 minutes away. The city of Cordova was one of the hardest hit by the tornadoes that blew through that area. Initially hit by an E2 tornado, the town was blasted again by an E4 tornado in that same day.
What we saw there was complete devastation. This town had been rocked by the storms and was limping around in the process of rebuilding. People there had physical needs, such as food, shelter and water, but had an even more pressing need. After all of the destruction, damage and death the people of Cordova were left wondering, “Why? How could this happen to us?”
They needed help rebuilding their town…but what they really needed was HOPE.
Working with a local church that had rose to the challenge acted as a “city on a hill (Matt 5:14),” the first thing we did was split up into teams and go door to door, checking on residents to see if they had any unmet needs. Later, we went to the sites of demolished houses and cleaned up the wreckage. We pulled out tree stumps and picked up debris. We gathered donations and sorted them into boxes. Most of all, we showed the love of Jesus to a broken city.
Students shared the Gospel to people they met on the streets and lived out the Gospel with their actions. Testimonies were given that shouted praise to the One who has saved us. The team bonded on that trip like few others have and the most telling evidence was that the students all packed in the very back of the bus on the way home, as if to see how many could fit in those couple seats. Songs were sung on the trip back, but none as loud as “Sweet Home Alabama!” As that song says, we hope to “go back home” to her soon.
PHILLY
It was with great anticipation that our group rolled out of Wooster Grace’s parking lot on June 26th en route to Philadelphia, PA. For one whole week we served one of the city’s most impoverished places: Kensington Neighborhood. At first, all we saw were the row houses, the broken glass and trash on the street, the gansters dealing drugs. But then came Monday morning: our first day of Kingdom Kids Camp (KKC). KKC seeks to bring children from all over the community for a two week camp to learn about Jesus (we served for the second week). Our students served as camp leaders teaching them of the peace God offers in Jesus.
Our team grew close not only during the time at KKC, but also during evening ministry excursions to different parts of the city. One night we visited the Cambodian neighborhood of town, a place steeped in the Buddhist religion, and conversed with locals. Another night, we journeyed toLoveParkby elevated train to give out boxed dinners to homeless and tangibly demonstrate the love of Christ. And amidst the business of the week, we even got a chance to sight see, like when we rode through the city on Wednesday night on a double-decker bus (complete with a quick bus stop to run up the Art Museum stairs).
All in all, while our team came to give our lives for the people Philly, we ended up gaining even more. The trip taught us that Christ was burdened for the needs of people, so much that he’d shoulder our ultimate need and die on a cross. As followers of Him, we learned that meeting the needs of others begins with the tangible and leads ultimately to helping meet their eternal need for Jesus.
“Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in [Philly].”
SAN FRAN
Arriving in San Francisco this year with our team of 35 students and adults could not have been described as anything other than a wake up call! As we walked into the Tenderloin, San Fran’s condemned neighborhood of drug addiction, homelessness and perversion, with our bags in tow, our surroundings took our breath away. Is this really where we are staying? Will we be safe here? No sooner had we dropped our bags off at YWAM (Youth With A Mission) were we out on the streets to build relationships with the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40).
Our group, split up into six street teams (5-6 people) covered the Tenderloin with prayer, friendly service, and the love of Christ for a whole week. Sometimes, ministry looked like a cup of hot chocolate to a lady shivering in the cold. Other times, it was sitting beside a runaway and sharing our lunch with him. All of our teams were given the opportunity to feel some of the inconveniences of having no place to call home. On Wednesday morning at 7:00am, our team was put out on the street by YWAM without breakfast, a shower, or brushing our teeth. All we had was the clothes on our backs (which by the way were the same clothes we wore the day before and slept in!). Through this experience, and many more, we learned what it meant to have compassion for people. Ultimately, while a sandwich or cup of hot chocolate might meet an immediate need, caring for the people of the Tenderloin district really meant introducing them to a relationship with the Son of God, Jesus.
Pray for the San Fran team. We have a big task up ahead of us, now. Who will we be among our peers and family back home? Do we care enough to speak of Jesus and offer Him to another? After all, sharing with people the hope we have found in our Christ is just like a beggar telling another beggar where to find food. After serving those who lived from day with day with little food, now we see that the spiritual needs where we live now are just the same in Wayne County. San Fran is only the beginning of a whole life on mission.
“You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor. You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore. And when You could just stay silent and leave us here to die, still You sent Your Son for us – You are on our side.”
