CityServe Middle School Mission Trip - Day Two

Our group had another wonderful day learning, encountering, experiencing, and observing on our mission trip.  It was hot, but the group had a great attitude, even when we were uncomfortable.

This morning, we had the chance to visit and meet the volunteers in charge of the feeding program at St. Luke’s.  It is truly and impressive and inspired ministry – serving over 100 people each day.  It is completely volunteer run and is the primary mission of this church to the neighborhood.  Ballard is an interesting place.  It is a hip, urban spot in the city – complete with thriving, trendy restaurants and bars, and enormously expensive housing.  Yet there is a substantial homeless population that calls Ballard home as well.  There is a park directly across the street from St. Luke’s that is a gathering place for many of the homeless people during the day.  The public library (also across the street) is another place that many homeless people spend their time at.  When we are aware and paying attention to who is around us, the contrast and diversity is very apparent.  I wonder how much we choose not to see the majority of the time.

We had the opportunity to spend some time with a gentleman who has been coming to the St. Luke’s feeding ministry for about a year.  His name is Robert and he has been homeless for about that long.  Robert has a college degree, had a successful corporate career, and owned a home in Ballard for a long time.  Three years ago, he had 6-way heart bypass surgery, for which his insurance paid less than half of the $500,000 bill.  That catastrophic medical event caused him to lose his job and his house.  Robert’s story showed us that people are homeless for a variety of reasons – reasons we oftentimes don’t know unless we take the time to listen.  Robert encouraged us to not make assumptions about people living on the streets.  We spent some time thinking about our stereotypes of homeless people.  We thought of things like: dirty, addicted, they did something wrong, they made bad choices, they’re dangerous, unfriendly, lazy, or scary.  And then we thought about Robert.  Words we used to describe him were: smart, friendly, educated, employable, outgoing, kind, and normal. 

After our time with Robert, we went on a walking tour of Ballard with the Rev. Britt Olson from St. Luke’s.  She showed us a sobering memorial in the park across the street.  There are gold leaves in the sidewalk with names of all the people who have died while living on the streets of Seattle.  Robert told us that being homeless is lonely and scary.  It is also dangerous.  Our walking tour took us down to the Ballard Locks.

Names on the sidewalk in Ballard of those who have died living on the streets of Seattle. 

Our group at the Ballard Locks

This afternoon, we planned and shopped for the dinner we prepared for Union Gospel Mission’s women and children’s shelter in Belltown.  In the vein of our learning about and discussing the issue of homelessness, we spent some time thinking about poverty and how someone could possibly afford basic things like groceries.  Although all of our youth have been grocery shopping before, many had never thought about food prices and how they choose the things they (or their parents) purchase.  They did all the shopping, and did it on a tight budget.  They had to make choices and realized that food costs money and comes from somewhere besides their refrigerator.

Grocery shoprring!  Parents, your youth can be thoughtful about what they buy :)

After we prepared our meal, we loaded up in our van and headed to the shelter.  The shelter was hot and chaotic with dozens of children running around.  Our youth had a great time playing hide and seek or reading with the kids.  Their ministry was simply one of presence and laughter.  We received incredible hospitality, even though we thought we were the ones going to serve.  We can’t imagine what it would be like to sleep in an open room with only curtains dividing families into “bedrooms.”  But hopefully, our experiences today have helped us think differently about those who end up without a stable place to call home.

Serving the meal at the women and children's shelter. 

Our group outside of the shelter in Belltown.