This year's senior high mission team, consisting of Dylan Devine, Paul Devine, Rhonda Dunbar, Blair Klostermeier, Marin Klostermeier, and Zach Roman, participated in Urban Mission Camps. Government Street Presbyterian Church (GSPC) in Mobile, Alabama, has sponsored Urban Mission Camps for over 20 years. During the week we lived, worshipped, and fellowshipped at Baytreat with the youth and adults from First Presbyterian Church in Bentonville, Arkansas, along with GSPC seminary intern Emily Martin. Every evening after Bible study, our group reflected through the use of art, music, writing, and questioning.
Our Mission Sites for the week included:
- Dumas-Wesley Community Center has a day program for children 18 months to 14 years old and a senior citizen program. We spent an afternoon visiting with the senior citizens.
- L'Arche is a community of adults with mental and physical handicaps that live together with non-handicapped adults. We spent a morning at their activity center and had worship and dinner with L'Arche at Baytreat.
- 15 Place is a day center for the homeless where they can shower, get mail, wash clothes, have job interviews and eat. We ate lunch at 15 Place Monday-Wednesday.
- Waterfront Rescue Mission is a homeless shelter and drug/alcohol rehabilitation center. Our group ate dinner with the residents and attended Bible study.
- Coffee Club offers a hot breakfast for the poor and homeless every weekday morning at GSPC. On Thursday our group attended the optional Bible study offered prior to breakfast and served breakfast to about 100 people.
- Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama engage children and youth from lower income and indigent families in Mobile and Baldwin Counties in a variety of programs.
- South Alabama Cares' mission is to provide support, assistance, and education to people affected by HIV and AIDS and to provide HIV prevention education to communities in Southwest Alabama. We heard the personal story from a case manager and completed yard work at their apartment complex.
Dumas-Wesley
- Dylan Devine
On Wednesday we went to Dumas-Wesley which is a center for children and seniors to stay during the day. We went to go hang out with the seniors. They sat in a long cafeteria room at tables. The first people I talked to were four elderly men playing cards at a table. Through the course of attempting to learn the game it was interesting to see how they interacted. They have come and played cards together everyday for years, and they know each other so well that they knew what each other had without having to speak to communicate. Later, we went to another table to talk to another group of people. Their faces seemed to light up as they began to open up to us. They spoke to us about their families and we learned their opinions on many things which was very enlightening. There was a man who was an ex-preacher. He was 92 years old and had been married for over 70 years. She had recently died, but he still expressed that he was blessed which I thought was amazing. All of the people there had stories of incredible courage and have lived amazingly full lives. But the best part is that they are not done yet. They are determined to keep living their lives to the fullest. I took a lot away from listening to these people and was grateful for the opportunity to do so.
L'Arche
- Zach Roman
Looking back at the time I spent in Mobile, Alabama for my fourth and final mission trip it was hard not to compare them all. This trip definitely topped them all in regards to location and actual housing. (It might actually top my home with location and pure beauty.) But this trip was at the very bottom in terms of my comfort level with what we were doing. A primary concern of mine was spending time with the L'Arche community, a place where people with disabilities and people without live together productively. We were to spend time with them in their activity center where most of them spend their days. Going in I was not comfortable at all with it, I just didn't know how things would be. How would we interact, what would we do? I had no idea what would happen. Our initial moments were a little strained, some introductions, a little mingling. Then we gathered to sing together and I was handed a wooden frog (from Bolivia) that I really had no idea how to play. But Eddie, who was in his wheelchair next to me, was an expert and showed me how to play it. I began to feel a little more comfortable. Once we went into craft time, I sat next to Eddie because I felt comfortable with him. We started making cards together, coloring paper with crayons and using stencils.
As we were making cards, Willie, a maverick-of-sorts, was dancing and just generally messing around. Dylan and I started playfully messing around with Willie. It ended up being Dylan and Willie versus me; Willie making faces at me, me making faces back, and Willie conspiring with Dylan. Somehow through our fun and games it was learned that I was ticklish, and extremely so. When I returned to my seat next to Eddie, Willie followed and started to tickle me. Eddie couldn't help but join and then Harry, another core member, also joined in. I was trapped and everyone gained some sort of enjoyment out of it. My reactions must have been hilarious because there was much laughter and picture taking by Rhonda. Strangely, I wasn't scared or nervous being tickled. I was completely relaxed, I saw Eddie, Willie, and Harry's faces light up when they tickled me. They were so happy.
But it was another smiling face that really made the week for me, it was from David. A few members of L'Arche joined us for dinner Wednesday and David was among them. He was really shy so no one was really talking to him. I went over and tried to start a conversation. Sometimes it was hard to understand him, but I think he enjoyed it because whenever I smiled at him he smiled back. When David smiled his whole face changed. It scrunched up and he showed all his teeth. When he smiled I couldn't help but feel happy myself.
People like David, Willie, Eddie and Harry made my pre-emptive uncomfortableness into complete comfort and even joy at the prospects of going to L'Arche.
Mission
- Rhonda Dunbar
If you ask an average person their definition of a mission trip a typical response would include some sort of physical labor. This week, though, has changed my definition of what it means to do mission work. Our entire group struggled at the beginning of the week because the majority of the "work" we completed involved talking and getting to know people we would not typically spend time with. Some of our work included listening to a man that is HIV positive share his story with us, playing with children from at-risk families, eating lunch everyday at a soup kitchen, visiting with senior citizens at a community center, and worshipping and fellowshipping with people with disabilities. During our group reflection time we struggled with whether or not we were doing anything to help. After an amazing time with Eddie, Harry, Willie, and David from L'Arche some of our group struggled with whether or not we made an impact. Chances are that David, Harry, Willie, and Eddie would not remember our names when we saw them the following day. Does general conversation during lunch affect someone's life? Does listening to another person's story have a long term impact on their life? Are we changing anything by being here?
I have come to the conclusion that the relationships I have built this week may not impact the lives of the people we encountered in the long term, but it does not matter. We still fellowshipped with one another and shared our stories and therefore we did mission. The people I had the privilege to talk to this week will have an everlasting impact on how I view others that are in similar situations. They changed my view of their circumstances and humanized their conditions. Regardless of whether or not Harry, Eddie, Willie, and David remember our names, the relationship we had with them will impact the rest of our lives.
Lunch At 15 Place
- Blair Klostermeier
When we were told that we were going to be spending our lunch time at a place where people can get a free lunch, it is safe to say that we all thought we would be taking turns serving lunch to the patrons. It turned out that we were going to be getting served ourselves. Three out of five days, we ate lunch in the company of the poor and homeless. The first day, to our surprise and dismay, we were sent to the front of the line because of our time constraints. That only added to the awkwardness of the meal. A positive was that afterward, we toured a very old and beautiful church the facility is connected to. The next two days, we spaced our entrances to 15 place to disperse ourselves among the other guests as a form of equalization. Upon entering, you sign your name and are given a number. A man at the front of the cafeteria calls numbers out ten at a time; you need to listen carefully, though; the room is noisy and he doesn't want to yell. As we gathered what comfort we could from our experience and each other, we went on to do what we could for some of Mobile's needy. There were discussions of life stories, family, recipes, advice, and how to get by.
Coffee Club
- Marin Klostermeier
Waking up at 5:00 in the morning to go serve breakfast to the homeless and poor is not what most kids would put together with the word exciting but our group did. The morning started with a Bible study that anyone could attend but they did not have to in order to receive breakfast. 24 people did come to the Bible study. At this point what surprised me the most was how even though they had so little and their lives were so hard they still praised God for the good that was in their life.
After Bible study we all went down to the dining room of GSPC and our group started to serve breakfast. Despite the constant questioning of my height (6'1"), serving grits to what came to be many familiar faces was the best part of my week. While breakfast was being served William (a homeless man that we got to know) played the piano. I just wish this experience could have happened sooner than Thursday because being exposed to a group of the poor and homeless in the positive and welcoming environment of GSPC would have made eating at 15 Place much easier.
Change
- Paul Devine
When I first heard that our mission trip would be "relational" rather than our normal "build/clean/paint/demolish" sort of mission trip, I'll admit that I was both confused and disappointed. Aren't we supposed to be here for service? Isn't the purpose of mission trips to build something? And what about the (admittedly selfish) satisfaction of looking at our project when it was complete? No picture of all of us standing in front of some wall or house or hole where a barn used to be, covered in sweat, smiling from ear-to-ear, full of the Spirit? How can this be? And how can having lunch with the homeless in Mobile really help them? Are we really called to just sit with the members of L'Arch, and talk? Is it "service" to merely be present, to talk, to listen, but not take what I deem to be action?
A large part of me wanted to rebel. That really is no shock to most of you who know me. I have a bit of a tendency to push and am not really known for holding my tongue. I knew that I should push myself rather than those around me, so I did my best to be open and to try to see the benefit of sitting with others, instead of trying to "help" them. But the first part of the week seemed so frustrating to me. The first visit to 15 Place, a mission which serves lunch to the poor and homeless, had us bumping ahead in line, getting the same lunch that everyone else was getting, and sitting down to eat with the patrons there. We didn't serve lunch - we just ate and talked. It seemed like we were not only missing our opportunity to serve, but we were taking valuable resources by eating the very food that should have gone to the hungry! Granted, the people we were with were happy to see us. But even seeing the bright smiles of the people we ate with, hearing their stories and sharing our own, seemed so temporary and transient.
It wasn't until later in the week that I began to embrace the idea that, perhaps we were doing something good. Even if the people that we met would not remember our conversation, or even who we are, I would remember. And, even though I didn't come on this trip for my own benefit, I started to see that, by my remembering, by changing me, this mission would have an effect far beyond one conversation. It would affect who I am, and the way that I see thing, and, perhaps, lead me to change things where I live, affecting far more lives than just those in Mobile. And it has. I see now that I am called to action, not just in Mobile, but in St. Louis, in Missouri, and even in the whole United States. Sitting and talking, rather than simply serving, has shown me that the homeless are not merely recipients, not just victims, but my brothers and sisters. It has humanized the poor for me. It has shown me that it is too easy to dismiss the "faceless" poor, to placate ourselves with the idea that we have given something, or built something. It has shown me that it is far too easy to become homeless in this country. It is caused not just by addiction or mental illness, but also by a lack of affordable healthcare. The homeless are not just "that guy in the street" but families who had to choose between paying for a medical procedure and paying the rent. Homelessness is a brutal and curable disease in this country - a country where no one should be forced to make an unconscionable choice between the health of a loved one and a place to live. I thank God that the Urban Mission in Mobile gave me the opportunity to see that.
Excerpt from Nelly's " 'N Dey Say"
With his sign will work for food, clothes or cash
and he asked if he could pump my gas, so I let him
Clean the windshield and throw out the trash, so I let him (Hey)
I even asked a brother his name, where he was from,
got kids man and what's their ages
He kinda stuttered for a second, he kinda looked surprised
that anyone would even take an interest in his life
He said young brother dem the only words I done heard
in the last year that wasn't no or get the f*** away from here
How could somthin so simple as general conversation
Mean much more than general conversation? (Hey)
David LaMotte
"Don't let anybody tell you you can't change the world. The fact is you can't be in the world and not change it. Everything you do changes the world. It is just a question of what changes you are going to make."