Youth With A Purpose!

The youth from First United Methodist Church participated in a mission/service learning trip to inner city Chicago this summer. Prior to their departure, they came up with the following goals for the trip using the acronym PURPOSE: (P )push down stereotypes, (U) use our talents for the greater good, (R) respect others, (P) praise God, (O) open our minds to different ideas/opinions, (S) serve others, (E) explore different cultures. The youth worked with the Center for Student Missions to learn about the diverse population of people living in the heart of Chicago as well as the many causes of poverty and homelessness. During the trip, they volunteered at a number of different ministries including; Carole Robertson Head Start Center, Chicago Food Depository, Good News Soup Kitchen, & Cornerstone Community Outreach Shelter. They also participated in activities such as ethnic plunge, meet a need, city prayer tour, and immersion. Upon our return, Brooke Burrows, a rising freshman at Brevard High School, compiled her thoughts about the experience…

Without the use of our normal electronic diversions (ipods, cell phones, computers, you name it), the prospect of a thirteen hour car ride to a faraway city was more than a bit unsettling for myself and my nine peers. Loaded down with luggage, snacks, and a handy deck of cards we set out from our small town, not sure what to expect from the Windy City. As you can imagine, being crammed into a van or car for a long period of time with others leads to a certain type of intimacy that can come only from being used as a pillow or counting cows on the side of the road together. With that said, you can’t imagine the relief felt upon seeing the tall buildings and traffic pile-ups that signaled our arrival into Chicago with all the rush and hustle of a big city.

After ample time to rest and unpack in the quaint but spacious dorms at North Park University, we soon set out once again, this time to meet our two guides sent from the Center for Student Missions. Both Christina with her cheeky sarcasm and Anne with her kind presence became invaluable to our group, giving us useful insights into the city while also being fun companions. Following our brief introduction with Anne and Christina, we set out for dinner to what became the first of many delicious and ethnic meals including Thai and Mexican food. As we walked down the neighborhood on our way to find Ecuadorian cuisine, the diversity and variety of cultures became increasingly apparent as we passed Korean churches, Middle Eastern food marts, and a plethora of signs in Spanish. Later on in the week during our “Ethnic Plunge” we would have a chance to explore the neighborhood we stayed in, Albany Park, with greater depth as we completed a scavenger hunt looking for items from spicy fava beans to Asian snack foods. It was at that time that we fully become aware of how living in an area where eighteen different languages are spoken can be both fascinating and very confusing at the same time.

Not long after stuffing ourselves full of fried, cheesy empanadas and tasty plantains, we all piled back into our church van to take a prayer tour of the city. Driving in silence with the sunlight fading, Christina navigated us through different sections of town, some touristy and upbeat while others broken and in poverty. Throughout the roughest areas, flashing blue lights indicated crime-infested neighborhoods and gave off an intimidating presence, causing everybody in the van to survey our surroundings more gravely. In many places, you could clearly see the effects of gentrification; the process of restoration of deteriorated urban property by the middle class or wealthy, often causing the displacement of people with lower incomes. Expensive and well-kept apartments in cookie cutter patterns would stare at across the street, facing the crumbling remains of housing projects being torn down with people still living in them. Driving out away from downtown, we really had a chance to see the irony of the city-the towering buildings and the bright lights of Navy Pier compared to the dark and dim corners where the homeless and poor slept. This two-sided image of Chicago was later reinforced the next day when we were separated into three groups, given directions, a map, and two dollars per person and instructed to make our way around town along with finding dinner. The last part of this task was to interview various people and ask their opinion about what they liked about Chicago, what they thought were problems here, and lastly what could be done to fix these problems. Between the three very different people my group asked, we came up with responses that included, “There are no problems here” to “Everything is an issue, gangs, crime, homelessness, in fact, I’m moving”. Being able to see the city from the eyes of locals like that had a strong impact on our perceptions of the town and prepared us for the work we would be doing during the week.

Following our immersion into Chicago, we spent many hours serving the community in a variety of ways that included organizing potatoes at a food depository to sorting clothes at a homeless shelter. Sometimes the work wasn’t always very pleasant (I’ve seen and smelled enough rotten potatoes to last a lifetime) but regardless of what we were doing, we managed to stay upbeat and dedicated to our jobs. This positive attitude stemmed from the knowledge that what we did truly benefited others and we could make a difference, if only in a few lives. Starting early Monday morning, helping out at a local head start program for children became the only constant activity we did throughout the week and it really impacted our group. The Carole Robertson Learning Center borders both a Latino community and an African American community and provides a safe and secure learning environment for children of all ages. Splitting up into pairs, we spent the early hours of the day going into different classrooms to read, sing, and interact with young kids. Although all of the children we worked with were adorable and sweet, it became obvious in some situations that they had come from hard backgrounds, maybe living in poor conditions or without a loving family to support them. On our last day visiting the Carole Robertson Center, we helped to set up a fun game day with activities from soccer and bowling to making picture frames. After all of the classes had a chance to rotate through the different sports and crafts, we had to say goodbye, leaving with lots of hugs and hand drawn pictures.

I had many amazing experiences in Chicago, but one of the most powerful was learning to break down barriers and look past stereotypes and judgments. This was never more apparent then by helping to provide basic necessities to the homeless and also working at the Good News Soup Kitchen. After eating at a local pizza restaurant, our group found that we had a good amount of food left over and we decided to go to a safe area of town to offer the leftover pizza to anyone hungry or in need of it. This was at first an intimidating and frankly scary idea, but we soon realized that most anybody we talked to on the streets was both kind and gracious. In fact, many people seemed to just want to be listened to, being often ignored or looked down upon because of their poverty. Working at the soup kitchen also gave us a chance to get to know people past their appearance or standing in society as we prepared and served dinner for about 200 people. Those two events opened my eyes to how important it is to treat everyone with respect and to do what you can to help out. So, at the end of the week, everybody was ready to go home and see their family and friends, but at the same time didn’t want to leave the city. We all had gone through so many life-changing events that opened our eyes to the many problems and issues found in communities all over the world, but also let us see the possible solutions. Overall, this mission trip to Chicago reminds me of a quote by Henry Miller, ‘One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.’