Spring Break in the City: San Francisco

For those of you that don’t know, I spent last week (spring break) in San Francisco on a mission trip. In short, the trip was amazing. I had a great time in the city, but I also learned so much about myself, urban ministry, and about my fellow team members. There are so many wonderful stories I could tell, and an equally number of heart breaking stories. I feel as if I left a little part of my heart in SF.

One of the main things I learned personally about myself was that I can do urban ministry. I grew up in a rural environment, always hating cities. Homeless people scared me, as did the loud, noisy smelly cities that I associated with them. But throughout the course of the week I came to realize that what people on the streets, or in horrible living conditions really want is just to be humanized, the same as everyone else. We spent lots of time passing out food to people that had literally next to nothing, but what they wanted and needed more than the food was the conversation and a smile. It makes so much sense and I can’t believe that I never thought about it that way before.

Being faced with so much poverty was at times overwhelming and very difficult. I knew that poverty existed in the US but I had never seen it so clearly. I realize now that while doing missions overseas, and in other countries is important, it is also important to do so in the United States. You don’t have to go to Africa to find people that are hurting, broken, and desperately in need of Christ’s love and compassion. (this is not to say that missions not in the USA are in any means bad, but just that we should also look to inside our own borders for places to minister). An entire family living in a 10x10 room, with no bathroom or kitchen should not be acceptable here. I have no idea what the answer is to some many of the problems, but things need to change. For the sake of the kids we worked with, things need to change.

Walking around and seeing places that were most certainly brothels or sweatshops was really hard. We went on a prayer walk our last day in the city and learned just how much pain and hurt was in the three blocks surrounding the church where we stayed. I’m not sure I can go back to normal life after being faced with trafficking victims and girls that have aged out of the foster care system being used as sex slaves. Walking around the neighborhood that we had been staying in and learning just so of the many problems that are faced by that community made me feel physically ill.

I am so thankful for the life I had growing up. I always had a roof over my head, food on the table, and parents that I knew loved me and wanted the best for me in everything. I never had to call home as a six year old to remind my parents to come and get me, and I never had to worry that my parents might not come home at night. We take so much for granted.

I was so encouraged on this trip to see a church that is really doing hard work. I have been feeling a little disenchanted with the Church recently, but to be able to experience a church that really was reaching out to the lost and the hopeless, and pulling people back from the precipice is something that I am so thankful for.

Christ came to serve, but I think sometimes the church brushes aside the people that are uncomfortable or difficult to serve. I realized walking around SF that our culture has made a new kind of lepers. In the Bible we read about the lepers, the outcasts of society, that people couldn’t touch; they wouldn’t even look them in the eye; they were completely ignored. How many of us do the same thing with people on the street? I know I am guilty of this. If we see a homeless person we just walk around them, not even giving them a smile. By doing this we have dehumanized them and deprived them of respect and dignity.

After this last week, I definitely want to go back to SF. I feel like there is so much more I can learn at the church we worked with. I went on this trip because I knew that where ever I end up for medical school it will mostly likely be in an urban environment. I wanted to learn something about the issues and problems that Christians face in that type of ministry. I came back with so much more. I feel encouraged that it is possible to find the balance between pure evangelism and just giving people a sandwich and a blanket on the road to Hell. I feel more confident that if I do end up working and ministering in an urban setting I can do so. I want to help the people that no one else is. The world is filled with broken people that desperately need Christ’s love and compassion. I want to find a small corner and stand between the gates of Hell and the hopelessness of the world.

~Laura