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Thursday
We gathered at church around noon, ate lunch, and had our opening
devotional talk on the topic of Poverty.
Much of our material from our discussions that Phil prepared for the
weekend came from the
Faith in Action Study Bible. We loaded the van and hit the road,
stopping off in Phil's
hometown of
Normal on the way. On
the trip, Phil drove, Jasmine and Robin got several truckers to honk at
us, and Amy, Jessica, and Raquel
played cards. We arrived in St. Louis at dinnertime and got to
our lodging:
Compton Heights Baptist Church.
A bug sighting caused a stir, as several members of our group were
uncomfortable sleeping on the floor with
them. We had a discussion, including the fact that there are bugs at our
church, and Robin said, "But we like
them bugs." We decided to move our belongings to a cleaner Sunday
school room to sleep. Still, Robin
and Jasmine claimed that they were not going to sleep for 3 days. Our
evening talk was about the Causes of
Poverty, and after some card playing and
pillow fighting
, most of us went to sleep.
Friday
We woke up in the 8:00 hour and headed to the mission: the
Christian Service Center of Gateway Homeless Services
. We arrived around 9:30, and there was another group from
Sterling, Illinois already there. The
Sterling group had around 25 people. We got a tour of the mission by the
director
Pamela Hastings.
The Christian Service Center is a shelter that works not simply to provide a meal for homeless people, but to prepare them to live and function on their own when they leave. This includes individuals and parents with children (mostly mothers). The process takes several steps. When residents first arrive and register, they sleep on the floor the gym with about 50 others and very little privacy. After a few weeks, they progress to a room upstairs with actual beds and only 10-15 roommates. As they continue to develop their independence, their last step is a private room on the top floor with either just their own family or only a few roommates. In the meantime, the Center provides assistance with counseling, job training, job searching, and housing. Residents are required to save enough money so that when they are ready to leave the shelter (after a stay of 6-12 months), they will have a deposit for an apartment and are ready to live on their own.
The Center has recently had funding cuts and as a result is understaffed. So the staff has its hands full with the day-to-day operations, and has very little time for special projects like painting, sorting through donated items, and organizing storage rooms. Painting was overdue, and they needed to clean out and reorganize their basement storage areas within two weeks to allow the rooms to be used for other purposes. After our tour, we were asked whether we'd like to paint or sort. Jasmine and Robin elected to paint, and the rest of us decided to help sort. The Sterling group had many volunteers doing each task also.
It's amazing how fast things can get done when 30 people are working! Pamela saw that more people were sorting than were needed, so she pulled out Phil to go to another basement room to sort and fold the 30-some bags of towels that had been donated from local hotels. Phil recruited Jessica and Amy to join the job, and Raquel came over to help also. This kept us busy to lunch. After a trip to McDonald's, all six of us finished the towel sorting. We then carried up boxes of donated items that were to be distributed to other missions, and we were done for the day by 2:30.
We went back to the church to clean up, change, and play some UNO. Then
it was time to go to the
Arch!
Unfortunately, the traffic was hideous because of...
1)Rush hour
2)Friday
3)Summer travel
through
the city
4)the start of a holiday weekend
5)serious, crippling
construction that closed several roads
and bridges
6)the St. Louis fair that was being set
up, closing many
local streets
7)the
Cardinals home game that started in 2 hours.
So we sat in traffic,
going something like 4 miles in about 2 hours,
including a stretch of about 4 blocks in an hour. We got out of it by
(finally!) getting to make a right
turn. Unfortunately, that street actually became an interstate. So then
we were heading the wrong way on the
interstate! we exited off the first chance we could, and turned back...to
where we had started! Fortunately,
there was a lot (which we had passed the first time around) that said
"Baseball Parking $5." We decided to
park there and just walk to the
arch. Phil's Cardinals hat and jersey
came in handy!
We walked to the arch, and Jasmine and Robin suddenly got scared of going up. We talked them into it, and they made it all the way up and down, despite a lot of hollering and shrieking. Afterward, we walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory for a nice dinner. Then we had to walk all the way back to the car, which caused a lot of griping, but everyone made it just fine. In fact, it was a pleasant and interesting walk. We drove back to the church and had our evening talk on the topic of Servanthood. Before bed, we all played several games of UNO.
Saturday
We were the only volunteers at the mission this time. We boxed up the
towels we had folded the day before and
then went to work with Pamela sorting through another room full of
donation storage. A lot of things were
unusable, such as games without all the pieces, ripped clothing, old food,
etc. We organized usable items
into designated piles and threw away the unusable items. We filled up
trash can after trash can and made
many, many trips to the
dumpster out back. With the temperature over 90 degrees, we really
put in some effort. We even threw
out some disgusting months-old food left in the back that really
"Suh-melled," according to Jessica. But we
got done with everything early, finishing before 1:00 and calling it a
day.
As a reflection on our work, most of us felt that it would have been nice to spend more time interacting with residents. But this was not what was needed at this time, and we were able to complete the special projects that the Center really had to have done.
So our work was done. Before we left, Phil coerced everyone to take a picture at the entryway, and then we headed to Union Station for lunch. We planned to go to the St. Louis fair for dinner. After lunch, several of us were feeling a bit weary, so we went back to the church to rest up and stay cool during the heat of the day. Eventually all six of us crashed out big-time for a 3-plus hour nap. We came to around 7:00, and headed to the Fair.
After fighting traffic again, we saw the Downtown exit that we planned to take, but it was completely blocked off. With no other options, we ended up on I-55 heading back over the river to Illinois! We actually did return to Illinois briefly, exiting on the other side of the river to turn around. On the bridge coming back to the city, we could see a huge group of people on the riverbank situated perfectly under the arch. We realized that must be where we're going, and it looked pretty cool.
Eventually we got back across, fought some more traffic, and found a place to park. [Note: if anyone knows an urban planner looking for work, tell them to send their resume to the city of St. Louis.]
We had a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the fair, which caused some more grumbling, but again everyone survived the trek. We got to the riverbank and into the fair, and joined the throngs on the embankment. The musical performer was Jason Mraz, which made Amy very happy. We bought food and sat on the sloped grass and took it all in. After the band, there was a fireworks show on the river. That was a nice surprise, and as Jasmine said later, "Them fireworks were crackin'!" It was a great pinnacle moment for our trip.
On the drive back, we tried to avoid a lot of traffic gridlock by following some cars that looked like they knew what they were doing. Fortunately they actually did know, and the alternative route saved us from more standstill suffering. We had our final devotional talk on Stewardship, and then we all cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms. Again, we played several games of UNO before hitting the sack.
Sunday
We got up and got the van mostly packed before Sunday School. The youth
attended their class, and Raquel and
Phil (who was late because of packing) attended the adult class. At the
morning worship, Phil
spoke briefly
about the trip, and the youth stood up and were applauded by the
congregation. After church, we said goodbye
and thanked the members for their hospitality. Phil again coerced
everyone to take a
picture by the van,
and then we were on our way.
On the van ride home, Jasmine and Robin slept for awhile. When Raquel drove, Amy and Jessica played cards with Phil. When asked to use her pillow as a card table, Amy said a bit belatedly, "I'm not comfortable with people touching my pillow." This was after Jessica spent the whole weekend grabbing Amy's pillow, stealing her pillow, lying on her pillow, and beating her with her pillow.
After we arrived in Oak Park and filled up the gas tank, Phil presented the four youth with their own copy of the Faith in Action Study Bible. We got back to church safe and sound, and even ahead of schedule!
This trip was a lot of work to put together, but it was worth it. It was
a blessing to be a part of the trip
as it was a fun way for each of us to grow personally and also to do
service for God's kingdom. Pamela sent
Phil the following email a few days later:
