BERLIN, Ohio (Mennonite Mission Network) – A week-long DOOR Discover experience in Hollywood has long-term impact on 10 youth and five adults at the First Presbyterian Church of Baker City, Oregon.
DOOR partners with Mennonite Mission Network to help youth and young adults experience God at work in six cities around the United States: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Hollywood, Miami, and San Antonio.
Each day, youth from First Presbyterian visited a different ministry that helps to empower people who struggle with homelessness and the high cost of living in Hollywood. These ministries include the Los Angeles Food Bank, the DOOR community garden, Union Rescue Mission, The Center at Blessed Sacrament, My Friend’s Place, MEND (Meet Each Need with Dignity), and Homeboy Industries.
“As a youth director, I wanted to take my youth well outside their small-isolated-town-in-eastern-Oregon comfort zones,” said Luke Rembold, from First Presbyterian, who also grew up in Baker City. “I was excited by the possibilities such a trip could bring.”
For many youth, like Bryson Smith, a junior, “the experience in Hollywood opened up my eyes to much more than I had seen in the small city of Baker.”
Two months later, the faces, names, and the complex stories were still fresh in their minds when they led a worship service at their church.
The youth led a time of confession, for condemning people with labels, or single stories. “The unemployed, the homeless, Republicans, transients, migrants, athletes, working poor, theatre kids, the poor, Liberals, the rich, the under-employed, the young, Conservatives, the old, drug addicts, celebrities, the mentally ill, hippies, gang members, nerds, missionaries, Democrats, veterans, LGBTQ, white trash, popular kids, and prisoners,” read the liturgy, written by the youth. “But You call to ‘us,’ ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.’ We are all children of God!”
Each member of the congregation held small stones, which represented each of the labels that people are given. This is similar to the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11), said Rembold. “All we’re given to know about this woman is one piece of her life. We have only a single story for her, and can hardly judge her or claim to know her whole story.”
In the Bible lesson, when the teachers of the law asked Jesus how to respond, he said, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” This kind of response was symbolized by the members of the First Presbyterian Church as they brought their stones forward to set down, during the time of confession.
“There is much more to [a person’s] story than what many people who walk past see or choose not to see,” said Sam Hamilton, a freshman participant who reflected on his DOOR experience during the worship service. “I now see people who are homeless completely differently because I was able to get to know individuals in that situation.”
Kate Averett, a senior, was a little more apprehensive of her experience. “[At the beginning] my thought was that I was there to help ‘them,’ like I was helping someone that was nothing like me, someone below me, or someone who needed me.” Instead, the service work involved her heart more than her hands.
At one of the ministries during the week, a coffee break provided time for volunteers to listen to the stories of community members. During this time, Averett sipped her coffee beside another youth group participant and thought, “Here goes another awkward hour of my life.” It was then that a man named Lafayette* sat down beside them, cradling his coffee mug, and started a conversation.
As they sat there, Averett realize that she needed Lafayette’s wisdom. There was more to him than his homeless label. She began to understand that the “us versus them” mentality had been melted by their common humanity.
“In this world of give and take, we cannot always be the takers, but now it is clear to me that we cannot always be the givers either,” Averett said.
“Don’t be separated by terms such as ‘they’ and ‘them,’” Kourtney Lehman challenged the church during the worship service, “but let words such as ‘we’ and ‘us’ bring our world together.”
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*Full name is not given for privacy reasons.
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact news@mennonitemission.net.