So…I know that you have heard crickets chirping on this site for awhile. I have definitely been preoccupied with the high school mission trip to Vancouver. So, I apologize for not writing; but I can definitely say that I will always prefer living God’s mission to writing about God’s mission. Anyway, here’s my fearless recap…
Sunday, July 20…
MK and I get up at the crack of dawn (think 5:00 AM) to get everything ready, say good-bye to the cats, and meet Dan and Amy (two volunteers) at the church to go pick up the three rental vans in Sacramento. What did we learn about that? Don’t back up once you go into the lot. Your tires will be slashed.
We arrive at the church and already kids are showing up (with parents and friends) to the send-off breakfast that our church’s women’s ministry put on. It was very nice. Honestly, I didn’t have much time to enjoy it. Too many last minute forms, packing duties, and whatnot. I don’t think I blew a gasket, though; and that’s always a good thing. A church member prayed for us, and we were off…
My take on the drive is probably different from others’ because I love the conversation and relational time that you can have with students and adults in a seven-hour road trip. This trip was no exception. I spent a great deal of time talking to kids, getting to know them better, or simply rocking out to the worship cd’s that I had custom-made for the trip. I thought it was great. Did people have to stop a lot? Yeah. Did it bother me? Not really. I just knew that I wanted to get to Eugene at some point. And, we did. And, we ate pizza when we got there. It was good. Then I had a wonderful bonding experience with Matt, Brent, and Chad in our hotel room.
MK’s Notes: Since I drove our Jetta for the entire trip, I was always able to have another girl ride “shotgun” with me. This is actually pretty good since I really like one-on-one conversation more than group chaos (that’s Paul’s thing). I had a really good time talking to Stephanie about life and school, laughing and doing funny dances to Christians songs. I also enjoyed laughing with Holly and talking about school and life. I loved being able to share my life with both of them.
In the hotel at night time, we had a good time watching The Food Network and going to bed early.
Monday, July 21…
I wouldn’t say that I’m a crazy person, but I would say that I am crazy about making sure that we got to Vancouver on time that day (think 4:30 PM). So…I might have put the fear of God into the team that morning concerning getting up and packed early. The good news is that this team as faster than a NASCAR pit crew. We were out of there before the roosters crowed in Eugene.
Hmm…that day got increasingly zany on the road. I definitely recall a certain Ryan dancing with all his might (while buckled in, I promise) with his head out the window, trying to get truckers to honk their horns. Yeah, it was also a day of riddles, jokes, and fun. All sorts of nice ice-breaking joy.
We did arrive in Vancouver with about as much time to spare as MacGiver sliding through an automatic door. We got a little lost. I had to apologize to my navigators for getting a little frustrated (sorry, Logan and Ryan). But, we did make it.
The YWAM program began with a leader meeting. It was cool to find out that our group would be accompanied throughout the week by Rene (who I had been working with to set up the trip) and Joshua (a cool Sicilian kid who actually knew where my ancestral Sicilian home of Torretta is). We had no idea all the cool stuff that was in store for the week, and we began to see things on paper. I just remember being so excited.
I don’t remember much of the first session. I do know that Adam (a YWAM staffer) gave his testimony. I love that guy. I wish I could listen to it again, knowing his heart. But he was talking about (pronounced a-BOOT) how God would send someone all the way across the world to teach them a lesson. I agree. He definitely did that this week. Our speaker for the week, Joseph, told us a lot of stories about his life and about destiny. I know that his message meant a lot to many of the kids on the trip.
We were amped that night, but we were also equal parts tired. We didn’t mingle much with the other group, a group of high school graduates from a camp in Washington (Camp Spaulding). And, remarkably, our other group that would be with us, a Korean church from New York’s armpit, hadn’t even made it to Vancouver yet. Our guys left a note for them (since we were sharing a room), telling the NJ crew that they could make us much noise as they needed as they got settled in. Tiredness is about perspective I guess. We were tired, but they were going to be beat.
MK’s Notes: Towards the last leg of the trip to Vancouver, I feel like I had a great conversation with Caitlin, one that could promote growth between the two of us throughout the week. I was a little nervous about crossing the border, for fear of my car getting searched or getting frisk or something like that; but, with God’s help, we got through safely.
Upon arriving at the church, the first thing that I wanted to do was to get my bags upstairs and get settled in. When we had the leaders’ meeting and we knew what the schedule was going to be like for the week, to be completely honest, I was a little worried that we were only going to be able to take a few (like three) showers. But then, thinking about the perspective that we were supposed to have on the trip, I was fine with it.
That night, before we all went to bed, I think that, out of sheer exhaustion on my part, I went a little crazy, laughing really loud and quoting “Steel Magnolias” an awful lot. I think it helped the group to go to bed with a joyful heart.
Tuesday, July 22…
A recurring theme of the week was that our group always seemed to have one reason or another to get up early. This day was the first of those. We helped do “breakfast prep.” I liked “having” to do these things. It reminded me that I wasn’t there to be served but to serve, even if it was our fellow Christians and not the “super lost” people of “the world.” Apparently, I sang a little too loud that morning. Upon learning that a YWAM staffer, Marcia, was from Jamaica, I began freestyling songs to the tune of Bob Marley. I do remember Mary Kate rapping and daring people to go through the food line, threatening that she would beat them up (jokingly, of course).
On this day, we were going to split into groups to do our “Urban Plunge.” We also needed to make bag lunches for ourselves and one extra for each group. Mmm…sandwiches.
I won’t bore you with the details of our briefing about Vancouver and the problems of the city. All I can say is that we were prepped to go into the city in groups to share our lunches with homeless people. It was intimidating but cool. MK wanted to be with me, so we chose Holly and Matt to round out our group.
It was already a little tricky when we tried to find free parking because we had been told not to bring any money at all. We finally found a parking place in a place that I wouldn’t ever park my banged-up Civic in, much less a really nice rental van; and finally, with a quickie prayer to God to save our ride, we were off, walking up and down streets, trying to answer a scavenger hunt of questions, somewhat scared of who we would ask to share our lunch with.
We walked around the city, finding out such random things as how much a dried lizard costs in Chinatown, how much a cheap hotel costs in skid row, what services are offered at the local library, and (just for our own clarification) what exactly was stored in the $500 jars at the Asian pharmacies.
We found “our guy” to share lunch with. He was sitting on the corner, near the library. He was alone. We had already passed a park full of rather boisterous homeless people, but there was something different about this guy. He was on his own. We asked him if we could eat with him, and he shrugged his shoulders. I’m not sure if this man was used to having conversations with people or if he was a little lost in his mind because, every time I asked him a question, he mumbled some kind of response, as if we could hear. We couldn’t. Then a guy who sounded like he was from a Caribbean nation (who was rocking a New York Rangers hat) came up and asked for some of our meals. We shared with him too. He was exceedingly difficult to understand as well, with a very thick accent. At one point, I thought I had made him mad. Kind of scary. But, he kind of laughed off whatever seemed to be the problem and was off. It was a strange experience overall, but I was glad to have experienced it. I felt that we almost were supposed to be like the friends in Job (when they were doing the right thing) and just sit there. It didn’t matter what we said. It mattered that we were there.
After that, we were supposed to meet at some tourist trap called the steam clock. It was kind of lame. Then we were given our orders for our second leg of the plunge.
It was pretty obvious that the second leg was supposed to expose us to the juxtaposition of the have-nots and the haves of Vancouver. The have section was nice, a place that MK and I would have loved to visit on a vacation. The hotel rooms there were a whole lot more expensive. I did notice that there a lot of people in that area of town whose job it was to clean up tiny bits of trash (like cigarette butts), while the ghetto has junk everywhere and smelled like urine. Oh, and did I mention that we saw a cross-dresser get into a fight with one guy, call the cops, and almost get attacked by another guy?!? Yeah, you wouldn’t see that in the nice area of town.
A defining moment for me, that day was walking back to our van and seeing this beautiful professional graffiti on a wall outside a park. It was so nice. There was even a mural with all of the Peanuts characters. I was taken back, though, when Matt pointed out that Snoopy (in his normal position, lying on top of his dog house) had had a needle painted onto his arm. Actually, they all had needles on their arms. Why do we ruin such beautiful things? If we get all sanctimonious, I can definitely think of an Artist whose work is soiled in much worse ways every day.
Oh, on the way back, we had a strange encounter in the park right next to our van. A young lady asked us if we were Christians. I said, “Yeah, are those the only kind of people who look like us who would come to this place?” She said, “Pretty much.” Then she walked up to us to make a point to ask us to pray for her and shake all her hands. When she walked away, MK let me know that she was actually selling needles to a kid on a bike while she was talking to us. Man…
I don’t remember much about the session that night. How could I? I was rocked by everything that happened during the day. [After writing this, I realized that that night was the Passion night. I talk about it a little in the next post.]
MK’s Notes: Upon knowing that our task for the day was to share a lunch with homeless person, I was a little nervous. Walking up to a complete stranger and asking them if we could sit with them for a little while, I wasn’t really sure how I was going to be. I must admit that I was distracting myself by walking in and out of all of these random shops downtown. Realizing that I would have felt very guilty if I didn’t complete my task, I started to look around to see who we could share our lunch with. When we came across the guy on the corner, I knew he was the one were meant to eat with. I remember, at one point, looking at Paul and saying, “I don’t know what to say to him.” At certain points, during our lunch, I caught people’s eyes; and it looked as though they were thoroughly confused as to why someone like me, dressed like me, was sitting on a dirty corner with a homeless man. In a way, I felt proud. Is that a bad thing?
