Detroit 2012

For Spring Break I had the opportunity to serve with the poor in Detroit, Michigan. We served with Urban Encounters, a program sponsored by Youth-Works Detroit, an outreach of the Word of Life Community in Ann Arbor. I thought I'd take a moment to share with you some of my experiences and reflections.

We arrived on a Tuesday morning to the Youth-Works Office for a brief orientation with the Detroit gapper responsible for organizing our trip. As she went through our weekly schedule, I silently thanked the Lord for not assigning me that task. I do not envy her for having the most difficult job of any North American Gapper.  After our orientation, we changed into our work cloths and headed to Brightmoor.

Brightmoor is one of Detroit's neighborhoods targeted for revitalization by the US government. The colloquial name for the neighborhood is "Blightmoor" because the area's fallen into such disrepair. That afternoon we helped a Ph.D student in anthropology prime her walls and clean her kitchen. She told us that she received the house for free after an elderly hoarder died in the house with no relatives. She said that she basically had to gut the place and start from scratch. I asked her when she hoped to move in, and she said "tomorrow."

The next morning the women went to help Sister Judy deliver lunch to the poor in Detroit's central and east side. We didn't have a lot of sandwiches to make that morning because Kroger generously donated about fifty sandwiches. This gave Sister Judy time to share her story with us. A native of Northern Michigan, she felt called to enter the convent as a teenager. But the Lord had other plans for her when she married at 16 and had 7 children before her husband died at 28. After raising her children, she felt called to become a nun and serve the poor in Detroit. So every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and sometimes Friday she loads up her van and delivers her lunches to those in need. Delivering Lunches with her was quite an eye-opening experience. She'd stop at houses that had no heat, or electricity, and often no windows, and a cracking foundation. The hardest part was seeing the kids come out and get lunches for their families at a time when they should be in school.

We served in many ways this week: with Bezalel Program, an after school program for elementary students, with their Youth Group, with ABC Bible School, and we even helped with some urban gardens. But for me the most life-changing moment of the trip was attending the Soup Kitchen with Brother Ed.

In addition to serving food to the homeless in the area, this Soup Kitchen offers daily Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings lead by Brother Ed. So everyday about 30 men and one or two women meet to share their stories and encourage each other in their sobriety. I have never seen Jesus so clearly as I did when I listened to these men and women share their stories of addiction and recovery. Recovering from an addiction is difficult when you're trying to do it with a strong family and support system. These men and women are trying to stay sober while living on the streets with almost unlimited access to drugs and alcohol. Sobriety doesn't "solve" the problem of their poverty and homelessness, in some ways it makes the experience of everyday life more painful.

What really struck me from the meeting was the willingness of a group of mostly black addicts to allow three white girls to come to their meeting and hear their stories. I thought back to my own life about how often I exclude people based on superficial things like clothing choices or hairstyles. If the situation were reversed, would I allow these men into my life? Their openness and vulnerability served to strip me of my pride and leave me feeling raw and vulnerable. The meeting really called me on to live out the message James gives us:

"You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, ' You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you show partiality you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors." (James 2: 8-9).