Through the Fence

On Monday, I was babysitting and playing in the back yard with the kids I live with. (I don’t know if I have mentioned that I live with a four year old girl, Dorothy; a three year old boy, Isaac; and a 20 month old boy, Mack; with a new baby on the way literally ANY DAY!) While we were playing, I heard a little voice behind me say “Dorothy.” I turned around to see a little black arm through the fence reaching out towards us playing in the yard. I went over and talked with Calvin and Christina who lived across the alley from us. I knew their older sister, Courtney who was part of our Bezalel afterschool program.

This interaction through the fence led into a spiral of thoughts that could only come from the movies. As a little black three year old hand wrapped around my fingers, I thought about our worlds that were so different yet in this moment were intertwined. I thought about the difference between our cultures and race. I thought about the beauty of this little girl. The first time I was in Africa I was asked if I loved black people. The question caught me off guard. I said that I loved all people. I still love all people, but people of African dissent have a very special place in my heart.

It wasn’t until I went to collage that I learned that Africans and African-Americans were so different. Growing up in an almost exclusively white Christian community, I didn’t know anything else. I am sometimes in awe of the things I have learned these past few years through the grace of God. He keeps on giving me opportunities to grow and to learn. For only being 21 year old from small town Iowa, I have seen and experienced a lot of things. So many of things I experienced, I would have never imagined, but God took my life and turned it upside down. Now, I am on an adventure of a life time following after my Lord and Savior.

Before moving to Detroit, there were a lot of people questioning if I should actually live in Detroit or just commute to work here. I really wanted to live in the community that I work in because I believe so strongly in relational ministry. I am so excited to be living across the alley from Courtney. I am excited for Bezalel to start and to be able to walk her home afterwards. I am excited for the next time she peeps through our fence because I will let her borrow one of my chapter books. I love biking around the neighborhood and getting stopped by different youth I know. When I walk pass the gas station, I often am able to say “hi” to someone I recognize. It is such a blessing to walk around the projects and stop to talk with somebody I know. The Lord has really been blessing my relationships with different people in the city. There are still so many more people I hope to meet in the neighborhood, but for now, I am satisfied with my relationships through the fence.

A Little Bit of Sunshine

Yesterday morning, I went to St. Al’s outreach center which is part of St. Aloysius Catholic Church to help at their breakfast and distribute clothes to the homeless. It’s incredible that the center is still running despite the fact that so many people in the city are trying to close it because it’s “not good business” to have homeless people around the downtown area where they are trying to bring in new companies and businesses. I absolutely love working with the homeless and especially eating with them. Instead of serving or eating breakfast, I was in the back sorting and organizing clothes. It was a very humbling job, but I know the help was needed. Slowly a small stream of men started coming back requesting socks, underwear, pants, boots, and coats. Most of these requests were not fulfilled because of the lack of men’s clothing, shoes, and undergarments. We instead tried to fit them into sweaters and send them on their way. People back home keep on asking what things are needed in Detroit. I haven’t really been asking, but instead waiting to see what and where the needs actually are. Often we know there is a need, but we don’t wait long enough to see what the need actually is or what is causing it.

There was one woman, Sunshine, who came back though, and I was able to help her find some clothes. She kept of saying, “Sarah, I like your taste. You’ve got style.” (So yes, I may have a horrendous brown sweater that is completely distasteful that I wear all the time, but I still got style!) My heart really went out to Sunshine. She was a young woman who I could tell went through a lot. A year ago she was in a bus accident, and her spine was injured somehow. She is now constantly in pain, and even the simplest tasks are difficult for her because of the pain. I was really blessed with the opportunity to pray with her. I pray that the Lord heals her whether it is physically, spiritually, or emotionally. I don’t know if I will ever see her again, but it is often those little encounters with people like Sunshine remind me of my purpose here in Detroit.

Standing in the GAP

I was just realizing that many of you may not completely understand who or what I am doing my service through. I am serving as a missionary volunteer “Gapper” with Kairos Standing in the Gap program. The program calls my year of service a “Gap Year” from the scripture passage in Ezekiel 22.30 “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” There are 12 different men and women my age who are literally from around the world serving as gappers in different communities and ministries throughout Michigan.
As gappers, we have our different roles and responsibilities to the people and communities we are serving. Each Thursday morning though, we meet for a couple of hours in either Lansing or Detroit for Gap training. It’s an opportunity for us to catch up, support one another, receive formation, and pray together. We kicked our Gap year off two weeks ago with a retreat at a camp ground along Lake Michigan. It was a lot of fun to get to know each other through our time spent together in prayer, small groups, and talks as well as playing volleyball, swimming in Lake Michigan (the water was warm and beautiful), canoeing all day down a river, and sitting around the campfire. The relationships being built with the other gappers come naturally because we are all going through similar things, and we can support one another throughout the year.
Now in Detroit, there are four gappers total- Andy, who is from Glasgow; Sam, who is from Minnesota; Ana, my roommate who is from Costa Rica; and myself. We are all extremely different, but we have a lot of fun together. In Detroit, we are all primarily serving the ministry Youth Works-Detroit which is a part of Detroit Community Outreach. Within Youth Works, our services each look very different and it is often changing from week to week. At the same time, we are all working together to accomplish the common mission of “equipping youth for the fullness of life” –John 10.10. This year, my service will primarily include being the instructor for one of our after school programs, leading the high school girls youth group, serving at a soup kitchen, doing administration work, helping the family I live with, and any other needs that come up. I have a lot of leadership roles, but I am really excited for the opportunity to work with the youth on a regular basis.
Also feel free to check out the ministries websites to get a better picture of what I am doing:
Kairos: http://kairos-na.org/Kairos
Youth Works-Detroit: http://www.youthworks-detroit.org/
Detroit Community Outreach: http://www.rc.net/wcc/dco.htm