Last June I went on YCLS (Youth Challenged through Local Service). Northwest Yearly Meeting sends youth to a ministry called Bridgetown, where various groups from other churches gather from all over. They send us out with their interns to pass out socks, sandwiches, water, juice, and other neccessities to those living on the streets of Portland, Oregon. We also helped out with Nightstrike, a weekly event Bridgetown hosts, where volunteers cook food, wash feet, cut hair, and set up little areas for people to shave and brush their teeth.
Jasmine Mirajkar, Ashley Ownby, Kendall Poorman, Kara Sheppard, and I, led by Forest Cammack and Anna Knierim, built relationships with the homeless in Portland. We ate and sang with them, talked about books and movies, and discussed our beliefs.
What struck me the most on that one week of talking to the people living on the streets of Portland was how easy it was to think of them as people who had opinions about politics, books, movies, and religion; people who wanted others to not only see that they are homeless and dirty but that they also have feelings and opinions. And it occurred to me that before, when I saw a homeless person, I would automatically assume they were using the money people would give them to help support an addiction. I also realized how repulsed I was by the fact that they did not take daily showers. After just one day I realized how horribly wrong and cruel that was of me to assume. Now when I hear people saying those exact things about a homeless person, I can’t help but try to defend them and give those people a little perspective; to help them realize not only how rude it is but that just because someone does not have a house to go back to at night does not make them any less of a human.
by Haley Paz, Meridian Friends
