Today was filled with lots of discovery, and being pushed a little out of my comfort zone.
We woke up at 7:30 ate breakfast and headed off to the DRM. It was awesome to get to see the city and the mountains and everything around, and of course finally getting to the DRM was interesting. When we got close to the mission we noticed that there was an area outside the mission that had benches and stuff and a lot of homeless people were sitting out there or sleeping, probably hanging around until lunchtime. There wasn't anything special about the mission building itself but on the corner of it is a cross that says Jesus Saves, it was really cool looking, and like a banner of hope for all the people that go there.
We found a parking spot and after a quick prayer we headed inside wondering what we should expect. We were greeted by a friendly guy at the desk who told us we could wait in the chapel for Nate who would show us around and be our guide. Nate got there and he was not who I was really expecting, he looked to be only in his twenties and just looked like any old typical college student, but when he started talking to us you could see the passion and fire he has for Christ and for what the mission is doing.
He told us how the mission is the starting point of what they call the New Life Program and how all of the residents are Program Candidates, or PC's. The PC's enter the program and have to quit whatever they are on cold turkey and then the rehab program is based on work therapy. The PC's get up early and make breakfast and serve it to people who come in from the streets, and then throughout the day they have various chores that they have to do to help keep the mission clean and running.
He then told us about what they do for all of the people that come in from the streets. They serve three meals a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and while we were there it seemed to average about 200 people for lunch and dinner. At night they house only men and can hold 300 men in bunk beds upstairs. To get a bed the people have to come before dinner and go to chapel, then they are ushered downstairs to eat and from there they go upstairs and get their bed. They also have a clinic that provides medical care to the program candidates and also certain procedures are offered to outside guests. One of the dentists that was there says he pulls so many teeth he's lost count.
After our small tour of the building we were sent downstairs to the kitchen area to prepare and get ready for lunch. They split us up into teams, some preparing food, and others cleaning and organizing. I helped cut open packages of meat, and fries, and opening and stacking cheese slices to get ready for the philly cheese steaks we would be serving, then I sliced fruit and filled pitchers with water and ice. It went by pretty fast because there were so many of us and soon it was time for lunch.
The PC's eat first before outside guests come in so we got to eat with and get to know some of the guys. I sat with Matt who was also our supervisor. When we first met Matt we had no idea that he was in the program he acted like and seemed like he was on staff. He joked around with us about how some guy had pulled a knife on him last week and he just looked at it and said "Aww that's a cute little knife," and just a bunch of other funny stories. While we were eating he told us a little bit about himself. He grew up in a Christian home but got into drugs when he was 16, he said he did everything and started dealing to fund his expensive habit. He also got into crime, stealing cars and other stuff, "I ran the streets" he said and ended up paying the price for it by doing 9 years in prison and at one point he was facing 63 years. But once he found the DRM all that changed, he admits that he's failed and was pulled back into drugs but he's now been at the mission for 21 days and intends on staying there unless the court system decides he has to go somewhere else. He has such a personality and a servants heart it was really cool to see.
We finished eating and cleaned up and got ready for all of the people that would be coming through for lunch. I got assigned to serving and it was me, Lacey, from our group, and Ashanti, a PC, in charge of creating trays of food for the people that were coming. We had a really good assembly line going, and got to have some really good conversations with Ashanti. He was telling us that he's a recovering alcoholic and he would just talk and talk. I got a little too wrapped up in putting cheese slices on bread and didn't hear a lot of his story but I could hear the passion in his voice when he talked about Christ and all that he has learned, and how Christ has changed his life.
It was interesting to see all of the people that were there, not all were the stereotypical homeless person who was dirty and filthy, there were quite a few people in suits and nice clothing that you never would have guessed that they were homeless or unable to afford food. All of them were genuinely thankful for the food that we were giving them and you could tell that they loved the smiles and happy attitude that we brought with us.
Once everyone was fed we were in charge of clearing their trays when they were done and when everyone left we cleaned the tables and swept the cafeteria. Then we were split up again and some people painted the hallways upstairs and in the stairway and my group was in charge of scrubbing the walls in the kitchen getting them ready for painting. Oh man was that a dirty job, these walls were caked with dirt and grease and grime and only elbow power and degreaser had hopes of getting them clean. We slowly worked our way around the kitchen and at one point I had finished a wall and was heading to do another nasty section that was basically black with dirt and Ashanti looked at it and said "If I was you I would let some other girl do that section." Well I'm not one to turn down a challenge so I went at it and slowly but surely the wall turned white. Ashanti came back and said "Wow, who knew that was white under there." Mission accomplished.
Matt decided we were doing such a good job and he found a box full of candy necklaces and bracelets and gave them to all of us, thus becoming our Sugar Daddy.
After finishing up the rest of our chores we headed back to CCU, but not before running into a very interesting person. As we were getting into our van a woman walked up to us and asked if we had any change, we told her no but told her about the DRM, she didn't seem interested and suddenly started asking us math problems. You'd think that a group of college students could answer simple mathematical problems but no, we all fail at Math apparently. And she eventually gave up on us and left. When we got in the van a couple people said that they recognized her from lunch at the DRM.
A hearty dinner was followed by a wonderful rest time and then we all gathered upstairs for devos and discussion of our day, then went back to our separate rooms. I got to talk to Stef for awhile about life and how easy it was to share our faith and feelings with the girls here and the people at the DRM but that when it came to our families it was so difficult, just something that I kept thinking about the week and still, now that I'm home. We also got talking about camps and stuff when Sarah, one of our other roommates came in, they talked about sports camps and stuff that they've done and I asked if they had heard about Camp Barakel, well wouldn't you know Stef had gone there all throughout her childhood, way to work that one God. We thought that was crazy cause no one's ever heard of Barakel and here I am some girl from Virginia who came to Michigan just to go to Barakel and God put us together, he had a plan, and my idea of working at Barakel could no longer be ignored.
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