One of the more amazing things about going on these mission trips is seeing the changes they make in people’s lives. Generally, the incoming group and our organization are there to make a long term beneficial impact to our community partners. However, often, it is the community that brings greater benefit to the people who serve them. Never has that been more true over my past six weeks with Experience Mission than here in Seattle.

During typical rural or international mission trips, it is easy for group’s to gauge their contribution to the area they serve. They see homes built nail by nail or walls painted stroke by stroke. Here, though, on this urban mission trip, there are no benchmarks to measure against. The team is here to serve the homeless of the city, but they cannot cure it. On a macro level, the meals they serve and the conversations they have do not create more shelter beds, affordable housing or job opportunities. But it does fill stomachs. And hearts.

The team from Harbor Trinity Church this week has served meals every day at lunchtime out of the Union Gospel Mission shelters and passed out sacked lunches to homeless around the area as well. These meals are necessary, but unlike building a home, they are a temporary solution. They are a beaver dam when the Hoover is needed.

But still, Harbor Trinity has served with patience and grace during this week, understanding the role they play in the scheme. They may not end homelessness, but without volunteers like them, an end would be impossible.

Because they understand this, they have been able connect with the homeless of the city, to listen to their stories, issues and jokes. This has forced them to put away some of their preconceived ideas about the homeless. They are not all drug-addicts, most do not choose to be on the street, and, most alarming, it truly can happen to anyone – many families are only a paycheck away.

As we were in a Seattle park, next to the county courthouse, I spoke with one of our first-time missionaries. He had connected with many of the stories he had heard in the park while passing out lunches, and many had connected with his. He said he was going to try and organize his church to hand out lunches in this way near the courthouse in his county.

This means that while the mission trip may end tomorrow, the impact of it will continue and its spirit will spread with those who have been here. What better result could there be?

By Matt Grager

While many people think of homelessness as a mainly urban issue, here in Seattle it has taken to the suburbs as well. Across Lake Washington, minutes east of Seattle, is a collection of tents and tarps, raised on wooden pallets and pitched on the grounds of Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, one of the Northwest’s wealthiest cities.

Tent City 4 is a community of homeless people that provides a short-term solution to street living for up to 100 at a time on Seattle’s eastside since 2004. Churches or synagogues invite the community to stay on their grounds for 90 days at a time before they move onto another location. However, as with many aspects of homelessness, the politics around it are sticky.

On one side, the neighborhoods that Tent City moves to inevitably raise an uproar and some file law suits in fear that Tent City will bring with it crime and substance abuse. In their corner are a few local organizations aimed at stopping Tent City, the foremost of which is Tent City Solutions, which, contrary to their name provide no solutions to the issue of homelessness or alternatives to Tent City on their website, other than several calls to simply disband it.

Tent City, though, screens its residents before they can move in, including a warrant check, and is completely substance- and alcohol-free under penalty being forced out of the community. They allow police to come through at any and all times and have strict code of conduct aimed at alleviating the neighborhood concerns. They are also not the stereotypical derelict. Many are couples, most are working, and some are families, all for whom the shelter system and street living are not a reasonable option.

“People always say they need to educate the homeless,” said Leo Rhodes, resident and one of the founders of Tent City 4. “But I think it’s the non-homeless who need to be educated. They need to see the realities.”

Statistics brought forth by those on either side of the issue are constantly contradicting. Tent City Solutions claims a rise in crime in the areas where the community stays. SHARE/WHEEL, the sponsoring organization for Tent City, says that because of the residents who often walk the surrounding area, crime actually goes down. SHARE/WHEEL also estimates that because the Tent City provides a safe space to store belongings and 24-hour access, 90 percent of their residents work at least part time – well above the national statistic of 20 percent.

But to get to the reality of Tent City, it is important to move past the statistics. According to Rhodes, one of the benefits of the community is its interaction with their non-homeless neighbors. Their report with their neighbors has been so positive that they have returned to many churches for a second stay with little to no neighborhood resistance.

This writer, who has lived in an area hosting Tent City 4, twice, has seen no evidence of negative impact, and was impressed by the extent to which the Tent City goes to keep cordial relations with its neighbors.

In one neighborhood a woman complained that the number of residents waiting at the local bus stop may force kids to ride their bikes in the street around them. Tent City agreed to only have residents wait at the stop for ten minutes–a minute longer and they would walk and wait at a stop inconveniently further down the street, again under penalty of expulsion.

While at the Temple B’nai Torah, the municipal government wanted to know what the residents would do in case of a fire, as they are outside but surrounded by a flimsy chainlink fence. Apparently their simple answer of “push the fence over and walk out,” wasn’t adequate. When they arrived, a section of the fence had been removed and in its place was a door frame and emergency exit door, locked on the outside, complete with the panic push bar, leading from outdoors to outdoors.

Clearly, a mobile camp of tents is not a long-term solution to the problem of homelessness. But it does provide a temporary solution for its residents and demonstrates that there is no need to be pushed to the margins of our society.

Tent City 4 will be moving out of the Temple B’nai Torah on August 4, to Mercer Island, Washington. The city of Mercer Island currently has a law suit filed to block the move.

Have you ever thought about approaching homeless people to offer a free sack lunch? If you think it might be intimidating, you would be right; that’s how most of us felt as our teams hit the streets of Seattle last week. But, after sitting down and talking with the people who live on the streets, our nervousness abated and our attitudes. We learned that, just like each of us, these people have their own stories, including unique histories and their own hopes for the future. Most importantly, we saw that we share a universal need for a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The majority of those we visited with, right there on the Seattle streets, were friendly, and they were grateful for what we had to offer, including conversation interspersed with laughter. One of our team leaders got a reaction when he joked with some men sleeping in the park. He asked if they were hungry, “Because,” he announced, “I’m about to serve you breakfast in bed!”

After talking with these individuals and establishing a comfort level, we realized the blessing of being able to minister to them. In addition to passing out lunches through our “hit the street!” ministry, the two teams (one from Oregon and one all the way from North Carolina) split up to participate in different work projects each day. We were excited to work with some food banks, including two Union Gospel Mission shelters as well as Catholic Chore Services. And one day, we broke into groups of three to go into the apartments of some elderly folks living in the area. We helped with cleaning and enjoyed visiting with them, sharing God’s love and truth as we did. We also got involved with the Hunger Intervention Program (HIP) at the church where we stayed, helping them bag lunches and organize their pantry.

So, at the end of the experience, we can look back and see how addressing the physical needs of others allowed us to lose a little of ourselves, while gaining so much at the same time!

-Emily T.

Our first week in Seattle was an incredible mix of working behind the scenes and being up front and personal in ministry.  We had a fun, exciting group of 25 senior high students from both Idaho and Minnesota who helped us love on the community.

We began each day by  going to the Northwest Harvest Food Warehouse to help package chocolate for them for a few hours. This warehouse distributes food to over 300 different food programs across the entire state of Washington, with 50 percent of their food going to children and elderly. It was a great opportunity to understand how important it is to lend a hand at a local organization that is making a difference and relying immensely on volunteer help.

After the warehouse we split up between the men’s and women’s shelters run by Union Gospel Mission downtown Seattle. These faith-centered shelters provide food, housing, and recovery classes for homeless and/or people in need.  Many come from either physically or emotionally abusive backgrounds, jail, or the streets.  It was an eye-opening experience to know that these people are just like us but with different situations.  We were able to help with serving meals, doing housekeeping, and listening to the stories of those who lived there.

Finally, in the afternoons we hit the streets! This was an awesome experience to put ourselves in intentional situations to meet the physical, social, and (prayerfully) spiritual needs of those we saw living on the streets of downtown Seattle.  We packed lunches and handed them out to those we saw, striking up conversation and getting to know who these people are and where they have come from.  Many conversations included casual or deep discussions, laughs, prayer, and a realization of how badly we usually stereotype someone living on the streets. God provided many opportunities for us to see that we are no “better” than they are and for us to demonstrate Christ’s love through attention and food.

May 24 through May 28, 2008, Miracle Camp in Lawton, Michigan opened its doors to interns from all over the Midwest, Washington, California and Canada to engage in their training with Experience Mission. Interns will be serving this summer with Experience Mission in sites and communities all over the United States, Mexico, Jamaica, and Costa Rica.
 
This week Team Tecate/Seattle finally met in person. The first two days were spent learning first aid, CPR, and wilderness medicine skills so we can ensure that all trip participants are kept safe.  We learned that Yonathan is scared of blood so the girls will handle any emergency.  We also spent time discussing the various responsibilities that interns have, and we divided these up amongst ourselves according to our prior experiences, skills, and passion for the area. 

Experience Mission’s founder and director Chris Clum also spent an afternoon going over the philosophy and values of Experience Mission, and we took time as a team to discuss how these would be reflected in the work and relationships that we will be building in Tecate and Seattle. While there was a lot of business to be taken care of at training, we also found time for some team bonding through creative activities such as video projects, scavenger hunts, and boat building. 

One afternoon, we had a scavenger hunt that lasted five hours and took us all over nearby Kalamazoo and Portage, Michigan. The last step of this scavenger hunt was to build a boat with at least four different supplies, on a limited budget, and the boat had to hold all three of us and be able to paddle around a quarter mile course on the lake.  We built a very successful boat, and our team placed second. This activity was a lot of fun, and helped us to learn how to work together during situations that require efficient problem solving skills in a short period of time.

This summer will be an adventure, but we are ready to handle any curveballs that come our way and are looking forward to meeting the communities in Tecate and Seattle as well as working with the participants on our trips!

- Yonathan Moya, Sarah Lacy and Allison Butelo
Team Tecate/Seattle