By Mo Scarpelli

Marsa fell in love when she was fifteen years old.

“He had no goats,” she says. That means the man she loved couldn’t afford to offer her parents a dowry.

So Marsa’s family found her an older man from a different tribe in the Sudan, a man that didn’t speak her language or know her at all prior to their wedding.

“His brothers knew my language and translated,” she said.

Marsa, her new husband, and her brothers came to America in 2000. Pregnant, she soon found out she had syphallis and needed to take a series of shots so that her baby would live.
“If I had not had the shots,” she said, “then my baby would have died.”

But Leno, now 7 years old, survived, and Marsa is thankful for that.

“At first, I get here and I cried every day,” she said. “But I was happy after I had children.”

Marsa has four children, actually. The banging screen door is an indicator of their presence as Marsa explains her story with six-month-old Apik in her lap. Abuk, 5, helps herself to a hotdog for lunch and Nyakajn, 2, lingers around the couch area where her mother sits.

Marsa’s family is one of hundreds living in the Kennedy Park city housing in Portland, Maine. Most of those within blocks of her apartment are Sudanese and Somali refugees, brought into the United States through Catholic Charity sponsorship.

The city has the largest Sudanese immigrant population in the country. Even on rainy days, the neighborhood courses with some of the darkest-skinned people in America.

“But there are many others – over 42 nationalities are represented just in this community,” said Peggy Hinman, volunteer ministry coordinator of the Root Cellar, a community center that aids refugees and immigrants in their transition to American life.

In a brand new world, among new languages and social norms, many immigrants like Marsa crave stability and direction. The Root Cellar tries to provide that in the form of food and clothing donation, education, free dental and medical care and relational ministry.

“We have refugees come straight from the plane to the Root Cellar to get clothing,” said Hinman. “They know us so well. Many refugees went through hard times coming here and they just want to be in a community with peace.”

Experience Mission started working with the Root Cellar just this summer. Interns Noah Nells, Heidi Clum and Cori Lyons are the first to manage EM teams in Portland, where they see building relationships as the most important service for people adjusting to a new culture.

“These kids need people that are genuine to love them,” said 22-year-old volunteer Leah Sherck from Greenville Church of the Bretheren in Greenville, Ohio. “From talking with the kids, you see they’re so distrustful, they’re really looking for someone they can trust. I haven’t been here even a week and I already see a difference with some just from talking to them and remembering their names.”

Marsa’s children, along with more fifty more from the neighborhood, come to the Root Cellar every weekday for Kids Club with Experience Mission. The volunteers’ time with them for several hours a day in a safe place gives them stability, confidence and a chance to relate to others.

“It seems really odd because it’s Maine, it seems to be the middle of nowhere,” said Sherck. “When I think of serving refugees in America, I always think of L.A. or New York City, but there are so many immigrants here. It’s a very unique situation.”

Portland was named a refugee city in the country by Catholic Charities. Through the Charities alone, more than 5,000 people from more than two dozen countries arrive in the area as refugees from foreign countries.

Portland has the most Sudanese immigrant population in the United States.

Just by walking through the neighborhood, says Hinman, you feel like the United Nations is right in your backyard. The vast diversity, many languages and continuing cultures don’t hinder the Root Cellar and EM’s message of Christian faith through service, however.

“I say we believe in God,” Hinman said of the volunteers. “And I don’t apologize for that one bit. We can do all sorts of projects, but it’s really the faith that does it. God just does things – it’s so awesome, I can’t stand it.”

Experience Mission will serve the Portland, Maine area until July 18, and hopes to return to the area again every summer for years to come.

Experience Mission is offering Summer 2009 mission trips to Portland and other locations in the U.S. and abroad. Visit www.experiencemission.org or call  360-732-0986  to learn more.

Christian Youth Mission Trip
Walking through the Jonesboro Trailer Park in Atlanta this summer, Jason Pope of the Salvation Army saw something that in most communities would be considered fairly shocking: As a black lab with no apparent owner wandered along, several teenagers drove up, stopped to shoot the animal with a BB gun, and then drove away.

Sadly, the incident was one of many reflecting a general environment of chaos and instability in the dilapidated, impoverished community comprised mostly of struggling immigrants.

“It’s hard to describe it exactly, but it would remind you of being in a two-thirds world country and seeing poverty when you’re there,” Pope said. “There are no boundaries for the kids in that community. Another kid walks up with a dead squirrel, playing with it like it’s a puppet, trying to get it to climb up trees, and we try to explain to him that he shouldn’t do that, that he could get sick.”

“When there’s no hope there, they just make stuff up,” Pope said.

Like other teams working in new urban communities across the country this year, the Experience Mission Summer Staff Intern team assigned to Atlanta had to adopt an approach of patience, consistency and sensitivity to try to reach the children.

Most kids in the struggling community were generally defiant and uncontrollable and had grown up surrounded by outside influences that glorified gang culture, intern Matt Crouch said, adding that one gang in particular had a heavy influence on the community.

“These guys growing up are seeing that’s the way to get the money, that’s the way to be cool,” he said. “So they’re 10, 11 years old and they’re trying to be part of the gang.”

Crouch said he and fellow interns were the regular objects of curse-laden tirades or obscene gestures as they returned to the community day after day to forge new inroads. At one point, Crouch was even bitten by one boy.

“He just wasn’t happy that he got out in four square. He was just going crazy, and I had to hold him back from hitting another kid, so he decided to bite my arm,” Crouch said. “I just had teeth marks and bruises for a week.”

But they didn’t let that incident or the constant deriding they received from many children dissuade them, and instead showed up every day and walked through the community to talk with families there. Crouch speaks Spanish—something that allowed him to communicate more personably with the dozens of Mexican families living there.

It was slow going, but Crouch said he found that if was able to win over the confidence of one family member, it most often translated into an open door with the entire family.

He said it was startling to see some poverty stricken families working to instill healthy discipline in their kids while others approached parenting with a sort of abandon. More active parents, he said, were constantly worried about the negative impact of the rebellious, uncontrolled children.

“It was amazing just to see the different sides of the spectrum and how they can exist so close in one community, and how they can affect each other.”

Results worth the effort
Slowly, Crouch said, holding Kids’ Club in the community every day and having the same three interns show up consistently started to send a trickle of structure through the group they were working with. That had been the hope from the beginning.

“One of our great challenges was to build at least some set of boundaries so they could feel safe and have some kind of discipline throughout the summer,” Pope said, adding that the only place they had to hold Kid’s Club, in an open field, didn’t necessarily help add to the sense of order.

Still, Pope said community members noted the improved demeanor of the 25-30 children who regularly participated in the Kid’s Club. He said their language could be used as one barometer of their progress, and recalled one day when a particularly prolific young boy went a whole day without cursing. One of the interns complimented him.

“I asked him how that felt, and he said, ‘It feels good,’” Pope said.

He said major improvements like those were most visible in the last few weeks of the summer. Pope said that while mission teams have been to Jonesboro Trailer Park before, they typically came for one isolated week. Having a stable leadership team and a consistent flow of volunteers made a significant difference this year.

“They always knew they were going to have that consistency week after week and it wasn’t just a drive by deal,” he said.

By the end of the summer, what would have been a five-minute walk through the trailer park turned into an hour-long trek for Crouch—he was stopped for small chats at nearly every home he passed.

“That was what was so hard about leaving,” Crouch said. “It takes about that much time—I was there two months, every day—to finally be accepted, where people finally start trusting you significantly.”

All urban locations initially tough
EM Executive Director Chris Clum said it was similarly difficult to make headway in other stateside urban communities, but that like in Atlanta, volunteer teams ended up spearheading the establishment of new, potentially life-changing bonds.

“Early on, we struggled in the urban communities,” Clum said. “It was a bear the first half of the summer. But the relationships we formed with our partners…it was extremely rewarding to the teams. We were able to make some pretty strong inroads, and it made a significant impact.”

In Portland, Maine and Fort Wayne, Ind., volunteers had the opportunity to work with predominately Muslim refugees—something of a unique experience for a stateside mission trip.

“There were many opportunities to talk about Christ with the Muslims, and it was done in a very appropriate way, so we’re always pleased about that,” Clum said.
Experience Mission is offering Summer 2009 trips to Atlanta, Portland, Fort Wayne, Baltimore and other urban locations. Learn more at www.experiencemission.org or call the EM office at 360-732-0986.

Urban Mission Trips ::  Atlanta Mission Trips :: Experience Mission :: www.ExperienceMission.org
The following blog was originally written for Krista Jensen’s Facebook friends.

By Krista Jensen

Atlanta, GA - Summer Mission Trips
Most of you may know the opportunity that was given to me this summer but for those of you who do not, I was given a job as a student intern with a mission organization called Experience Mission with the title of Outreach Coordinator. Little did I know about the tremendous amount of responsibility that would be placed on my shoulders.

I was placed in the south side of Atlanta, GA with three other amazing interns, Adrienne, Lyndee and Matt, where we would embark on a journey of struggles and triumphs. I love these people to death and they have become such a great part of my life! Our task this summer was to take the leadership role of a short-term mission trip and coordinate each team that would come to Atlanta every week. Youth groups traveled far and wide from South Dakota, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and South Carolina and joined us for a week that would change their lives. For most of the teams coming from small rural towns, Atlanta was a big cultural shock for them and even those teams from inner cities themselves their eyes were open to a whole new life that they didn’t even know existed.

It’s amazing the poverty you can find in your own city, being fully aware that it exists but just never seeing it face to face. Why can we go to the depths of poverty, gangs, violence, drugs and prostitution in an unfamiliar city, but when it comes to our own it’s an untouchable place?

While we were in Atlanta, we partnered with the Salvation Army Lakewood Corps with whom we had most of our service and outreach ministries. These ministries consisted of painting the outside of an apartment complex in the scorching Atlanta heat, and two locations for Kids Clubs in the afternoon. Aside from the Salvation Army, we also had ministry locations with the Initiative for Affordable Housing where a nature trail was being made as well as other small construction projects, and a few times in the summer we spent time building relationships with the clients at the 24/7 Gateway Homeless services center and volunteered behind the scenes help at the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

Needless to say, us interns had our work cut out for us this summer. But we knew that we would not be only, not only did we have the teams that came in, but we had a huge support at the Lakewood Corps church but specifically Jason Pope and Daynes Viera were our biggest and greatest support. They were not only awesome, amazing people with a heart and a vision for their community and so much fun to work with but they instantly became our closest friends and family. I thank God so much for the relationships that we were able to build with each other and with the congregation at Atlanta Lakewood. Another huge blessing that i can say for all of us would be Ms. Lynn our amazing, comical cook who made dinner for us all summer.

With that just being a basic intro, many people have asked me “so, how was Atlanta” and usually I just give the short, “it was amazing, best summer of my life” not because I don’t have much to say but that if i were to tell everyone exactly how it was, i would be talking for years! Writing this is a good way of reflection for me but it also benefits ya’ll who read it as well!

God taught me endless amounts of things this summer, about my life and about him as well. I know that i will continually be learning from things that has happened this summer. Even things that i thought i had learned a while ago, God would just use situations and people as a reminder.

I would like to share this verse of scripture. It is one that many of you probably have heard before–Matthew 25:35-40:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

I am a firm believer of this passage, you can serve God in a lot of ways but i believe that to truly serve the face of God you need to be serving the “least of these.” We need to look outside of our self-recognition and see these people as children of God, loved by God despite their circumstances. In the Bible, it is told that Jesus hung around the poor, unclean, liars, cheaters and prostitutes so shouldn’t we do the same? We are created by God, loved by God, chosen by God to be like him to others and demonstrate his love so what does it mean when we choose to not do that? Ultimately it shows that those “lower than us”(described by the world) are not deserving of that love. And who are we to determine who is deserving of Christ’s love, for it is a gift given to us by the one who wants everyone to know.

Matthew 16:24-26 says:

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Just like this passage says, we must deny ourselves, and deny our comfort and opinions of the world and although we might lose status in the world it would be much better than losing our soul. For if Christ is the one that we live for and love than we must go to the depths, go to the unseen and “unclean” and show them that their is no difference between you and I, show them that even though the world says that we’re different, that is not what I, in Christ believe.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of homeless people that we met this summer who was blown away by the fact that we would touch them, shake their hands, touch their shoulder, even hug them. Because they were dirty, hadn’t showered in however many days and seen as a disgrace to society.

My heart was broken even more for God’s people this summer, and it’s my heart’s utmost desire that more Christians would see the least and lost as God’s people too. And wouldn’t care about losing their life in order to gain something greater.

See, I told you that I could talk for years, and this is just one thing God has laid on my heart his summer. This summer, I laughed, cried, danced, was challenged, broken and faced down on the floor before God.

If you want anymore stories, feel free to talk to me.

To God be the Glory for all the things he has done!

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