“Everyone is hungry for something, and everyone has something to give.” This is one of the core values of one of our worksites called The Lord’s Acre*. At Asheville Youth Mission, we have the pleasure of visiting their extensive and productive garden almost every week. In their mission to fight hunger in western North Carolina, they grow fresh, organic, healthy food that they then distribute to a handful of local agencies in Fairview, Black Mountain, and Asheville, completely free of charge. Our students get to spend the time we have there helping with weeding, harvesting, washing vegetables, and other garden upkeep tasks, in addition to participating in activities and discussion to learn more about hunger.
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Upon the completion of my last worksite with Asheville Youth Mission, I was left with a curious thought: how should I measure my time spent this summer? In other words, what will I tell my friends and family about my internship at AYM when I return to college? Of course, being the science kid I am, I looked first to trying to understand what time really means. How do we measure time? Well, historically, we measured time by dividing one orbit of the earth around the sun into little chunks. Namely, the second. First defined as 1/86,400 part of a mean solar day, the second now caries an even more curiously-arbitrary definition. Currently, the second is defined as “9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom.” That’s ridiculous right?!
At Memphis Youth Mission, one of the community partners that we go to every week is St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral on Wednesday mornings for a worship service that is open to everyone, and they mean everyone. After the worship service, the group will help serve breakfast to those who attended the worship service and others from the community. For me, this service site has been particularly meaningful. MYM had an Episcopalian group come earlier in the summer and I had the privilege of sitting next to one of the group leaders during the service. She was overwhelmed by the joy, love, and compassion shown to those who normally would not be so welcomed in a traditional church setting; she wept at the idea that this church was opening its doors to anyone and everyone that wanted to come in. It was a powerful experience for me to watch her during the service and afterwards during the breakfast, talking to people and helping welcome those on the margins.
Community: 1. a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. 2. a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. We all belong to communities. We are on different teams and parts of different clubs. We attend different schools and different churches. However, the one community without any divide is the body of Christ. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are our people!!! Throughout the summer, I have had the opportunity to engage in many different communities that have taught me so much about who makes up the body of Christ. Although getting up and to work by 7:30 seems to be getting harder and harder, the communities being built seems to make it more and more worth it.
A core goal of Raleigh Youth Mission is to deter participants from the “savior mentality”, because we believe it is a toxic standpoint, and not a true reflection of the gospel. To achieve this, as a staff we are intentional to define the concept of mission immersion. Prior to arriving to Raleigh and receiving training- I was a bit unclear on the concept myself. Several friends and family members would ask.. sooo what exactly are you doing this summer? Mission immersion is like a mission trip in that you are volunteering, working with others, and maybe providing some relief to those in need. However, mission immersion takes this concept a step further. The immersion aspect is a dual idea that while we aid agencies in their mission, we are also learning ourselves. We learn about the agencies, how they’re funded, what services they provide, and much more. So instead of simply helping those facing poverty, homelessness, or food insecurity, we also teach our youth where these problems come from. At RYM, we teach curriculum to middle and high school students that challenges systemic issues such as gentrification, generational poverty, racism, and privilege awareness.
“You are a liar, you are a phony, and if you were to punch anyone in the face—it should be yourself.” These were the words my RYM group witnessed a woman reciting to a younger more vulnerable woman on the R-Line bus. This week at RYM we learned about what it means to live abundantly, what living abundantly looks like, and how God has called us to serve those who lack abundance. During the week, we played an activity called ‘Continuums.’ In this game, someone reads out a statement, and people place themselves accordingly on a scale of “agree” versus “disagree.” The last statement in the game was “God cares the most about people who are poor and/or oppressed.” Once this statement was announced, the majority of people moved more towards the 100% agree spectrum. This shocked me. If anything, I feel neutral to this statement.
The first week of anything can challenge us and even be difficult. My first week at AYM was no different. It was difficult, but just because something is difficult doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth doing. Our first week was worth any difficulties that we encountered, because we were able to serve the people in our community here in Asheville. Our first week I took Northwest Presbyterian Church of Atlanta to 12 baskets and we helped serve the meal for the people who came in to eat. Almost immediately my group of 6 middle school boys saw that there was a chess set on their coffee tables at 12 baskets. They were all excited, most of them loved to play chess. They asked if they could play a game of chess and I told them that maybe if we had some time at the end of the day then they could. After that we started getting ready to serve the people coming in.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” — Frederick Buechner My deep gladness is lived out at Raleigh Youth Mission (a part of Youth Mission Co). I began this past August as the Director of Raleigh Youth Mission and in this short time I have experienced pure joy! I have experienced the joy of numerous agencies that are meeting the needs of those who are experiencing homelessness in Raleigh, NC – filling those gaps that enable them to move through their struggles and temporary situations with dignity and with hope. I have experienced the joy of young people who become aware of the issues that surround homelessness and the complexity of it all – and not becoming overwhelmed but rather come to an understanding that they can make a difference in the lives of others. And I have experienced joy to work with a staff that has a passion for youth and for justice systems that give all people an opportunity to flourish – who have the ability to look forward and ask “How can we meet the needs of those we serve with innovation and creativity?”
For the last several weeks we have been looking at each part of worship and considering how we can “mission” that element of the service. From being called together to confession of sin, from hearing God’s Word and responding with what we believe, we have discussed how each part relates to social justice and the command that Jesus gives us to “love our neighbor.” Typically the end of our services includes some kind of Charge and Benediction. Often a pastor leads it by coming out to the center of the room, raising her hands, and gives some final words to the congregation. This part of worship reminds us that God sends us out into the world, and blesses us for that journey with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit goes with us.
Welcome to Part 6 of our blog series, Mission Our Worship. We are looking at the different parts of worship and considering how we can engage in related acts of mission. In our last post we discussed that after hearing God’s Word read and proclaimed, we are inspired to stand up and say what we believe. That’s more than some litany read aloud by a congregation once a week– it’s a call for our whole lives. Whenever we see injustice or strive in the context of our world, we are called to speak out based on our faith and our convictions.
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