Missionary group learns life lessons

As students return to school, many will be asked "What did you do this summer?" Nineteen area teenagers can proudly say that they spent part of their summer helping the homeless and less fortunate of San Francisco.
On July 7-14, 8 adult volunteer leaders and 19 students from First Congregational Church of Hopkinton teamed up with The Center for Student Missions in California to make a difference on the streets of San Francisco. Most of the time was spent working with agencies that feed the hungry and homeless, as well as agencies that care for children. However, some of the time was actually spent on the streets of San Francisco talking to homeless people, praying with them and helping to meet some of their basic needs by handing out items such as socks, blankets, food, and toiletry kits.
"Before the trip, I thought homeless people were just outcasts of society. I was afraid to talk to or touch them," comments Jeremy Sutton, Medway High School Junior. "After my experience in San Francisco, I can’t walk by a homeless person without praying for or talking to them. They are people and they need our help."
The group stayed in the heart of the city, experiencing firsthand the sights, sounds, smells, and textures of urban life. They ate at local ethnic restaurants and cafes, sampling the delights of Indian, Central American, Greek, Vietnamese, and Thai cuisine. During a city tour and through daily activities, they learned about inner-city life (positives and negatives); who lives there, the unique issues and problems that city dwellers face.
Each day started bright and early with breakfast at 6:00 am. The students were divided up into 3 teams and headed out across the city to work with various non-profit organizations.
At the Haight Ashbury Food Program, students distributed food to 250 teenagers, elderly, homeless individuals and families and hippies who are still hanging out on the streets of Haight Ashbury.
Some spent their day with the children from the Tenderloin Central Corps Day Camp. They worked with over 50 kids ages 4-12. With only 6 staff members, they were thankful for the extra volunteers! The team brought two crafts to share with the kids – decorating visors with stickers and painting t-shirts with fabric markers. The t-shirts were a big hit!
Salvation Army Harborlight runs a day camp for approximately 40 children ages 6-12, led by 2 staff members. The students organized games, helped with crafts, and played with the children in the park.
On the 4th July, the group worked together at the Oakland Salvation Army Block Party. Their job was to publicize the festivities by going door-to-door in the neighborhood distributing fliers, as well as setting up and running the carnival-type games during the event.
Project Open Hand was started in the mid 80’s by a woman with a vision for feeding her friends with HIV/AIDS nutritious meals to help them regain their strength. It has since grown to include food delivery to ANY homebound critically ill individual under the age of 60. The group distributed hot meals and organized the food delivered to the Project’s Grocery Center into smaller quantities for easier distribution.
"On Tuesday, my group was asked to help as many homeless people as we could in two hours with $20," said Jenny Chang, a Hopkinton High School graduate who is now a freshman at Baylor University in Texas. "We met a man named Gill. Gill had dirty hair and shopping cart full of treasures - everything I had always pictured to be a homeless man. To my amazement, Gill had actually served ten years in the Air Force and traveled the world. He suddenly asked us to pray for his grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, uncles, aunts and brothers… who were all dead. He continued; please also pray for my wife and my two sons… they are also dead. We were shocked! We immediately prayed for him and Gill started to break down and cry. It showed me that even the smallest gesture can make an astonishing impact in someone’s life."
 "We met a very nice homeless guy named Jeff," said Josh Laurence, a Hopkinton High School sophomore. "We gave him some food and socks and told him we were from a church in the Boston area. He looked surprised and said that he was from Marlboro. When we told him we were from Hopkinton and we flew out here to volunteer on the streets of San Francisco, he was flabbergasted. He told us that two days earlier he was going to give up on God, unless He gave him a sign. Boy did God provide! God sent a group of Christians, from a town he knew, to meet him. Jeff told us that we are an answer to his prayers. He asked us for a Bible and we went to a bookstore and got him one. Before going, we prayed for him and he told us what a blessing we were. It was an amazing moment."
No trip to California would be complete without a little sightseeing. In the evenings and on the last day, the group visited Alcatraz, Lombard Street, Pier 39, Golden Gate Bridge, and Muir Woods to see the giant sequoia trees.
It was a life-changing week, filled with experiences the teenagers will never forget. The students learned about meeting the needs of the homeless and less privileged, learned more about themselves and what is important in life, and formed new, lasting friendships within the group.