A Standoffish Privileged White Kid.

October 5, 2011

            Hello October! It’s been quite a while since I’ve written last; I can’t seem to find much motivation to journal or blog lately. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. Perhaps it’s my tiredness, I find myself being very tired and really we aren’t doing too much so I shouldn’t be so tired. Who knows! We have been back at camp for 8 days, and a little bit since the urban plunge now, and we have a new speaker taking us up to Friday (today is Wednesday) and then we go home for Thanksgiving Homestay Weekend!

DAY ONE OF URBAN PLUNGE

 I suppose I should fill in everything that happened from the Urban Plunge until now, the plunge was not worth as much worry as I thought. It was actually so amazing, and I loved being home in my own city. We stayed at Vineyard Church in Downtown Winnipeg, and we met some really awesome people there at the church and in the surrounding community. On the first day they sent us off in groups of 3 or 4 and we did a sort of Amazing Race type deal, except for the fact that it wasn’t a race. It was like a scavenger hunt, in which it didn’t really matter how far you made it. What mattered was the experience you had. My group and I started out and we went to a great local food mart with low prices, local art, books, and a free snack basket for kids. It was an awesome community based store with helpful tips posted around, and even visual representation of how much sugar is in breast milk compared to pop and formula. Encouraging mothers to breast feed, and keep their children healthy.

Then we moved on down the street and ran into some kids, a guy in my group was and is such a people person so of course he stopped and played with them. We learnt their names, and begun just to hang out with them. At first I was a little standoffish, wanting get to our next destination, and not ready to step that far out of my comfort zone.  But then a little girl with beautiful red hair ran up to me and said “ Are you from Vineyard Church?” we were told not to say to anyone where we were staying just for safety concerns, so I hesitated, but said “ uh, yeah”. I mean she’s just a kid, what could she do to me? Then she ran inside her house, and came back outside a minute or two later and said “My mom said you guys should come in for coffee!” (That day we were supposed to take someone out for coffee…but we got the pleasure to be served!).  I go inside, and my group members slowly trickle in throughout the next half an hour. The woman who invited us in was so hospitable, gave us coffee and even offered us lunch. (We had lunch packed so we turned her down, not to make her fuss anymore over us, no matter how sweet or her it was). Turns out she was from Vineyard as well, and we chatted her up and heard her story, in which she was beautifully open to share. She had two beautiful girls, the redhead who couldn’t help but continually chat me up, and her littlest that could hardly walk but had the sweetest smile and happiest disposition. It was a pleasure to get to know her and her family, and see how the Vineyard Church is making such an impact in the community.

Next we moved onto a church in which we had a speaker talk about gangs, in general, and here in Winnipeg. It was astounding to hear about how many gangs are out there, and I so often brush off the idea of gangs when they are alive and well. In fact we are leader in Canada for having the most gangs, yay…Go Winnipeg. So many times I don’t look at graffiti in Winnipeg either, now I know what they all mean… and I look for it now. Almost every gang that I can remember from our talk has the word “killers” on the end, which is so sad. It was really interesting learning about gangs, as well as the prostitution industry here in Winnipeg. I more so thought prostitution was hardly a problem in Winnipeg, when it is such a huge issue. It was heartbreaking to hear about how most prostitutes are my age, and younger. How their family members, moms, dads, prostitute them out to finance their addiction. That be it drugs or alcohol. Addictions plague so many people, not matter just in Winnipeg, which directly correlates with prostitution and gangs.

We moved on to the heart of Main Street, talking with people and taking them out for coffee. Matt our outgoing brave member jumped right in and begun talking to pretty much anyone he could find. It was intimidating being out on the streets, just trying to start a conversation with any random person. It was definitely a learning experience, and I learnt I need to become more comfortable with that sort of interaction, as well I’m hoping to find other ways to reach out to the inner city community. I feel a call to help my city, and hopefully in the next coming years I can do that.
            We moved on to Vineyard for another chat, in which I’m not going to lie, I don’t remember much of. The man just answered some questions, and didn’t have too much of a point.  Then off to Siloam Mission to have a little tour and to donate the shirt off our backs to receive a different one from their pile (I feel bad about this because all of the girls in our site knew this was coming so we purposely wore not our favorite shirt that day). We then had to find dinner….with only 3 dollars each. We met up with some homeless guys around 19 years old outside of Siloam Mission, and they helped us find dinner. It was really neat just to talk with them because it was just like being with friends, we could relate to them and them to us. I thought it was really cool of them to walk around with a bunch of privileged white kids and be friends. If I were one of them, I would probably hate someone like me, however they hung out with us. I found somewhere to eat along the way but some of our site went to McD’s and bought them dinner. Super good. And that’s part one. It took a while now didn’t it? Don’t worry the other parts won’t be as long. I promise.

Makin Our Way.

Vinyard Church Baby

Justice,Community, and Worship