I can't believe I didn't bother to check my account until today.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
So I want to go to Nashville too...another mission trip
I don't even know how this is gonna work, but here's my application essay (Question: Why do you feel you should be able to go to Nashville?)
Nashville Essay- Victoria Yang
I’ve learned to find delight in serving, mainly in urban ministry/outreach capacities. One of the themes of the student ministry I work with around here is to “love humbly, serve radically”. Maybe it’s not a good idea for me to go on Nashville a fourth time, to give those who have never gone to Nashville a chance (and the troubles of fundraising for both Nashville and Mexico), but the people of Nashville calls out to me. I remember last year when I went to find Rico and how he remembered me, as well as Rebecca Leo and Kally. Through doing ministry downtown these past couple of months, one of the most important things that I have learned is to keep at it and make bonds. Bonds are how you gain your trust among the homeless, who often have a hard time with trust. Of course, that is hard when you go to a city every year and that’s it, but I don’t want to be a part of some of the people’s lives for one day and then disappear from their lives forever, though that probably has already happened. But to go back to those that I have formed relationships with in past years and be like, “Hey, what’s up?” and conversing with them shows that indeed I have not forgotten them.
I remember Albert from Samaritan Ministries, whom I met the second and third years and perhaps the first year as well. He works in the soup kitchen but he lives in low-income housing, and is probably the case for all those who are near to but not homeless. I remember just talking for a while every year, and when he showed me his books. I remember Rico and his slam poetry (in a sense) and how he was full of wisdom. I remember one that I met in Safehouse Outreach in downtown Atlanta that was just like him, named Faze (Faith) who was so wise and you could simply see the fire of God spurting out of him. I remember the cold policemen, such as the one we met the first year, and then another one I met in my second year who told a musician on 2nd Avenue to “get lost” because he was on “public property”.
I guess that no matter where, my heart burns and aches for those that are overlooked by society. And then we head into the streets of Nashville, sometimes determined to bless someone’s day, and they are just overwhelmed because we have take the time to not only give them a meal, but also spend the time to talk with them and hearing them out That’s what many homeless and low-income all throughout the world lack. They are often given food but that’s it. Rarely do people stop and talk with them for a while and offer to pray for them. Rarely do people offer to help them in ways other than getting them food because of how we perceive the homeless.
Maybe my heart really is in downtown Atlanta and not Nashville or foreign lands, but I feel a calling once again to go and serve. To be the voice for the lost, and bring back stories of the oppressed, and to give them a voice so that they’re not homeless. To lay my life down and humbly serve the people of Nashville. To answer Isaiah 58, 61, 65:17-25, Micah 6:8,and Matthew 28:19-20. To learn how to discern God’s voice and learn to live radically and pursue His command as one with nothing and in an unfamiliar city. To learn the joy of serving and of abandonment to the world.
I read a book about two college guys who decided to take a semester off from their comfortable lifestyle and live homeless for 5 months, traveling the streets of 5 cities with only the clothes behind their back, a backpack for essentials, and a guitar (for worship and panhandling). In it reaffirmed what I had previously learned through Atlanta homeless ministry and Nashville, of the public attitudes of homeless. Of how even churches forced them to leave and say that “you’re not welcome here”. Of the cruel spontaneous ordinances of public and commercial buildings (i.e. coffee shops), like the McDonalds last year where we “blessed others' mornings”. God has given me a heart for the homeless and for many of the major cities, has called me a servant for the poor, and I want to obey Him.
I’ve learned to find delight in serving, mainly in urban ministry/outreach capacities. One of the themes of the student ministry I work with around here is to “love humbly, serve radically”. Maybe it’s not a good idea for me to go on Nashville a fourth time, to give those who have never gone to Nashville a chance (and the troubles of fundraising for both Nashville and Mexico), but the people of Nashville calls out to me. I remember last year when I went to find Rico and how he remembered me, as well as Rebecca Leo and Kally. Through doing ministry downtown these past couple of months, one of the most important things that I have learned is to keep at it and make bonds. Bonds are how you gain your trust among the homeless, who often have a hard time with trust. Of course, that is hard when you go to a city every year and that’s it, but I don’t want to be a part of some of the people’s lives for one day and then disappear from their lives forever, though that probably has already happened. But to go back to those that I have formed relationships with in past years and be like, “Hey, what’s up?” and conversing with them shows that indeed I have not forgotten them.
I remember Albert from Samaritan Ministries, whom I met the second and third years and perhaps the first year as well. He works in the soup kitchen but he lives in low-income housing, and is probably the case for all those who are near to but not homeless. I remember just talking for a while every year, and when he showed me his books. I remember Rico and his slam poetry (in a sense) and how he was full of wisdom. I remember one that I met in Safehouse Outreach in downtown Atlanta that was just like him, named Faze (Faith) who was so wise and you could simply see the fire of God spurting out of him. I remember the cold policemen, such as the one we met the first year, and then another one I met in my second year who told a musician on 2nd Avenue to “get lost” because he was on “public property”.
I guess that no matter where, my heart burns and aches for those that are overlooked by society. And then we head into the streets of Nashville, sometimes determined to bless someone’s day, and they are just overwhelmed because we have take the time to not only give them a meal, but also spend the time to talk with them and hearing them out That’s what many homeless and low-income all throughout the world lack. They are often given food but that’s it. Rarely do people stop and talk with them for a while and offer to pray for them. Rarely do people offer to help them in ways other than getting them food because of how we perceive the homeless.
Maybe my heart really is in downtown Atlanta and not Nashville or foreign lands, but I feel a calling once again to go and serve. To be the voice for the lost, and bring back stories of the oppressed, and to give them a voice so that they’re not homeless. To lay my life down and humbly serve the people of Nashville. To answer Isaiah 58, 61, 65:17-25, Micah 6:8,and Matthew 28:19-20. To learn how to discern God’s voice and learn to live radically and pursue His command as one with nothing and in an unfamiliar city. To learn the joy of serving and of abandonment to the world.
I read a book about two college guys who decided to take a semester off from their comfortable lifestyle and live homeless for 5 months, traveling the streets of 5 cities with only the clothes behind their back, a backpack for essentials, and a guitar (for worship and panhandling). In it reaffirmed what I had previously learned through Atlanta homeless ministry and Nashville, of the public attitudes of homeless. Of how even churches forced them to leave and say that “you’re not welcome here”. Of the cruel spontaneous ordinances of public and commercial buildings (i.e. coffee shops), like the McDonalds last year where we “blessed others' mornings”. God has given me a heart for the homeless and for many of the major cities, has called me a servant for the poor, and I want to obey Him.
$422 more to raise if I go..plus the $1375 for Mexico
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