Stereo Types & Shakespeare
Before the Nashville OYO trip, I don’t remember the last time I shivered so much. As a resident of Florida, anything under sixty degrees is considered extremely cold. So, spending February 16th through the 18th in the below freezing temperatures of Nashville, TN was quite a difference.
The night of our first day in Nashville we went on a prayer tour of the city. All eighteen of us piled into the two vans and drove throughout the streets of Tennessee's capital. We went to almost every part of town; the poverty stricken ones and the prosperous ones. There was one part in particular that stood out the most. At one of our stops we found ourselves parked between two buildings. On one side was the Titan Stadium and on the other side was a juvenile detention center. A trip leader asked us which side of the street Jesus would be on: the side of the million dollar stadium or the side of the imprisoned delinquents. The answer was that Jesus would be in the middle of the street, bridging the gap between the two sides.
We came from all parts of the United States: California, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi and Tennessee. Some of us had known each other for years and still others we were just then having the pleasure of meeting. No matter what the circumstance, thirty minutes into the first meeting we were already becoming life long friends. For those of us who had never been on an OYO trip many things were overwhelming. We knew the bare minimums. We knew that OYO stands for Orthodox Youth Outreach and has been in existence since 2004. We also knew that it typically conducts approximately ten trips a year, most of which in conjunction with the Center for Student Missions. We knew what to bring and what not to bring and that the experience was going to be a very novel one. Beyond that we were clueless. What we didn’t know was that the average age of a homeless person is nine years old. The average age is nine. What we also didn’t know was that most homeless people have minimum wage jobs, but rent is so high that they can’t afford a place to stay. Those were only a couple of the grim statistics. We also discussed some of the major stereotypes of society. One of which, pertaining to homeless people contained the beliefs that they are lazy, drug addicts with no family and no religion. That stereotype was soon to be proven wrong.
After our initial briefing and evening prayers at St. Elizabeth the New Martyr Mission in Murfreesboro we drove to the building where we would be staying. We unloaded all of our various belongings in the old Sunday school rooms where we would sleep and then got to know each other a little better. After a couple games we were briefed by the CSM (Center for Student Missions) people on the rules of our Nashville trip. When working with the people, we shouldn’t look anyone on the street in the eyes because it could be interpreted as a sign of physical or sexual aggression. Whistling, gesturing or yelling could be dangerous and misinterpreted, so it was best to abstain from all three. I was shocked by this. When walking down the street I always try my best to make polite eye contact with people and say hello. Despite those seemingly ominous rules, the CSM people assured us that we would be safe wherever they took us and indeed they were right. Never once were we put into a dangerous situation.
Once all of the briefings were completed we got into the vans and headed to a Thai restaurant for dinner. One of the parts of the trip was to experience different cultures through their food and let me tell you, Thai vegetable dumplings are absolutely amazing. I almost learned how to eat with chopsticks there. Almost. When we were all done with our delicious Thai food we got back into the vans and started our prayer tour. We made three stops on the tour. The first was in the parking lot of an elementary school. By day it served as a place for people at the school to park, but by night it served as an area for drug trafficking and prostitution. We stood on a slope just off of the parking lot and looked out over the city. The air temperature was in the twenties, but the wind chill made it feel even colder than that. My whole body was shuddering. I was wearing a few shirts, a jacket, a hat, mittens and a scarf and I was still suffering from the cold. It occurred to me as I stood there looking at the city that in a few minutes I would be able to climb back into the heated van and rid myself of the chill, but the homeless people of Nashville who had less covering them than I did didn’t have that luxury. I felt so guilty. I had absolutely no room to complain about the cold. We also stopped in front of the capital building and prayed for the government. It was a sad moment when one of the trip leaders remarked that we had just done something momentous: we prayed in front of a government building. More and more people are losing the right to simply pray in and around schools, government offices or any public places where people might be offended. The last place we stopped was in between the multi-million dollar stadium and the juvenile detention center. For me that was the most poignant part of the entire prayer trip.
The next morning we arose bright and early for breakfast and morning prayers. Then we were split into two groups. One group went to a halfway house for men recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. The other group, my group, stayed at the CSM building and put together care packages that we would later hand out during our “Urban Exposure.”
After we were finished with the care packages my group went to the Samaritan Ministries soup kitchen to help serve lunch to homeless people. While we were waiting for them to finish cooking the lunch, a man stood up and told us his story. He was homeless. He had been addicted to crack cocaine. At the end of last year he had four successive strokes. After the strokes he couldn’t talk or walk. Then, God healed him. He was so thankful for God’s healing and forgiveness. As he told his story he began crying. I almost cried as I watched and listened to him. Later I approached him and told him how much of an inspiration he was to me and he said “the Bible tells us that when God does something for us we have to testify.” I helped serve the chili and salad lunch. When we were done serving I went and sat with some of the people who were eating. One woman asked me if I was getting a grade for my work and when I told her no she said “Well honey, there’s one more jewel in your crown.” Another man taught me a thing or two about God and my path in life. It was surprising to me how many of the people were religious and in fact thankful to God for his mercy.
By the time we were done at the soup kitchen some of us, myself included, were getting a little hungry, but we couldn’t eat. Not until the Urban Exposure. The two big groups were then split into four smaller groups, each comprised of about four or five people. Each person in the group was allotted five dollars for lunch and a care package to give to a homeless person. There was also one woman’s package per group. I got the woman’s package. In addition to the lunch money and packages, the group as a whole was given an extra five dollars. Those five dollars were to be used to find a homeless person and take him or her out to lunch. Well, my group found seven homeless people altogether. In front of the local library we gave out all of the men’s packages in less than ten minutes. It was not until our group, including five of the homeless men, was in Subway and ordering our food did I get the chance to hand out my package. A woman who was obviously homeless rushed into Subway holding a dollar bill. I walked over to her and told her I had some things that she might be able to use. Emphatically she replied “Oh yes, I need stuff. I’m homeless and pregnant and my blood sugar is low.” Homeless. Pregnant. Diabetic. I couldn’t believe it. I have diabetes and it’s hard enough having to deal with my blood sugars, but being diabetic and homeless and pregnant astounded me. She came into Subway with a dollar to buy a soda to raise her blood sugar and left with a sandwich to satisfy not only her hunger, but also that of her baby. I ate my sandwich and then talked to some of the men. One man had only been homeless for a couple weeks. There was some problem in his family and his lawyer advised him that it would be best if he left, but he had no place to go. Another man was from Scotland. He spent all of his time in the library reading. He named off authors I had never heard of and then started explaining theories of certain philosophers. One of his favorite authors was William Shakespeare.
Once we were done eating we went to our final destination for the day. Once again the two groups split up at the Campus for Human Development. One group stayed downstairs and talked with the homeless men. My group went upstairs to talk with the men who were part of the Odyssey program. The Odyssey program is for men who are chronically homeless. In order to live there one of the conditions is that the men must have some sort of job. After we were there for awhile one man stood up and told us that they had a tradition that every group who visited had to sing them a song. So, we sang them a church hymn and they absolutely loved it. The man who had us sing then urged another man to play the piano for us. In a room just off from the dining room there was a piano and some chairs. We stood around the piano while the two men played and sang us worship songs they were writing. They also taught us the songs and we all sang together. After a few songs, the man who had asked us to sing and brought us into the room sat down in front of the piano. He explained to us that the song he was about to play was nothing special. He said that there were only four notes and that it was really simple. One day he had been meditating over how good God was to him and why he loved God so much. The song could no be described as anything short of beautiful. For a second time that day, I found myself close to tears. It was amazing for me that these people who had suffered so much still had such amazing faith and trust in God. When he finished his song we were told that we would be leaving soon. We all thanked the two men for sharing with us and they had us say our names for the tape they had been recording while we were singing.
For dinner that night we went to a Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately I was too stuffed to finish the free fried ice cream.
When we got back to the CSM building we gathered in our meeting room and discussed the events of the day and the trip as a whole. Everyone was in agreement that the experience had been life changing. In one weekend we had broken a huge stereotype. Homeless people are not all lazy, drug addicts with no family and no religion. Instead, they have jobs, families and a strong love of God. For those who were suffering from drug or alcohol addictions, many were in rehabilitation programs of some type. My eyes were truly opened in those few days. I think every young person should go on at least one trip so that he or she can have such an amazing experience.
On Sunday morning we rose, dressed and cleaned the area where we had been staying. We packed up all of our stuff and drove to Saint Elizabeth the New Martyr Mission for Divine Liturgy. After liturgy we had brunch with the members of the mission and then said goodbye to each other. Slowly, but surely everyone began to leave. First the people from Georgia left, then the people from Mississippi and Tennessee. Finally, the only ones remaining were those of us who were flying home. We attended Forgiveness Vespers at Saint Elizabeth’s and climbed back into the van together one last time on our way to the airport.
It was dark when my plane took off from the Nashville airport. As the jets propelled the plane down the runway I prayed that God would watch over my flight. As the wheels left the runway I silently said goodbye to Nashville and to all the people we met. As the city turned into nothing more than a few glittering dots in the distance, I relived all of the memories of the weekend, memories that will never leave me. We came to Nashville to make some kind of difference. We went into it unsure of what that difference, but we knew we would make one. I know for a fact that we did make a difference. I know because as we ministered and worked we found ourselves standing in the middle of the road with Jesus, between the stadium and the detention center, doing something beautiful for God.
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