2004-12-02 - Detroit Rescue Mission

So just this past Tuesday, some of us from church went to help out at Detroit Rescue Mission. They house people trying to get back on their feet and have dinners where they feed homeless and low-income people from the area.

Our job was to assist in serving food both to the residents of the Mission and to the people from around the Mission that needed a meal. It's always weird to go into some place where they're totally used to what they do week in and week out, but you have no clue. So we were trying to be helpful, but were totally helpless because we didn't know what needed to be done or where anything was.

We got into the kitchen and our first tasks were to wash our hands and put on aprons, hairnets, and gloves. Booyah! Hairnets look stinkin' awesome. Then our Supervisor got us on jobs. I was in charge of dishing up rice. "No more than this," the Supervisor told me, as he put a few scoops on a paper plate. "They might ask for less, but don't give them more."

It's kind of crazy to think that I -- some stupid-looking, middle-class kid -- was supposed to determine how much food all these older, poorer, and wiser people were going to get (and deny them if they wanted more). And this is supposed to be "serving the community".

After we served the Mission residents, we got the opportunity to mingle a bit with them as they finished up eating. Almost all of them had already left, so a few residents got a lot of attention from us volunteers. I felt weird having five of us talk to one guy: imagine a conversation between a young, black male and five young, white people evenly spaced around him, starting at him and listening intently to everything he had to say.

It felt awkward (I didn't want the guy to feel weird), so I just tried to sit back and check out my surroundings instead of add to the interrogation. Of course, I had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with a few different guys that were within range, but either I didn't feel like it or I was too afraid. I was probably too afraid. Yeah, I noticed while I was sitting there that my desire not to overwhelm that guy only lead me to silence and staring around the room.

So there's something I can work on. I've always had trouble starting up conversations with strangers. It makes me feel stupid and angry that my own insecurity could make people think that I don't care about them. I really cared about those guys at the table and wondered what they were like, how they got where they are today, and what they think about. But my curiosity stayed in my mind. I hope they didn't think I was ignoring them.

After that we prepared for serving the people who lived outside of the Mission (the homeless and/or poor). They started coming in and it didn't seem like a lot. But then they just kept coming. By the time we were all done, we had served 250 meals! Some of the people went through the line more than once (this was allowed), so we probably actually served around 100-150 different individuals.

One of the strangest parts was that one of the guys going through the line (who went through three times by my counting) looked a lot like a guy I knew in college. He was definitely my age and looked like someone I might hang out with. I wondered how he ended up needing to come through for three free meals.

After we finished serving everyone, we were done. The Supervisor thanked us for our help and we were out of there. Overall, it was a pretty surreal experience that would've seemed like a blur in my memory if it weren't for the simple tasks that kept us busy and our minds focused.

So I went in to this thinking, "Okay, so this is what I'm supposed to do to make a difference in the lives of the poor." But I left thinking that I didn't make any difference at all...I just slopped some food on a plate and handed it out to people (the Mission staff could've done this without our help).

But afterward we all talked and I learned something.

> Lesson Learned (or Remembered) <

When you go help out at Detroit Rescue Mission, you're not really helping the poor people. Rather, you're helping make Detroit Rescue Mission successful. They are the ones who are helping the poor. They are the ones that have the program to feed thousands of people every year. They are the ones that have the program to get people off the street and into jobs and homes. We don't have any of that...we are there to back them up.

When I realized that, my purpose made much more sense and I was more excited about what I did. Helping serve the food freed up the Supervisor to make his rounds and make sure everything was running smoothly. It helped the Mission get the food out faster than they would've without us. Us coming to serve the Mission residents encouraged them that people care about them.

No matter how small my job seemed, it was still worthwhile and had an effect on the whole.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 12:21-27

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