Philadelphia Youth Service Trip Journal - Part 2
July 2, 2009 by The Rev. Esme Culver
Day 3 and 4: The Read all the time Day Camp
There wasn’t much time for hanging around the breakfast table this morning. We had to be at the El Subway station by 8:00 in order to get to our destination by 8:30. (We did however, make the time for a quick run to Starbucks just three blocks away!) We knew that we would be going into a rough neighborhood, but nothing could have prepared us for what we saw today. We truly were in the roughest part of Philadelphia. Drug deals going down right in front of us, loud hard metal music pounding out of cars roaming through garbage strewn, pot holed roads rimmed by weedy sidewalks and boarded up windows. The group was quiet and focused as we made our way to the church for our days work at the camp.
Once arrived, we found ourselves in an old church building, it’s old wooden pews tossed together on the stage at one end, its old wooden floors covered with gouges and tape and beautiful stained glass windows that could hold their own with those at Grace….except that the windows in this neighborhood must be protected with screens so that they will not ruined by flying stones and rocks!
Click on the link below if you want to know where we were yesterday and today….we were in the #1 and #2 worst neighborhoods of Philadelphia….we saw more than the usual, experienced more than the usual and came away with indelible memories that will form how we view the poor, the homeless, the addicted and the desperate for ever.
We know how to get there and we know how to walk through there….straight, with focus and looking where we’re going. Give the number of drug deals being made in broad daylight…right in front of our eyes, we knew this was not the place to be taking pictures or provoking anyone’s anger or anxiety about presence. I was so proud of our team….no-one expressed any reason not to go…..we just went to do the job we had come to do –help out at the Day Camp for kids run by Old First and Hope Ministries of Philadelphia. Much like Grace Art Camp, the 40 or so children were divided into color groups and participated in activities like arts and crafts, music and movement, outside sports and play, and reading and games. Unlike Grace Art Camp, many of the kids arrive before camp starts to receive their free breakfast. Snacks and lunches are also provided and any leftover snacks, etc, are eagerly snatched up and taken home for dinner.
The day starts in the same way we start Grace Art Camp….music and interactive song, rules of the days, learning camp norms and rules, etc. Our group entered into all this activity and then some! Our first duty on Wednesday and Thursday morning was to go into the playground, search for a dispose of needles, cocaine packets, and various other paraphernalia left from the night before. Nothing was left to the imagination…it was all there. We swept up broken glass, picked up trash and swept the playing area as best we could with the two old brooms and broken dust pan.
Then we returned to join our assigned color groups for the rest of the camp day. On Wednesday, however, we entered into a scene no-one, not even the camp was prepared for. During one of the outside play times, a drug deal taking place on the outside of the wrought iron fence went a little awry….and guns were pulled. One of the counselors started trying to yell to warn the children to get away, but due to vocal chord surgery, her voice could not serve her well enough to get their attention. Other counselors ran to help get the children away but the children started running in the wrong direction…causing some panic among the children. Almost immediately the police arrived (they cruise around quite a bit) and the two men threw the guns away and started to run. I believe one of the men was caught, but am unsure about the other….maybe some of the others have more of the story. All of us took part in some part of the drama. We noticed that some of the children were completely unaffected by what had happened, so desensitized are they to this kind of thing. Others were a bit more upset …none were devastated.
On Thursday we returned to the camp ready to work again, expecting a fairly routine day after the experience we’d come through the day before. We almost made it. Gathering at mid-day for a photograph with camp staff, we were suddenly faced with a man who rushed into the camp and fell to the floor, writhing and yelling with anguish…. Sometimes unintelligibly, sometimes with loudly yelled, “Save me Lord Jesus Christ….it was not my fault….he’ll kill me…..save me….” With other staff members I approached the man to help to calm him down. We were able to bring him to a state at which we could help him downstairs into the offices and where we could hear part of his story. I was reminded of Mark 5:19, the story of Jesus facing the man with the unclean spirit… “What is your name, “ asked Jesus. It’s a question we asked ourselves during our reflections, later in the day and as we wrote our thoughts privately in our journals.
We’ve been spending the rest of the afternoon preparing a large chili dinner to take to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church for their homeless supper….another version of our Friday Meal at Grace.
Tomorrow we’ll be going back to the Whosoever Gospel Mission…..back to tote those bags and see some of our new friends, Greg, Seth, Willis and Jeff and some of the rest who live there. We’re looking forward to greeting them all again. More soon.
Here’s a link to where we were yesterday and today….
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/top_10_drug_corners-38426414.html
blessings to all…..
from the Grace Youth
In: Mission Trips Youth