Living out the Gospel

It's been awhile since I've last blogged. Sorry about that for the probably 4 of you who read my blog. My life got crazy trying to study for midterms and then I went on a spring break trip. The final half of this semester I'll try and be more consistent and blog at least a couple times a week. Now I'll get to my actual post.

During Spring Break I went with students from the Drake InterVarsity chapter to City Lights in St. Louis. This was a week that was very eye-opening. I won't go into all the details of the trip in this post, but may in later posts. My eyes were opened so much to what is going on in our country and the poverty that is there. Many times we find ourselves ignoring those around us in need and this week I wasn't able to do that. 

The week started out with a tour of the city and finding out that it's a hollow city. Most of the people that used to live in these neighborhoods have left and moved out to the suburbs. There were so many empty lots and abandoned buildings.  I had been to St. Louis before and had just gone to the touristy spots like the arch, zoo, Grant's farm, etc. The times that I was there before I didn't notice this poverty and it's mainly because I wasn't looking for it. I was essentially ignoring what is right in front of me. This is very similar to my life in Des Moines. I live in the city and yet I routinely ignore the poor around me. I live in my little Drake bubble and try to avoid going into the 'hood' of Des Moines. I rarely venture East of campus unless I'm visiting my little at her school for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. This week really challenged me to be there for my neighbor and to listen to them and hear their stories. I'm still working on what this will look like in my life, but I really do want to stop ignoring the poor that are right in front of me.

This week also gave me the opportunity to get to know an amazing Christian community in the St. Louis area. There were 2 churches that I saw that truly care for the poor and are really living out the gospel. The two churches are called New City Fellowship and Jubilee Community Church. Both of these churches encourage their members to move into the 'hood', where most people have left and live among the poor. This allows them to be in community with those that society has deemed less than them. I thought it was amazing to see people actually living this out. They were living among these people and developing relationships with them. It was very inspiring for me to see these people and also inspired me to do something similar after college or maybe after next year when I'm done living in the DG house. One thing that was repeated over and over by people that were living in these communities was the phrase that the safest place for them to be is where God wants them. Many of their families and friends didn't understand why they would intentionally move their family into dangerous areas, but if God is there with you then no where else would be safer.

We also learned a lot about the education system in the United States. I would really encourage you to watch the documentary 'Waiting for Superman'. I think this is the first documentary that I've ever watched and it was amazing. It is very heartbreaking, but also very eye-opening about the state of public education. We also learned that the St. Louis public schools have lost their accreditation so colleges and universities don't have to look at people's applications that apply to their schools since they could say their high school diploma doesn't count.

The main thing that I will take away from this past week is to be more aware of the poor around me. One idea for how I'm going to do this is called a blesssing bag. I'm planning on making some of these within the next couple of weeks and carrying them along with me in my car. Right now I've occasionally seen people with signs asking for money/work/etc, and normally ignore them and drive by. I think after I start carrying these with me and actually looking out for homelessness I'll see so much more. Des Moines has huge issues with homelessness and so I just need to open to looking for these people. I look forward to taking the experiences and information that I've learned this past week and applying them to Des Moines.