Sisters students aid homeless

Last updated Aug 07, 2007 12:0pm0

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Laurie and Mark Francis with a group they took to Los Angeles to aid the homeless on the city’s mean streets.

Spending four days on the streets in the toughest part of Los Angeles has given 21 Sisters youths a new outlook on life. Today, these young people believe they are much less judgmental than before they embarked on their journey. Each has gained a greater appreciation for the security Sisters affords to them - a keen respect for things taken for granted.

The students, under the leadership of Dan Keels, youth pastor at Sisters Community Church, spent July 16-19 in Los Angeles, hoping to gain a better understanding of the fate of the homeless. The trip's purpose was "to provide life experience to the students," said Mark Francis, one of the seven adults who accompanied the students, one of whom was his daughter, on the trip.

"Our main goal was to go down to L.A. and just help out the homeless, not necessarily to shove the word of God into them," said student participant Nathan Wright, who will be a sophomore at Sisters High School this fall.

To participate, each student paid $349.

"This by no means covered the cost of the trip at all," said Lindsay Robinson, student ministries director at Sisters Community Church. "Our church picked up everything else."

To cut back on expenses the group drove to L.A. in church vans and camped all week at Malibu State Park, located about 45 minutes by car west of the city of Los Angeles. Each day the students rode the metro into the depths of skid row and learned about the people who live there (see related story, page 31). These experiences made a profound impact on the students.

"I'm more grateful for what I have ... compared to all the people in L.A. If I don't get something that I want now, I know 'well, hey I still have all this, and it's a lot'...," said Sisters High School freshman Janelle Johnson.

The realization that homelessness is a huge problem in the United States weighs heavily on Wright.

"I can think of something like this in Africa with thousands of homeless people..., and seeing 94,000 homeless people are in L.A., it changed me because I thought this could never happen in America. I want to go to other countries, but I feel the need now just to go to my own country and help out the homeless people," he said.

Sisters High School 2007 graduate Sarah Douglass realized how sheltered people are in Sisters.

"Just going to L.A. and walking down on skid row and seeing people ... sleeping on the streets ... with human feces. The smell is - I can't even describe the smell that's down on skid row - and people live there," she said.

Freshman Kaylee Francis is grateful for how protected she is, living in Sisters.

"The homeless people were telling us that every night there's frightening things that go on, like their friends getting killed by gangs or just by someone thinking they have more than them. It just makes me grateful for my security but also sad for their (lack of security)," said Francis.

Francis feels there is a need to educate the public about the homeless, helping people to realize that few choose to be homeless. Many work regularly to get out of their homeless situations.

"America needs to work on the homeless population and stop people from becoming homeless and help out with jobs before we go into other countries and try and help," she said.

"My whole perspective on life has changed," Douglass said, noting that so much more is involved in helping the homeless than merely feeding them.

Far more important is acknowledging these people as human beings.

"People just want to talk and be acknowledged as a person," Douglass said. "They've been rejected so many times."

Students describe four days on Los Angeles’ Skid Row

Twenty-one students from Sisters Community Church recently returned from a trip to Los Angeles to help the homeless. The trip provided a quick course on what it is to be homeless in the U.S. today (see related story, page 3).

Each morning the group drove to Universal City from their camping site in Malibu State Park where they boarded the metro and rode to Sixth Street, the heart of L.A.'s skid row. According to Mark Francis, one of the seven adult chaperons, organizers wanted to take the students out of familiar surroundings.

On their first day the students and their chaperons broke up into groups of three. With $30 in their pockets, each group looked for a homeless person to take out to lunch.

"The goal was to learn about their lives and ask them questions and get to know them," said Lindsay Robinson, student ministries director at Sisters Community Church.

"We walked around for about 45 minutes trying to find someone, because a lot of homeless people didn't even want us to take them out to lunch. They said, 'no I don't need any help.' Then, we walked to McDonald's. We saw this homeless guy. We went up to him ... and he couldn't talk," said Wright.

The man, a Viet Nam veteran, was mute. He finally wrote down on a slip of paper what he wanted from McDonald's, but he would not accompany the students into McDonalds.

When the students sat down to eat with him, the man "pretty much preached to us" through handwritten notes, said Wright.

"In the most humble manner," added Robinson.

The group learned that the man has been disregarded by the government and has been unable to get a job because of his disability.

"He was the most tender-hearted guy...," Robinson said.

"My group was walking around skid row in the dirtiest part of L.A., on Fifth and Hill," said freshman Kaylee Francis. "Supposedly, there are, like, thousands of homeless in that block, but we couldn't find anyone at first. I'm not sure if it was the wrong time of day or if we didn't know how to recognize them because it was our first day."

Finally, the group found a man who agreed to go to lunch with them. The students learned that the man, a Nigerian, obtained a job when he first came to the states from which he was soon laid off. He has been on the streets for 20 years and still looks for a job daily.

"I thought he was going to be kind of stuck up and that he was going to keep asking us for money, but he really wasn't. He was very kind. On the day we found him, he was trying to get a job as a limousine driver. He is determined not to stay homeless," said Francis.

On their second day the students helped in a church on skid row that provides a program for children who formerly were living on the streets but are now living in shelters.

"Some of us went to the park and played with the kids, and the other half of the group stayed at the church and worked on painting and cleaning up the church," said Sarah Douglass, a 2007 Sisters High School graduate.

On their third day the Sisters group worked with Habitat for Humanity. Those 16 and younger took inventory, stacked boxes and carried ladders.

"Those under 16 worked their tails off," said Kaylee's mother Laurie Francis, who served as a chaperon. Those over 16 framed walls at a construction site.

On the fourth and final day the group went to the Los Angeles Mission which, according to Laurie Francis, is the biggest mission in the area. Students were again broken into groups. Some cleaned walls. Some sold popcorn, and one group prepared gift packs for a baby shower for expectant, homeless women.

"That was an amazing facility. I asked one of the women who works there: 'How do you keep this heart of compassion day after day after day after day?' She said: 'Most of the people who work here were homeless.' Some are actually still homeless," Laurie Francis said.

For the students their lives will never be the same. No longer do they take even something as basic as water for granted. The homeless were extremely grateful for the water the students brought to them.

"They really liked the water. They were like: 'This water is really special,' ...," said Kaylee Francis. "They don't have clean water. They'll get it from spigots on the side of the road or wherever."