GH woman and local church youth gather donations for inner-city Detroit missions

Sat, Oct 31, 2009    to del.icio.us

I've been on several mission trips with my daughter. We've helped tear down a house in Marengo, Ind., after an F-3 tornado tore through there; and we've helped gut a home that was underwater when the levees broke in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

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While I was shocked at the devastation we saw and the fact that the people of New Orleans were still living in FEMA trailers nearly two years after the hurricane hit, nothing could have prepared me for the poverty and devastation my daughter and I saw on my first trip with the youth from St. John's Lutheran Church in Grand Haven to inner-city Detroit.

Our youth group has been to Detroit at least three times, and I've tagged along twice. Working with Trinity Lutheran Church in Utica — where we stay while in the Detroit area — we've helped prepare and serve food in soup kitchens, we've painted the inside and outside of many churches, we've sorted clothing for the needy, and we've even helped black-top and seal a parking lot in a women's shelter.

We've handed out more than 200 sandwiches, cookies and cartons of milk to the homeless that hang outside of the Neighborhood Service Organization. This is a shelter that, unlike most, is open 24 hours. We were told that once a person is fortunate to get a seat inside, they will wet their pants — rather than get up to go to the bathroom — so they don't lose their chair.

The first time I was there, one lady begged us for a T-shirt and a pair of socks — it was a cold morning.

Some were in wheelchairs. They were hungry, downtrodden and without hope. It was heartbreaking.

We have since returned many times, and I always try to bring some of the stuff they've asked for that I didn't have with me the time before. They really like underwear, socks, pillows and blankets; also deodorant, soap, shampoo and — believe it or not — those plastic bags we all get when we go grocery shopping.

My husband, daughter and I gave out more than 100 sandwiches, bags of chips and cookies, along with hot chocolate, last winter.

After returning to Grand Haven, where we have all the comforts of home — including food to eat, a bed to sleep in, a bathroom, clean clothes, jobs and all the things we take for granted — I couldn't help but wonder how the homeless were doing a short distance away. And every time a natural disaster would occur, my heart would go out to those who were suffering and I just wished I could do something to help them.

The frustration I felt after coming home from Louisiana stemmed from the fact that I did not have the disposable income that allowed me to run off to the far reaches of the United States to help others. Going back to Louisiana to see how the residents there were faring didn't appear to be an option for me.

Detroit, however, is not that far away. And guess what? My lovely daughter has worked in the schools of inner-city Detroit as a mentor with Americorp for the last year and will continue as a reading specialist this year. This is how the St. John's Lutheran Church Surf Detroit Collection Drive began.

My husband and I go visit my daughter frequently and we try to take some of what we've collected, as others have offered to make trips as well. In an effort to help the homeless in Detroit, we collect bath towels, sheets, blankets, coats, socks and underwear — used items are welcome — as well as feminine hygiene, toothbrushes, sample-size soaps, shampoos, deodorants, toothpaste and books for an annual used book sale (proceeds help the homeless).

This past Wednesday, St. John's Lutheran youth cleaned out a cram-packed storage room that will not only allow us to continue to store what we collect for the homeless in Detroit, but it will allow us to sort what we collect so that we can make the best use out of what we get. For instance, if we get full-sized sheets, I give these to our quilters who then in turn make quilts, and they will give some back to me to take to Detroit.

We also like to sort out some of the items we receive to give directly to the homeless who hang out outside of the NSO. The remainder of the items are taken to Trinity Lutheran Church in Utica, which then distributes them to the many ministries they help.

I ask you: What are you doing to serve others? "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40)