Day 6: Ocean Beach

Here are two reflections from our last day:

Today was sadly the final day of the San Francisco Mission Trip. We met at Ocean Beach for a beach cleanup. After picking up trash and other unnatural objects, We set up a fire and a spike-ball net for a picnic/ afternoon hangout. After eating and playing, we read passages from the gospel and from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. We then reflected on our time together, and with all the people we served and served with. Then we had some delicious s'mores(thank you Callie for the perfect marshmallow :) ) and we burnt some gummy bears. A story that I think represents what we all learned from the trip happened in the Mission while we were serving at St. John's. We were walking with John (one of workers at St. John's) and we heard yelling down the alley we where standing in. I wrote off the person who was yelling as a crazy person and I ignored him as I imagine many of the people in our group did. However, when he passed our group, John talked with him and treated him like he would any other person. What I learned from this experience is that the people we see on the street, whether they are yelling in the street or passed out with a needle on the sidewalk, need to be treated with dignity and as their own person. Try not to have the mentality "beggars can't be choosers," because everyone deserves respect! I had a wonderful time on this mission trip and I learned so much about the city and the people that many citizens of San Francisco choose to ignore.
—Walter

We started and ended our final day of the Mission Trip at Ocean Beach, which was a nice change of pace from the other locations we have served at this week. The group spent the first part of the morning picking up trash on the beach. This was a really different type of service from the other work we have done because rather than serving one specific group of people, we were able to help the planet. After the beach cleanup, we started a bonfire because it was 2 degrees outside and we were very cold. The group ate lunch and some played spike ball, as others sat around listening to Stacy's Mom and other mission trip classics. After a couple of hours, we all gathered to pray together and reflect on the week. We read some beautiful passages, a few handpicked for our group, and we discussed our experiences from this week. We all agreed that this trip has shown us how sheltered our lives are. While it's so easy to ignore the tragedies that are happening in our own city, we have to fight against that and pour our love into all of God's people, no matter what situation they happen to be in. We wrapped up our conversation and moved on to watching various junk "foods" burn in the fire. Honestly, I didn't think that this would really be anything like a real mission trip, but by the end of the week, I felt the same amount of love and connection to the group as I did at the end of our trip to New Orleans two summers ago. Thank you to Mike and Riley for making this such a meaningful week for all of us!
-Katherine