Urban Exchange walk 1/17/24
Overview
Urban Exchange hosts Youth Ministry trips for church communities to come visit San Francisco and help their unhoused neighbors. They host one large group every couple of months.
The hosted a fully packed, 3 day event for MLK Day weekend. For President’s day, they continued this event. Volunteers come and stay in the Waller Center in the Haight District of San Francisco.
The young men stayed on cots in the auditorium upstairs, the young women stayed in bunk beds downstairs, and a couple with a baby stayed in a private room near the bunk bed area. Three adults traveled with these cohorts, one connected to each group. Three additional adults came to support this February 17th, Saturday night street outreach event.
The Waller Center is an older Chapel and community center with many rooms, an industrial kitchen, bathrooms, showers, offices and meeting areas. The Chapel gets used for small services, and the rest of the center gets shared between various local Christian groups. It’s in an amazing location very close to Golden Gate Park/Haight and Ashbury and has a gated parking lot.
This group prayed before and after these walks this evening. The group of 30-40 volunteers circled up, closed their eyes and held hand as we all prayed for safety for ourselves and our unhoused neighbors. We also prayed gratitude and for further hope and protection at the end of the event.
Mission District
We went to go on a prayer walk in the Mission District, offering prayers to people who we saw sitting or standing on our route there. We also passed out bracelets with the Love Never Fails hotline to sex workers/trafficked women we encountered.
Civic Center and Tenderloin
Two teams went to downtown San Francisco. One gave out coffee and doughnuts near Civic Center, and the other, in the Tenderloin. We served this food and drink from 9pm-11pm. The majority of people stood by the table, that was located on the steps of the UN building, fairly close to Civic Center Bart. Others went in groups of 3 to greet people and invite them to come grab coffee and doughnuts from our table
There were people selling stolen good in trash bags or on blankets a block away from where we were set up. Our team walked by and invited people to our table.
There was beautiful, calm, retro music playing through the light posts. It seemed to encourage peacefulness in this area. It might also exist to dissuade people from sleeping in this area
We met a man working for Urban Alchemy and the Night Navigators team. His job is to find people who are vulnerable and request a shelter bed for the night. The individual we saw him helping did not have shoes, so it was very helpful for them to pick him up and drive him to a shelter that night.
Highlights
The poverty was much different than I was expecting
Light and darkness
Thought the environment would be more hostile/ people angry to be in their space
We heard genuine thank yous from people we served coffee and doughnuts to
An average man, might not care, but this group was excited about it
Stoked and blown away, ministering to the people
It was helpful to hear from them what they needed vs us saying/thinking we already know what they need
Learnings from a past event
Noah shared he used to think that panhandling could help them raise money for backpacks for their ministry work
His team attempted to panhandle in San Francisco
"This showed me a hard reality that when you hold up a sign, you become invisible”
Our goal for this evening is to help people feel seen. Give them attention, because they are used to being ignored
Suggestions
An unhoused man named J with high blood pressure requested that next time we bring water bottles next time
There was a man talking very fast, on a stimulant substance and or manic and he slowed down and became more present when asked if he wanted a doughnut
Find funny moments in the beautiful awkwardness of people
Personalizes this interaction
Moments like these can help humanizes them
Prayers
We prayed with a few individuals
J who is 23 years old and was surprisingly from Anderson Indiana. Not far from where one of our cohorts traveled from
E, an elderly man requested that we pray with him to help him get off the streets
One adult minister prayed over a person, and when that happened, “God put things into my heart. I opened up to him and he started sharing more.” They bonded and had a powerful and meaningful connection.
He helped encourage this person out of a dark place and plant seeds of a positive relationship with a higher power
This long conversation that lasted until we were out of coffee
This person is looking to get right
He has a job with the city, but lost it because someone called the cops when he had a fight with his girlfriend
H is his name and Pastor Noah now has his number and can support him on this journey
It felt like a divine intervention
H shook the volunteer’s hand 4-5 times
Get to see people who are looking to get back on their feet
One adult volunteer shared she needs to be more forward with offering prayers, and noted opportunities she had to do this
Listening to someone, has powerful dividends in both the listener and the speaker’s lives
One woman had tears in her eyes and asked for prayer
This shows that we are seeing them and that God sees them
Eyes are powerful. We all have them. We are all “lookers”
Knowing this is humanizing