Final thoughts from San Fran '09

by Pastor Nick

Well a week ago today our team of 28 students and leaders departed YWAM and concluded our 'official' ministry. But in our final team debriefing I challenged the team view it as a commencement (a beginning, not an end). It was the beginning of renewing our lives to live on mission for God. It was the beginning of asking for His eyes to see people...any person (homeless, addicted, hurt, lost, lonely, successful) the way He does.

Since I've returned I've received the question we all have before, "So, how'd it go?" As much as I've rehearsed my answer to that question I don't know that I've done the work justice or not. But allow me (sorry for the length ahead of time) to share what I saw from the leader's seat on this trip to San Fran as we gained God's eyes for people:

• Flight Attendants - through a strange and humorous encounter with our flight attendants on the way to San Francisco we were able to display the light of Jesus. It was a powerful interaction for 3 students and they gave us a tip back and told us to use it for the mission. Students took the money from this conversation and used it to buy blankets, shirts, and jackets for those without and handed it to them. One girl I saw made sure she did it while a person was sleeping so that she wouldn't receive the credit.
• The Tenderloin - the neighborhood we lived in San Francisco. I can't in words or even in pictures do justice to the situation of this neighborhood (you have to go and you should)...the depravity, the addiction, the pain, the smell, the grief, the lostness, the darkness, the sin was all met by compassion, care, love, and the message of Christ from our team.
• Spiritual Conversations - perhaps the most significant impact for our team was the challenge every time we left the mission to not just serve hot chocolate, but to serve the eternal...use the hot chocolate to speak a love language and turn the conversation to what really matters...Jesus! Students wrestled with this all week, but so many found power from God's Spirit to talk about Jesus and for them it was life changing.
• Food & Hunger - the two easiest tasks of the week were also two of the most humbling. Working at the San Francisco food bank by sorting 1 centimeter pasta into 1 lb bags to the tune of 3,400 lbs made me quickly realize how ungrateful I am to walk into Wal Mart, grab a 6 pack of mac & cheese and not think anything of it. Then the next day to serve Spaghetti to 100 people right off the street and sit down to talk with them. I won't soon forget watching students interact and take the hands of hurting people, pray with them, and display love. Jake Lawson's prayer with one man, bringing them both to tears, will live as a memory I have for my lifetime. Food is the love language of the hungry...and Jesus said what you do for the least of these...
• Grace Cathedral - was a break from the ministry. It was just our team, a huge house of God, and the Word! Maybe you thought we'd relax, but we turned on the heat of the Word of God and talked about our personal pain and sin and how God wants to redeem that & use it to produce a stronger aroma of life into the nostrils of others. Juli sharing her story of pain, Jeremiah opening up at the Heroine Art Gallery earlier that day, & God's Word offering healing to the hurting (Psalm 147:3) was a night of personal revival for a few on our team. Praise God for that night together! Having the eyes of God starts with viewing ourselves with the right perspective - even our hurts, habits, and hang ups.
• The Homeless Punk - we pulled a joke on our team the night before their homeless plunge telling them they'd be sleeping on the street. Some were in tears with fear. While you might think it was 'mean' it was actually catalytic in our perspective the next day. When we left the mission we were thankful, grateful, and in anticipation for what God would do. Then we spent all day on the streets with our team. I LOVE spending time with students and rarely do I get 7 straight hours with 3-4 students to go deeper about life and that we did. It renewed my passion to bring students to God & His Word!
• Mission over? - once we left YWAM you'd think we were site seeing (and we were). But it was just a disguise for our mission. We met a tour guide on our bus from Lakewood, Ohio and talked with her throughout the 1 hour bus ride learning about her painful life. When her bus picked us up 2 hours later she was shocked as our group boarded one by one with a flower in hand, giving her the flower, and me handing her a card. A tear streamed down her cheek and she said, "You don't know. I don't cry." I was able to share why we cared for her and that God loved her more than we ever could. Mission not over...just beginning. Hurting people aren't just on the streets.
• Students Teaching the Word - every student brought a verse card on the trip and most handed it out to someone they met. But the last night during our 3 hr team time we revealed who we had been secretly encouraging the whole trip. One by one students stepped up in front of the group, revealed their encouragement partner, gave him or her a little gift, then read a relevant scripture to this persons' life, prayed for this person's life back home, then washed their feet! It was moving to say the least. I was overwhelmed watching all 28 share the Word with each other!

There are so many other individual stories, people we met, & experiences we had but those captured my mind & heart most right now. I'm so proud of this team for the work Christ did through them. There's been a lot written in the past few years about the value of student trips (should we do short term trips or not). I'd like this entry to be submitted to the discussion supporting short term student trips. The days ahead will prove the experience and it will decide if what happened was life changing or not. But for just a few days we saw with God's eyes and from what I hear from the team we're begging God to give us His eyes every day...starting now!

Special thanks for your prayers, posts, & comments. They uplifted us all week long. Don't stop now...keep on praying for these students. The potential they have can change the world!

Thanks to the leaders: Mark Lehman, Jody Workman, Julie Lawson, Emily Scott, & Nate Mills - all my friends and partners in the gospel and for students. I love each of you in the LORD.

Thanks to the students who inspired me all week long: Brandon Horner, Kendra Workman, Jen Fox, Ellie Shoup, Billy Starkey, Carlin Tiano, Jacque Ressler, Dakota Chastain, Adam Cruise, Jesse Sansom, Abby Kauffman, Jake Lawson, Nick Benekos, Cassie Carr, Andy Rhoad, Jeremiah Falla, Juli Ressler, Rachelle Graber, Daniel Brenneman, Joel Skaggs, Lindsay Doerr, & Danae Mulligan.

"To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen!"