One Week at The Hub
At the end of July, FUMC sent 21 students and six adults on a mission trip to Shreveport, Louisiana. After returning home, the students and their chaperones gathered in the Fellowship Hall before worship on August 9 to recap their trip. They shared photos and reflected on their experiences for all who could attend.
At the recap, Youth Director Brent Lamberth explained that they typically go to a different place every year “so kids can experience new places, meet new people, work with different organizations, and realize that the same God is working through different people across the country and see how God does amazing things in different places.” This was their first time going to Shreveport.
They primarily served alongside The Hub: Urban Ministry, a local non-profit organization that strives to give everyone in the city access to a restored life. The Hub defines a restored life as one “transformed and redefined by Jesus” with “consistent access to material needs,” “free from oppression of any kind” and “wrapped in real community.”
Scavenger Hunts
On the first day of their trip, as part of The Hub’s curriculum akin to an orientation, the group went on a scavenger hunt in smaller groups with an adult chaperone. Each group was to role-play as a different person experiencing homelessness. Each “person” or group had their own set of challenges and objectives. For example, Ben Harris’s group was a person with a gambling and alcohol addiction.
Brent described his group’s experience: “We stopped at a dozen different places that gave us everything we asked for, whether it was water, directions, tasks to be checked off our list, or a nickel or a phone at the Burger King. Anything we asked for, it was a yes. […] We would have called it off if it were not for the people who gave us simple things to help us on our way.” This experience was very different from their normal mission trips. Brent explained that “usually on a trip like this we’re the ones doing the serving. We’ve never had the script flipped like this, where we were the ones needing to be served all day, needing to ask for help. And we found those helpers throughout the trip.”
Ben H. reflected on a tense moment during the scavenger hunt. His group took a lunch break outside, at a place under renovation, sitting in the shade. Ben said, “A minute in, a pickup truck swerved in and told them, ‘You’re not the usual troublemakers here.’” Thankfully, Bryan Press, the group’s chaperone, stepped in and explained that they were working with The Hub.
“His response was, ‘Okay, cool.’ But if we were actually a homeless person, that experience would have been different,” Ben recalled.
Brent joked about that day, “If you go back and look at the pictures from the scavenger hunt, not many people were smiling.” The scavenger hunt left them exhausted, but it also gave them insight into what life is actually like for a homeless person, and how difficult it is for them to get their basic needs met. The students’ experiences on this scavenger hunt helped shape their perspective for the rest of the trip.
The Lovewell Center
After the scavenger hunt orientation, the youth worked in several areas of The Hub, including The Lovewell Center. This membership-based resource center for the poor and unhoused allows members to earn the physical resources they need by attending classes and programs designed to help them move out of poverty and homelessness and into a restored life. The credits members earn can be used in Lovewell’s stores, which provide laundry, food, and clothing. At Lovewell, students worked the counter and organized food and clothing storage. They prepared and served dinner on Tuesday and breakfast on Wednesday, as well as spending a day working with its Motel Outreach program.
During Tuesday’s dinner, Lovewell members are entertained by bingo games, where they can win extra points to spend at the center’s stores. Davis C. and the couple in front of him all needed B14 to win. Davis described the scene: “The woman said, ‘If we win, congratulations! You all are doing so good, and the dinner was so good.’” Then, they lost. Still, the woman told Davis, “You are all awesome! You did so good. I’m so proud of you all.” Her words impacted him because “even though they are going through tough times, they are still happy and encouraging people.”
At the Wednesday morning breakfast, Conner P. recalled that “it felt like every time we gave someone a plate, 10 more people would walk in, and we just had to keep making more plates of French toast.” At the end of the breakfast, after the group had cleaned everything up, a mother and her two young children came. They had set aside a few extra plates for anyone who might have come in late, but by then, the toast was soggy and the eggs were cold. But Conner overheard the family celebrating and it moved him. “It wasn’t the most, but they were celebrating that they just got to eat that day,” Conner said, “It stuck with me and humbled me, and it taught me to be more grateful for all the small things in life.”
Motel Outreach
On the day of the Motel Outreach, students packed goodie bags of snacks and hygiene items to take to the motel to distribute. Their Hub ministry guide, Joel, explained that the people living at the motel often have unsteady employment or a history that prevents them from obtaining a long-term rental. Bryan Press described the motel they visited: “Think of the worst place you’d want to live and take it down a couple of notches. There was nothing pretty about it, except the view looking out the window.”
Leila D. related her own experience with living in a hotel for the past year after a fire displaced her family: “It was nothing like that motel [in Shreveport]. But despite the circumstances, I did not interact with one bad person. Everyone was so kind and grateful and upbeat, even for living in a place so rundown.”
Purchased: Not for Sale
The Hub’s Purchased: Not for Sale ministry gives women experiencing sexual exploitation and sex trafficking a path to safety, healing, and a fully restored life. At Purchased, our female students stocked and organized storage and also worked in its daycare program. After experiencing a day working in the daycare, Lulu Montz learned “how important it is to put God’s love out in the world and share it with other people who don’t have it as good as us.”
Bryan Press remarked how it’s funny how things change after a day for the students. “Wednesday night, the girls were all about how horrible the daycare was,” said Bryan, “But come Thursday night, when we’re all talking about the things that impacted us the most, daycare suddenly became their favorite thing that they did: how a child loved on them, how they realized a child needed that extra love, how a child really needed that snack. It became their best day.”
Growth and Reflection
Bryan has served as a chaperone for the Youth trips for the past 15 years. His favorite part is watching the children grow more confident over the years. “You watch little sixth graders go on this trip for the first time. They don’t really get what’s going on, but they participate,” he explained. “But by the time they become seniors, they know what’s going on. They are excited to show what they know how to do and to do work.” He encouraged anyone interested in serving as a chaperone to reach out, since he enjoys the experience so much and always finds it impactful.
FUMC is grateful to everyone who supported this trip through prayer or donations. The students gained empathy for the poor and unhoused, as well as confidence and experience serving with an open heart. We’re all excited to see how our youth continue to grow as they serve God by serving others.