Two words: SPRING BREAK.
Once again, it has come and gone as fast as ever. I have never been one for partying it up, especially on Spring Break. No, for me, this precious week in the middle of a busy semester of school needs to be meaningful. And there is no doubt that it was.
On Saturday March 13, myself and 9 of my comrades (from Christian Student Fellowship) set out on the wide open road, heading for Western Pennsylvania. Splitting the trip into two parts, we spent the night in Chicago. A late night/early morning, daylight savings time change, time zone change, and 500 miles later, we rolled into the small town of Monessen, Pennsylvania. If you have never heard of it, don't worry, neither had we until we decided to go there. Monessen is tucked into the Monongahela River Valley, about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. Built into a hill overlooking the river, Monessen was a town founded around a single purpose: steel. Steel mills were built up and down this valley back around the time of the Industrial Revolution, and this was the home of a rather large one. The mill once employed upwards of 20,000 people, and contributed greatly to a thriving community.
Unfortunately this is no longer the case. Years ago, the mill was closed, and Monessen is now a mere shadow of what it used to be. Much of the population moved on, abandoning houses and closing down businesses. Those who remain are poor and the community is treading in deep water. Walking through the empty streets of "downtown" brings images of old, run-down buildings, and boarded up windows. Residential streets are dotted with abandoned houses throughout. Honestly, as an outsider peeking in, my heart was broken. But, as sad as it may look and feel on the outside, there is hope for Monessen.
The ten of us were honored to be working with GreaterWorks, a ministry of YouthWorks, that takes a couple of college-aged students and drops them into communities across the country, to live, build relationships, and serve. They are commissioned to love on the community and use their gifts and abilities to serve the community in anyway they can, while living in small community with each other. My group had the privilege of crashing Monessen, to learn about the ministry there and participate.
Our hosts were Scott, Sarah, and Tina, the GreaterWorks interns. They have been living in a parsonage connected to an old Catholic Church (which is currently home to The Orchard Christian Fellowship) since the end of September, and have been amazingly involved in Monessen, serving at the High School, Acorn (an adult day-care center), The Orchard's youth group, and the local Salvation Army, to name a few.
The work that Scott, Sarah, and Tina do is awesome and inspiring, and it was an honor to be able to get a glimpse of Monessen from their perspective. We did A LOT of stuff throughout the week, including working at Highland Manor, a low income housing area (getting empty apartments livable again), helping clean up the Salvation Army, and hanging out with the folks at Acorn. It was a lot of physical labor: hardcore cleaning, painting, drywalling, and moving things. Outside of that, we got to explore Monessen, meet people, and build up our own community through daily devotions, an amazing interactive worship service, and generally spending a lot of time together. By the end of the week, it felt like Scott, Sarah, and Tina belonged in our group.
It's probably safe to say that our hearts were changed this week, mine certainly was. I realized how important friends and community are, and how love can and should be expressed in the smallest of gestures. Sometimes the simplest actions, like cleaning up a dirty apartment or moving some toys around, can leave the deepest impacts. To us it made sense, why not offer our services to paint some stairway panels? But to people like Jason, the maintenance guy at Highland Manor, our actions were almost completely unfathomable. I can only pray that we did leave a big impact.
Jesus didn't just sit around on his butt chilling with his disciples, reveling in their small community of friendships. No, He used that community to bless others by getting down and dirty, healing, teaching, living, and encouraging His disciples to do the same. When He washed His disciples' feet, he told them that it was so they could go and do as they see him doing: serving. I learned this week, that there are always ways to serve, and to bring hope to what may seem to be hopeless.
As I sit here in my living room, contemplating the insanely busy week that lies ahead, I'm overwhelmed with sadness that the trip is over. I'm not yet ready to have my Spring Break bubble burst, I wish we could have stayed in Monessen longer, to serve and get to know the GreaterWorks interns better. Alas, it is time to move on, but I know that I won't be soon forgetting what happened last week: the long hours in the car, the beautiful old church building, Hilda, setting the stove on fire, failed midnight/rooftop bocci ball...good times and good people.
Miss you Monessen, hopefully we'll be back again.
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