Last Spring break I went to Memphis, TN on a mission trip with my campus church. I wrote a blog about it awhile back and in the blog I promised to at some point elaborate on what we did to physically assist those we were there to help. This is me making good on that promise.
The organization Service over Self assists residents in the Binghampton neighborhood of Memphis. This neighborhood, which was once a prominent and predominately white area, was left to its own devices as whites moved out during the period of white flight. With the affluence moving elsewhere, the pattern that is seen in areas such as East St. Louis and other places ensued; stores closed following the money, jobs were lost, more money was lost, the government had other priorities to attend too, and the remaining people were left to work out a situation they had no part in creating. While things have become better and some jobs have returned, many of the residents are in need of home repairs they cannot afford, and as the houses are old, the city has condemned some, if they are not brought up to new standards in an appropriate amount of time.
That's where we came in and assisted! There were multiple houses in need of repair and my church split up to assist four different families. The site I went to was home to a 91 (if I recall correctly) year old woman who had suffered two strokes two months apart, spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas in the hospital. Her 40 year old daughter, and her grand daughter also lived with her, and her mentally handicapped grand daughter was brought to the home each day while her parents worked, along with her 2 year old grandson. The small house was packed with people, but the lady said she didn't mind and was just thankful to have it, and be alive. The problem was, the city was concerned the paint used to color the house was from an era of lead based paint, and therefore the woman was ordered to have her house repainted. Simple enough right? Well, all of the lead based paint had to come off first and is considered a bio hazard. This meant the paint could not be released into the environment. The team and I spent the first two days of our project scraping the paint off of the siding of the house and sucking up the chips with large vacuums. It was a huge challenge to do this with out complaining about how pointless many of us felt this job was. The work was hot and tedious, and in following safety regulations, we had to wear full body suits as well as paint masks, gloves, and goggles, to ensure we did not, ourselves, get lead poisoning.
At the time it kind of felt like we didn't do all that much, we just painted a house. But as I think back on it now, my team also had a huge lesson in living out Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, and not for men." We were not in Memphis to simply paint a house for a family, but to bring praise and glory to our God and make his name known. At times it was hard for the team to be excited to continue scraping the house to remove the old paint, but at those times, I know at least for me personally, I was focusing on working at it for myself and my own satisfaction, rather than for my God. It seems that if we follow this verse our lives should be radically different, we will find joy in doing things we don't necessarily enjoy or that bring us no gain. It also leads us to live out Philippians 2:14 "Do everything without arguing and complaining, so that you may be blameless and pure children of God, without fault, in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe." We are called to work for God and to not complain about it no matter how insignificant, hard, tedious, or unfair we feel our task is. Wow, I'm convicted reading what I just typed, for although I know it to be true, I don't always live up to it. Although I'm not sure when my next trip will be, hopefully no matter where I am or what the task at hand is, I will remember who I'm doing it for and give thanks as I complete it.
For more information on SOS ministries visit
http://www.sosmemphis.org/
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