Typically when people think “mission trip”, the typical visions of holding starving children in Africa immediately come to mind. While those things are something that I have done and could tell you still needs to happen, our group is really putting faces to those that need to see the love to Christ in our own country. When we walked down the streets, no shoppers really looked at us… or anyone for that matter.

Yesterday we were walking around the Sixteenth Street Mall for our free day, and to be honest, it was a strange sight. The whole area seemed to be an open-air metropolis of culture and capitalism. In walking one block you can see a store that sells dresses that cost more money than most people see in a year’s worth of work. This spectacle made us laugh nervously.

Then, not fifty steps later, a youth with green hair, covered in black dress and poorly drawn tattoos began to ask us for money. One of his friends called us “yuppies” and a roar of snickers came from the horde of similarly dressed “punks”. This also made us laugh nervously.

            While I want to condemn both groups, this trip is really forcing us both to see who are neighbors are. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and we are finding sometimes it is harder than it seems. On one hand, I want to condemn the people spending so much money on their dresses. But I often forget that they have problems, just like me. On the other hand, the eyesore that is “street culture” could obviously be a place that we can love our neighbors. However, we’ve been wondering, “What can we learn from them?”

            We’ve been learning that God comes when we step out of our comfort zone, and love our neighbors, even if they are “punks” or “yuppies”. Around the hotel, so muchof the staff has been saying, “Why are you in THIS neighborhood?” or “You guys are crazy?” or “You all are bring so much happiness to this place. In the end, we are learning that both children, looking for God.