Two days ago the assignment for our Missions A3 class was to go to a Christian Community Center and help out wherever we were needed for a required time of 2 hours. We arrived at the Community Center having no idea of what to expect, what we were going to be doing, who was going to be there, or who we would be helping, so needless to say I didn't really have any expectations about it at all. As we pulled up in the parking lot we saw a group of African American boys playing basketball (THEY WERE SO GOOD) and I have to admit I felt really out of place and intimidated because pretty much for the first time, I was the minority. We checked in and entered the Community Center and all eyes were on the out of place white kids (us). After we were instructed on what to do (kitchen work, coloring with kids, cooking, ect, which was all scheduled to happen later), we split up and started to meet and interact with the kids that were already there. A friend and I walked over to a row of kids sitting on the edge of a skate ramp and introduced ourselves. We shook all of their hands and at first we were all a little uncomfortable, but soon we became relaxed when a girl (who's name I am struggling to remember) and I challenged each other to try riding a skateboard with the other kids. As we were having fun and connecting over how bad at skateboarding we were, one of the African American kids whose skateboard I had borrowed mentioned how he had never seen so many white kids at this church before. I simply responded with "Well, there is a first time for everything!" and smiled so he would see that I wasn't offended, because he looked a little uneasy after he said it and realized that I heard him. This particular indecent made me realize how I had never been a minority before, and how theses kids probably felt we were intruding on their territory, which made me feel even more threatened. This feeling of being threatened was replaced with a wanting to show these kids, who probably had not had too many positive experiences with white rich Christians, that not all of us were bad, racist, selfish people. So that became my mission for the night: to get to know as many kids (of a different race) and show them we are not too different from them.
Each time I introduced myself to someone I was always a little nervous, worried about what they were going to think of me, but after the night was over I never regretted introducing myself to anyone because all the kids were nice and pretty accepting of strangers like me. I absolutely loved meeting the younger kids because they were so young and close to Jesus that they were blind to race. They didn't know about our differences or anything, they just knew we were there to play with them, and they LOVED IT. This reminded me that Jesus wants us to love like little children because they are oblivious to differences such as race or ethnicity or political preference. It was extremely refreshing to experience this oblivious, race-less love because I am so used to having a conservative, old-fashioned black and white view of life influencing me.
Later on, after I had served on kitchen duty, my best friend and I walked over to a girl about our age and started a conversation with her about the church/community center. She was really sweet and easy to relate to and talk to so we got into a deeper conversation pretty quickly. (I wasn't there for this part, however I really wish I could have been, I was talking to and connecting with a younger girl) She admitted to my friend, unashamedly, that she thought us rich white kids were going to be super stuck up and spoiled and rude and she wanted nothing to do with us, but we had proved her wrong. She said we were pretty cool, and to that, I would say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Almost all of my class ended up staying for almost 5 hours at the community center/church instead of the required 2 hours because it was so much fun and so rewarding. I was originally planning on going to the community center for the required 2 hours and then hang out with friends right after I was able to leave, but I decided that giving my time to underprivileged kids to help them realize not all white rich Christians are rude, stuck up spoiled and racist was a better use of my time and MUCH MUCH more satisfying.
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