Vista OnlineFall/Winter 2001Greenville College students took the light of the Gospel to St. Louis on this year’s Urban Plunge. But what did they bring back? City On A HillUrban Plunge “The city is a secular world. Nothing is sacred there,” at least not in the typical terms of sacred. Seventy students, armed with their sleeping bags and this warning from Religion professor Dr. Joe Culumber, ventured out into the urban universe of St. Louis over November 17 and 18 on a weekend service project aptly named Urban Plunge. For relatively sheltered college students at a small-town Christian school, the notion of a city with more than one movie theatre may be enough to scare them away. But did Urban Plunge provide a true-to-life city experience, and a realistic look at the needs and problems of the people that live there? Or did the so-called Plungers just dip their toes into the ghetto pond without actually leaving the safe shore of the Christian subculture? To paraphrase the Urban Plunge mission statement, the goal is more to expose students to urban culture (maybe for the first time) than to immerse them in it. The trip began with a commissioning service at the Greenville Free Methodist Church. Haphazard handfuls of students met awkwardly with group leaders in the sanctuary, while drivers scurried to get directions and head counts. The group heard a message from fellow Plunger Dr. Culumber about his experiences with urban missions, including admonitions like, “Anonymity is a way of life in the city,” and, “People don’t like to have their pictures taken.” Sufficiently intimidated, participants loaded into temperamental vans, complete with torn upholstery and inoperable heaters. After an hour-and-a-half of savoring the brisk November breeze through windows that had been opened to disperse the visible cloud of black exhaust fumes lingering toward the back of one bus, students arrived at the Lighthouse Free Methodist Church in St. Louis. A strong brick building, determined to be cheerful and inviting in the midst of the asphalt jungle, Lighthouse is a church that provides community services for a low-income area. Students invaded the empty building for a Friday night devoted
to fun and fellowship. Except for a brief assembly about what to
expect from the city (which several students missed anyway thanks
to fuzzy directions and an unplanned detour through a tenement area)
and brief meetings with the next day’s work groups, students
were free to explore within the limits of the building. Despite the clacking of tap dancers in a small dance studio across the room, which is usually used by kids who come to the church’s after-school program, half the group attempted to enjoy It’s a Wonderful Life. Impromptu praise and worship jams broke out in the sanctuary upstairs, while others played cards or did crossword puzzles together. The next morning, groups of five to ten people departed for work sites all across the city (including one about an hour away, in a decidedly rural part of St. Louis). Some groups visited disabled people in their homes; others worked at food pantries, while most went to shelters for homeless people or victims of abuse. The students performed tasks ranging from odd jobs to painting to playing with kids. Some of the helpful plans backfired—after raking leaves at one house in a low-income neighborhood, the owner’s mother came outside and instructed Dr. Culumber’s group to put them back. (They did.) The groups met back at Lighthouse in the afternoon, and were greeted at school by a catered dinner in the dining commons. After an elaborate meal, small-group leader Katie Young gave a brief devotion and opened the floor for students to tell about their experiences over the weekend. Most students talked about the satisfaction they found in giving of their time and talents; a few mentioned bizarre encounters with city dwellers. Meredith Bramlet did some housekeeping at the home of a physically handicapped woman. “The conditions she lived in would be appalling to anyone here,” noted Bramlet, “but she seemed so excited to see us, she just followed us around from room to room and talked about the weather. She was so cheerful.” Resident Assistant Adriane Simpson took a group of girls from her floor to the St. Louis Food Pantry. She recounted their meeting with Sly, “this cute little man with the biggest grin, who worked with us all day and sent us home with a bag full of Oreos at the end.” “The debriefing time was my favorite part,” said Gaffner. “I was overwhelmed by the level of care and commitment in that room… students who truly care about others and want to reach out. I was honored to be with them.” Though most people who participated had a positive experience at Urban Plunge, they did not experience true urban life. Many people view Greenville College as a safe Christian haven among the evils of the secular world. So, when a group of country college kids head into the “ghetto,” students and parents both react with some anxiety. According to Dean of Students Norm Hall, Urban Plunge is designed to expose students to the urban culture in order to help them grow in character through a real life experience in a service context. The program attempts to accomplish this while taking into consideration all the safety concerns of the inner city. Gaffner mentioned that if the weekend were really meant to let students experience city life, “they would live on the streets with the homeless and interact directly (not through an agency) with the people of the inner-city. We don’t do this for obvious safety reasons.” She said that she hasn’t heard any safety-related complaints from parents or students since the program began in the spring of 1999. “We work with reputable sites with long-standing reputations for their effectiveness in the city (i.e., The Salvation Army, the St. Louis Food Bank, the Lighthouse Free Methodist Church), and we feel confident that they know what they are doing.” Second semester, Urban Plunge will also be taking students to St. Louis, this time for a full weekend (three days, two nights, as opposed to this fall’s overnighter), which will raise the intensity as well as the chance to really spend time in the city. Reality can be harsh and dangerous; Urban Plunge tries to give students a small taste of this without jeopardizing their safety. But several of this year’s participants found the experience more like a field trip or a vacation than a service project. One student remarked that since all members stayed in the havens of missions and shelters, no one really experienced the city at its core. Corine Kidicho-Woel, a sophomore from New York City, summed up the experience well when she stood up at dinner and remarked, “It was more of an Urban Dip than a plunge.” Jennifer Pierce Last updated: July
9, 2001 |