As has been tradition for the last decade, Grebel residents traded their Reading Week break for a week of service. Two groups participated, approaching issues of homelessness in different ways.
Fourteen students participated in the Toronto Ontario Opportunity of Learning and Service (TOOLS), run by Mennonite Central Committee. These students spent most of their week building relationships and learning to listen, often sitting on Toronto streets with homeless or hungry people. Struck by story after story, participants yearned to understand each individual they encountered while withholding judgment on their situation.
“It’s a systemic issue but there’s no common solution,” Lorena Diller Harder said, reflecting on the issue of poverty in the community. “This trip was a reminder of what really matters,” added Joanna Loepp Thiessen. “This kind of experience makes me feel most alive.”
Thinking about next steps, Erik Mohr remarked, “I now feel equipped to go in and engage with disadvantaged people on a day to day basis. We can work at putting better support networks into place, but we also need to humanize people.” Summing up the trip, he added, “my program is personal development and this experience is my education.”
The 15 students who drove down to Greenbrier, West Virginia to help rebuild homes with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) explored homelessness of a different type. They were volunteering for people who had lost their belongings and homes in a historic flood last June.
“Until we attended the dedication service of one of the new homes, it didn’t hit me that this flood was so devastating,” explained Jenny Farlow. “It’s hard to see the impact you’re making putting up drywall, but hearing the stories of the homeowners—you realize that you are helping to build their house!”
“I had never served in a community that I was not a part of,” commented Sarah Wright. She valued this opportunity and appreciated how “MDS gives people the chance to hold onto their land, their neighbours, and their history.”
Although they worked very hard painting, sanding, drywalling, and laying blocks, students struggled at first to feel like they were accomplishing much. But by the time their week was over, they had formed a different outlook. They were building relationships with the homeowners and neighbours, realizing that they were working on a true community project.
