Reflections on Service-Learning Day at God's Kitchen

September 29, 2005

We all appreciated the opportunity to visit God's Kitchen, learn about its ministry, and serve with the staff by sorting and stocking food. The visit raised our awareness of the needs of the poor and provided us an opportunity to live into the issues of social justice and mercy in an experiential way. We were impressed by the scope of the ministry: over 3000 volunteers of many faiths cooperating to serve 187,000 meals per year.

Since we were sorting and stocking food in the basement, we had little opportunity to interact with the people whom God's Kitchen serves. Serving in the food line or waiting on tables would have been more "interesting" and would have provided more insight into the lives of the homeless and poor. But our service was very helpful to God's Kitchen. We provided a meaningful service by serving the servers. In light of the unwholesome "petting the poor" syndrome-patronizing the poor and salving one's conscience by short little forays into the lives of the poor-our not being given much opportunity to interact with the poor had a positive side as well.

The existence of ministries like God's Kitchen forces us to wrestle with underlying issues of social justice-the underlying causes of poverty and homelessness which necessitate ministries of mercy like God's Kitchen. As we were told by our host, the staff at God's Kitchen would be very thankful if they could work themselves out of a job. With only a few minutes for discussion, our reflections on justice and mercy issues did not get much beyond introductory musings and questions. Justice issues are so difficult to define. Poverty, homelessness, and mental illness are much more closely related than we realized-we were told that over half of the poor who need food and shelter have backgrounds of psychological/emotional illness. Releasing so many mental patients from mental hospital hospitals in the 1970's continues to affect society today.

What does it mean that God loves the poor? How does he love them? How should I love them? Ron Sider offers some answers in Just Generosity, when he urges us to see the poor with the eyes of Jesus and to follow the example of Jesus as he used what he had-five loaves and two fish-to feed the hungry. We are reminded of Isaiah 58:6-10 with its parallels to the parable of the Good Samaritan. We need to understand what it means that we feel guilty in the face of poverty. Perhaps we need to listen again to Martin Luther King's call for a revolution of values. We need to be motivated to act. How we spend our time is an expression of our values. We can learn from the example of Mother Teresa, who felt the best way to train new nuns was to thrust them virtually unprepared into the middle of the poverty-stricken and let the harsh reality of poverty overwhelm the nuns. How God's Kitchen got started-with one idealist young lady feeding the homeless who were taking shelter under a bridge-is an inspiration to us all.

The group felt that Calvin Theological Seminary has taken a good step in planning this Service Learning Day. But it is only one step. More service learning needs to happen. What if a group of five or ten students and staff would covenant together to serve once a month? The peer support was an important part of the Service Learning Day and could be a significant catalyst to more regular involvement. The day was designed to make us think about our values. We need to reach the point where we ask questions not of ourselves but of the ministries we visit: what are your needs? How can we serve you?

Don Byker
Brad Knetsch
Dale Melenberg
John Mondi
Richard Sytsma