Baltimore BUMP Week One - God is Working

Baltimore BUMP Week One is officially over. Whew, how it went by fast and how I already find myself missing the Church at Charlotte youth group and leaders. They have brought joy to my heart this past week with their smiles, jokes, card tricks and lessons they learned and shared. I remember specifically having time with some of the young ladies and asking them what experience this week opened their eyes to the fact people are not as blessed as them? One of the ladies shared working in the soup kitchen at My Brother’s Keeper; here she saw people who struggle for meals, people struggling with addiction, people who were released from jail and who wanted to start a better life for themselves and how hard it was because they faced many challenges like not having money, how they are viewed, how people do not put in the effort to help them, etc.

That conversation along with others, dealing with the topics of racism-compassion-justice and evangelism, has shown God working in these students. They witnessed and heard stories of how those topics affected the community as a whole and the individuals in the community as well as the Stillmeadow Church. I saw God take junior high school students and open their eyes to understand that people are not blessed as they are. I saw them cry, pray and get angry about it. Then, at the end of the week I overheard conversations and was a part of a few that talked about that realization and how they would take this experience back home to Charlotte and see how they can help people in urban communities there.

Those conversations truly made me see that after the week of extreme humidity, frustration, pain, injury and tiredness THEY GOT IT. BUMP brings students from around the country to help in urban communities not to try and find a “Savior” for that community but, to show them that everyone does not live like them and that topics like racism, poverty, lack of compassion, injustice and no evangelism happens even in their town. BUMP provides an experience to open their eyes and teach steps and they go back home and use those lessons and steps to make those in their town better by their service and care.

God is truly in the midst of the BUMP program and I had the opportunity to experience it first hand as a BUMP Intern. I am so excited for the next group coming to Baltimore to experience that too. So get ready to serve because your commitment sincerely changes lives!

Syerra Meadows