By Adam Kleinschmidt
I had the privilege of being a part of Sierra Service Project (SSP) with Castro Valley United Methodist Church’s youth group. For seven days, I worked with members from five different churches from California and Arizona. I made a lot of new friends through this experience.
We were assigned work groups on the first day, which was a great opportunity to meet others. I met work team leaders who also served as youth directors from other churches. Throughout the week, we would have group-time and song-time, which was fun.
WESLEY UMC
My work team was assigned at Wesley United Methodist Church in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. It was a poorer area of the city where we learned a lot. Pastor Toan Le, who serves as the associate pastor, told us a brief history of the church. The church is huge and has services for four different languages: English, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Spanish. They serve food to the homeless three times a week and provide showers in the facility. Our job was to paint all the outside doors and redo a portion of the parking lot. We worked at Wesley on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.
OUR BORDER EXPERIENCE
On Wednesday, we got to go to the border of the US and Mexico. Some youth visited the Mexico side in Tijuana, while the rest of us stayed in the US. At Friendship Park, families meet their deported family members on the weekends. At the park, the fence has holes so small that people can barely touch pinkies. We made a circle touching pinkies around the border.
We made a circle touching pinkies around the border.
Later on, we went to the San Ysidro Community Center, another poor area of San Diego. We met and played with some of the younger kids. It was nice to see how much they made of everything they had.
The community center was very run down and hot, but the kids still appreciated the time we spent with them even though it wasn’t much. Then we all met up at Mission Bay and had a barbecue.
ENJOYING NATURE
On Thursday, we helped clean up the San Diego Canyonlands, a nonprofit that protects and restores the natural habitats in San Diego County’s canyons and creeks. In the evening, we drove to Sunset Cliffs. We sat at the edge and listened to stories about compassion from the staff. The sunset was awesome to see. On Friday we helped serve the homeless at Wesley UMC.
On Saturday we had to pack up and leave. It was sad because it was probably the last time I’d see some of them ever. I made sure to get all of my new friends’ Instagrams and Snapchats before I left to keep in touch.
It was really fun participating in the Sierra Service Project in San Diego. I’m definitely going back next year.
It was really fun participating in the Sierra Service Project in San Diego. I’m definitely going back next year. Thank you to Hope UMC, First UMC of San Diego, and First UMC of Torrence.
Editor’s Note: Adam Kleinschmidt is a youth from South Hayward United Methodist Church in The California-Nevada Conference, and attended SSP alongside the Castro Valley United Methodist Church youth group. He served in San Diego during the 2016 summer. Learn more about SSP’s summer programs and all of our summer locations.