San Fran Mission Trip '09

Last week Richard and I went with our high school youth on a mission trip to San Francisco. We stayed at a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base and they had our entire week planned out for us. The focus of the trip was to serve the homeless.

When we first got there, I (along with everyone else) was completely shocked at how bad the area we were staying in was, which is called the Tenderloin. There were hundreds of homeless on the streets and only in a few block radius. We also saw other shocking things while we were there like drug deals, people doing drugs, prostitutes, transvestites and more. It was a different world for many of us.

Throughout the week we spent our time doing things like eating sack lunches with the homeless people, handing out hot chocolate, working at a food bank, and just striking up conversations with people on the streets.

I can honestly say that my view of homeless people has changed and I feel I can empathize a little more with them now. They are people just like you and me who just want someone to talk to and to care about them.

Here is the awesome group that went to San Fran. There were 13 kids and 5 adults. Not only did we have a great time in San Francisco, our group really bonded and we had a lot of fun together.

Driving across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco.

This was the day we served lunch to the homeless at a place called Glide. We served over 750 people in a matter of 2 hours.

One day we had a "Love Feast" at the YWAM base and served a family style meal to the homeless.

We did get to do some fun stuff while we were there. We rode the trolley to Fisherman's Wharf. Our trolley got stuck on a hill and had to get pushed by a bus.


In front of Alcatraz. We didn't have time to tour it but we still got to see it.

Every morning, Richard and Taylor (one of the guys in the youth) played worship songs for us. They were great!

This was the day where everyone had to be homeless for a day. They had to sleep in their same clothes, couldn't brush their teeth or take showers, were given .75 cents and had to figure out what to do for food. It was actually a pretty fun day.

As we were driving out of San Francisco, we stopped by the "Full House" house. I looked up the address before we left : ) They painted it since it was on the opening of the show, but it is definitely the same house!

There's a link to the right with all 150+ pictures from our trip : )