One Prince George teenager realized she didn't really need what she thought she needed after spending three days recently doing outreach to those on the streets of East Vancouver.
"We have so much and we don't realize it," Rachel Barg, Cedars Christian Grade 11 student, said.
"Especially teenagers, who are so focused on 'oh, I need this new phone and I need this shirt, I need these jeans' and we think that's what we need but those people (on the streets) are so content with what they have. A lot of them say they don't need anything more, they have everything they need. And I just took away that I don't need everything that I think I do."
From Sept. 9 to 13, a group of 17 Grade 11 students from Cedars Christian School took a bus to downtown Vancouver to take part in the Mission Adventure which is a program offered by Youth With A Mission, an evangelical interdenominational, non-profit Christian missionary organization that spans 181 countries.
During the program, the students stayed at the Chinatown Peace Church on East Pender Street where they slept on foamies in the Sunday school classrooms.
Each day brought a different challenge for the group including the Urban Plunge where the teengers were to walk the streets just as if they had no place else to go for six hours.
It happened to be pouring rain the day they went out and teacher Sarah Allan, who went with the students, said there was concern for their well-being expressed by those living on the streets.
"Get those kids inside, they're going to get sick," Allan said she was told repeatedly by the homeless in Vancouver's east side.
Part of the Urban Plunge challenge asked the students to sit in front of a high-end store in Gastown for 15 minutes to see what kind of reaction they got from those walking on the street.
"We'd get dirty looks and glares and people would make fun of us," Victoria Van Delft said.
"And we weren't even in that situation but for the people that are in that situation it's bad enough for them to be on the streets and not have somewhere warm to live but then to get all those dirty looks for doing nothing but sitting on the street it's sad."
Each student was given a lunch for themselves and a lunch for someone else and were asked to talk to the people they met on the street.
"The children were to experience what the lifestyle was like, take in the information, build a relationship," Allan explained.
During the second day the students went on a temple tour where they were able to get some insight into others' beliefs.
The students attended a Sikh Temple, a Mosque and a Buddhist Temple.
At each religious institution there was a representative who explained their religion.
On the third day of their stay, students did one of three different outreaches. Union Gospel Mission hosts a soup kitchen and the teens helped serve the food to the guests and spoke to them.
Melody Forbes said she would like to volunteer at a local soup kitchen after spending time in the one in Vancouver.
"It was really fun to volunteer at the soup kitchen and the people we were working with were super friendly and I felt like I was being really helpful and some of the people who we were serving were so grateful for what we were doing."
"There was one lady I served that was kind of picky and the person behind her told her to just take what she could get and that was so sweet," Forbes said.
Students visited a harm reduction centre where they wrapped donations for Christmas, and Doors Open held a soup kitchen where children prepared the food and served lunch to those in need.
Students also went downtown and held a Free Prayer Station, where they would stand on the street holding a sign and they would pray with and for whoever approached.
During the Free Prayer Station on East Hastings Street, Antonja Mracovcic said it was heartbreaking to watch as a man in the throes of his drug addiction tried to reach out to the students for prayer and ended up smashing himself into a concrete wall.
"It was really hard to see that," Mracovcic said, recalling how he ended up crumpled on the sideway broken and bleeding. "This is someone's child who is now completely alone. We prayed for his protection."
As part of the students' continued education a special treat was offered each evening as different cultures were explored by showcasing Mexican, Vietnamese and East Indian cuisine for dinner.
The Grade 11 students who attended the outreach program included Rachel Barg, Lucas Crosina, Regan Faller, Melody Forbes, Katriel Hrankowski, Daniel Iyaoromi, Karl Kibonge, Josh Leboe, Caleb Milton, Antonija Mracovcic, Brooklyn Neufeld, Micaela Rogers, Victoria Van Delft, Ryley Woolgar, Isaac Lee, Dany Tkeng, Ethan Hynes and educational assistant Tammi Friesen accompanied the students with teacher Sarah Allan.
