09506
June 17, 2009

Giving back to the community

Young adults return gift of service to Big Tent host city

by Emily Enders Odom
Special to Presbyterian News Service

Leaders of the young adult mission experience at Big Tent were, back row: Jay Thomas, Byron Wade, Josh Peck, Jonier Orozco (director of Hispanic ministries at College Park church); Front row: Jannan Thomas, Amy Mast.

ATLANTA — Bleary-eyed yet tenaciously determined, some 20 Presbyterian young adults — accompanied by friends, mentors, and members of the General Assembly Council staff — rose uncharacteristically early to roll up their sleeves for a day of volunteer service here June 13.

This unique opportunity for young adults to engage in service to the community was just one of the special programmatic features of the Young Adult Experience at the Big Tent, which also offered 18-35 year olds the time and space to gather for faith-filled discussions, worship, and fellowship.

Also joining with the young adults for their day of service were the Rev. Byron Wade, vice moderator of the 218th General Assembly and a tireless advocate for ministries with youth and young adults; Adrian McMullen, associate for Collegiate and Young Adult Ministry; Lydia Kim, ministry specialist for Women’s Leadership and National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW) and Racial Ethnic Young Women Together (REYWT); and Martha Miller, associate for Christian Vocation, whose offices were among the sponsors of the Young Adult Experience.

Marquita McAlpine, an outgoing 25 year-old from Durham, NC — who was attending the Big Tent with other members of the coordinating committee for the NNPCW — welcomed the chance to do hands-on ministry.

“I was excited to hear that they would be doing service work and definitely wanted to do this today,” McAlpine said.  “Having a conference to attend and going to workshops all day every day, the planners still made time for us to give back to the community. I admire that.”

The two mission sites in greater Atlanta were coordinated and chosen especially for the young adult participants in Big Tent by the Rev. Jannan Thomas, city director for the Atlanta offices of DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection), a joint Presbyterian and Mennonite agency that hosts groups and individuals in missions, service and learning experiences in six U.S. cities.

As the group gathered for a light breakfast, instructions, and a commissioning prayer at Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Atlanta — home of the Central Outreach & Advocacy Center (OAC), one of the two agencies sponsoring the day’s projects — Thomas gave a brief introduction to the city’s critical needs around homelessness and hunger. 

Josh Peck of the OAC prepares Big Tent young adult volunteers to welcome food program clients.

“The City of Atlanta has no mountains or ocean to stop its urban sprawl,” Thomas explained. “There are between twelve and fourteen thousand homeless people here on the streets of Atlanta, in addition to which the minimum wage in the State of Georgia is lower than the federal minimum wage. Even if people are working, they often can’t afford housing.”

Half of the Big Tent young adult volunteers traveled to Decatur, where they readied a transitional housing site — both yard and house — through Decatur Cooperative Ministry. The other half worked with the OAC, which through a grant from the United Way had organized a distribution program of emergency groceries to Atlanta residents most affected by the economic downturn. 

About 10 volunteers reported to the College Park Presbyterian Church, one of the four distribution sites selected by the OAC for the program. There, the young adults primarily assisted clients with the intake process required for each family to receive a 30-pound box of canned goods, cereals, and rice.

The Rev. Jay Thomas, pastor of the 70-member College Park church, said that by 9:30 a.m., about 400 people had already lined up in the church’s parking lot to be served by the program. “When they were choosing the distribution sites, they looked to see where the need was greatest in Metro Atlanta,” Thomas said. “College Park came up on their radar. A lot of folks are struggling in this area.”

Several volunteers from the College Park church, a multicultural community composed largely of Hispanic, African-American, native Caribbean and African members, supplemented the efforts of the young adults from the Big Tent.

Members and volunteers from the small staff of the OAC were also on site to help, including Amy Mast, an OAC board member and a member of Central Presbyterian Church; Dan McDonald, an elder at Central church; Chuck Bowen, OAC’s executive director; Celeste Anthony, its business manager; and Josh Peck, its outreach advocate.  Peck, a PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer (YAV), will complete his year of service to the OAC on August 15.

“I commend Josh for his expert handling of all of the details of the food drive,” Mast said. “It was a smooth process.”

Food distribution program clients arrive at College Park Presbyterian Church.

Concurring with Mast’s assessment, Big Tent volunteers later added during their debriefing session that a beautiful breeze and ideal weather conditions had helped the guests to wait patiently and mostly without complaint while in line and while completing the necessary paperwork to qualify for assistance. All agreed that everyone was treated with dignity and respect.

“I can see someone I know in this line,” said Bridgett Cannon, a young banking executive from Charlotte, NC. “It can happen to any one of us at any time.”

Emily Enders Odom is a communications associate in the General Assembly Council’s Communications and Funds Development office.