IGNITE (In God Nothing Is Too Extreme)  is the youth choir at my church that I have been a part of since sixth grade. Every year, we take a mission trip to different cities around the country and sing at homeless shelters, nursing homes, women and children’s homes, and amusement parks. Singing to a crowd of people at church is special, but there is no way to imagine singing on the street corner in Harlem, New York if you have never done it before. I have always known that there were homeless people in the world, but I would never have imagined six years ago, that I would have seen the things I have seen.
When my mom told us we were traveling to New York for our annual mission trip, I couldn’t have been more excited. But I also could not have been prepared for what we would experience. After we spent the first day shopping, our group of 50 youth and 10 chaperones headed to the bus station to catch our bus back to New Jersey. When we asked for 400 plus bus tickets at one time, we got some funny looks. We paid the money, but before we were allowed to leave, the lady at the desk said that we had to sing for her first. So being a choir, we broke out into song (a capella). We were just doing our thing when a crying man came up to one of our chaperones. He said he was homeless and that this is exactly what he needed that day. Picture 50 worn-out youth standing in a dirty bus station singing to one crying man- and now many crying chaperones. Moments like these are what we do this for. We don’t do it so people praise us or so we will get into heaven; we do this because even if we give one person joy or hope, we have reached our goal.
Later on that week, we visited the Salvation Army in Harlem where we first cleaned; we washed cars, tables, chairs, classrooms, etc. Once we were done with the chores, we were ready to sing. We hooked up our sound system on the corner of the street and began our program. While most of us sang, some of us also served food. Every day at lunch time, the Salvation Army serves food on the street corner and people line up all the way down the block. It was a tough thing to watch, but it was something I would do over again if I could. Some people gave us disapproving looks, but others stood around and watched our show.
In this generation, it’s easy to be a spoiled teenager. However, it’s not easy to be a spoiled teenager and go to homeless shelters or women and children’s homes and be comfortable. There is a stigma on these people that they are dirty and can’t help themselves. This isn’t the case at all, though. We have met people with every sort of background and every kind of story. Some people are homeless because they were Veterans in the war and came home to nothing. Others have husbands or wives who just left and took everything. No matter the story, we are not supposed to judge these people, we are supposed to help them become something greater.