Nothing can help one to understand another than walking in their shoes, even if for only one night, and this church project’s lessons will be remembered for a long time; that even among the most disreputable and wretched, the essential dignity of human beings exists and the light of hope flickers, even if only dimly.
'It's hard out there'
A night on the streets teaches teens the truth about life of the homeless
By Todd Milbourn - Bee Staff Writer Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 20, 2006
Growing up middle class in Jackson, Nicole Ferguson didn't deal too much with poverty. Or homelessness.
She'd heard, like many unexposed teenagers, that the causes of homelessness were simple: that it is a matter of choice. Drunks living for a drink. Bums living for a government check.
But this weekend changed that. Ferguson was one of about 20 young people who spent Saturday night on the streets, trying to get a better sense of why homeless people are homeless.
Working with the Salvation Army, the group -- members of First Covenant Church of Sacramento in Rancho Cordova -- brought meals to the homeless in downtown parks. They slept Saturday night, bundled in sleeping bags, outside a B Street warehouse.
"You listen to people. You hear stories. You realize that you have a lot in common," said Ferguson, 19, who's studying to become an interior designer.
"You realize that you, too, can fall on hard times."
Changing perceptions -- that was the point of the night. The church has an active youth and outreach ministry, which strives to bring Christ's word to the streets and hope to the hopeless.
"We have so many stereotypes. We think these people are all alcoholic bums," said Josiah Watters, the church's outreach minister, who organized the effort to coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday. "We're out here getting a taste for what life is really like. It's not so simple."
