Dear Friends and Family,
I hope that this letter finds you doing well and that you are getting back into the swing of things as, sadly, summer is officially over and fall has begun! As most of you know already, I have “finished ” my year of service in the Los Angeles area (specifically Hollywood and Pasadena) and have been living back in Arizona for a little over a month now. I apologize for the delay in getting this final letter to you. As you can probably imagine, I experienced, witnessed and grew a lot in this past year, and it has taken some time to process it all.
A lot has happened this past year, for all of us, so let me take a minute to give a quick recap of what I did while I was in Los Angeles. Last September, I moved to an urban part of Hollywood to live in an intentional Christian community with 3 other women. In addition to working with the families, especially the children, in the neighborhood, I worked 32 hours a week at a transitional house for homeless families in Pasadena. The name of the organization is Door of Hope and I was the director of the after school program for kids ages 3-13. I have been keeping you all updated throughout my year of service, however I would like to take this time to reflect with you now that the year has come to an end.
One question people have consistently been asking me since I have returned home is: “What did you learn during your year of service?” There really is not a simple answer to that question. I was working with such a diverse group of people and situations that the lessons I learned are just as diverse. Let me expand upon a few of the lessons.
Something God has taught me throughout this past year is the importance of being able to trust Him and opening my eyes to see how He is working in my life as well as in those around me. If I can trust God, I will see that He is always there for me and He will guide me through anything and everything.
At Door of Hope, I learned a lot about the ins and outs of the non-profit world, but I also learned more about the seriousness of homelessness in the United States, specifically in LA. I also discovered the generosity of people who are in need themselves and how families facing homelessness do their best to survive.
By living in my neighborhood, I met families who were struggling to make ends meet; yet somehow they still remained positive. I also learned of the heartbreaking realities that teenagers face on a daily basis that leave them hoping they will simply make it to their 18th birthday.
To continue with the diverse lessons that I learned, my roommates and I learned how to work as a team, start a community garden, live simply, and how to live together and support each other despite our very different personalities. We also got the incredible opportunity to learn in depth the problem with immigration laws and actually got to know some families directly affected by them.
Along with the many lessons that are permanently ingrained in my memory, there were also many people I was fortunate enough to meet and know on a more personal level, including my roommates, co-workers, city director, board members, and neighbors. There were also a lot of great families at Door of Hope, but there was one family in particular that I had a special bond with. The family consisted of a single mom and her daughter. The little girl was a part of my after-school program even though she was just under 3 years old. For no particular reason, she was behind developmentally, especially when it came to speech. Even though she was the youngest kid, she was the most helpful and has such a kind spirit. When I would drop my papers or the spoons for snack time, she would be the first to hop out of her chair and come help me, without me even asking.
After having her in the program for a little over a month, her mom expressed, to me, her concern and frustration over her daughter’s slow speech development. I told her that I would see what I could do to help. For the next couple of months, after some research, her mother and I started working with the little girl on letters and pronunciations. Her speech started improving slowly but surely. In October, you could only understand her say hello and goodbye and maybe catch a few other words here and there, but come February she was able to speak more clearly and express herself, instead of simply screaming or yelling. Over the year, I started to form a special bond with this family. Every time I saw her, I couldn’t help but smile because she would jump and give me a huge hug and yell, “ Hi, Stephanie!”
A week before I finished at Door of Hope, I received some wonderful news that they had found affordable permanent housing, meaning they would be graduating from the Door of Hope program in just a couple of weeks. After gradually building this personal bond with their family, this was a perfect way to end my year, by seeing the two of them graduate from our program. What a blessing! God truly showed me His love through this incredible family.
I will close with this, as I was packing up and cleaning my desk at Door of Hope, one of my co-workers asked me, “So Stephanie, how do you feel as you are about to exit your life of service and mission?” This question shocked me, as I had not thought of my year of service ending as an exit from the mission field. This got me thinking, “Does one really leave a life of service and mission?” I came to the conclusion that no, we do not leave. I strongly believe that God has called each of us to serve Him by serving the people around us each and every day of our lives. This does not mean we all have to stop what we are doing and move to serve long term, in a location in need. I believe living a life of service can be lived out by simply holding the door open for someone to doing a random act of kindness for a complete stranger to serving at a local soup kitchen. This is my challenge to you: think of how you can serve God by serving others in your day–to-day life.
Much love,
Stephanie
