Back in the Hostel!

Thank you so much to all the people who emailed me and posted comments! It's very exciting for me when I log and find out that I haven't been forgotten yet! The last couple of days have been very interesting, and i'm not quite sure what I think yet, so if I contradict myself or ramble you'll have to forgive me! Firstly though, I now have a mobile so I am contactable! The number to use is +14155686478, and for all those on 3, it should be in your cap! Although it does cost me 35 cents to recieve it, and we could talk for 3 minutes for that if you go and buy one of those fabulous call cards! Soo... go buy one!
Anyway, San Francisco Rescue mission is located in the Tenderloin district, which has about 25000 people living within the one square mile, and has the highest crime rate in SF. There's a lot of black americans, and it's the kind of thing you see in a movie. Basically, you hold you're bag really tight and stare at the ground when you walk through, and I heard something about a shooting happening there today...
So the rescue mission has a couple of focuses. They have started a school, which was the first one in the district. I think this was my favourite, or least controvertial, mission, the school just seemed to have a really nice vibe. The teachers all lived in community in the main building, and they just really seemed to care about their students. It's a very small school (less than 40 kids) but they hope to grow to over 100 when they finish renovating the building. Pretty sure the teachers don't get paid or anything, and they gave the kids goodbye hugs and things like that. It just had the feel of being a really nice community,a nd the older kids helped out the little ones a lot and stuff. Just a really awesome thing.
The other mission where I spent a lot of my time was the rescue mission.I wasn't really sure what that was before I went, but basically it's a combination between a soup kitchen and a church. They have trolleys full of stuff donated to them everyday, and a lot of this seemed to be delivered to houses, and handed out and stuff, but they also served a lunch and hot dinner everyday. The only catch is that if you wanted food, you had to sit through a half hour service first, and they actually locked the door to stop people sneaking in and getting food without going to the service. Not really sure what I think about this, but it was very clear from the start that they were there to 'save' people and bring them to christ. So I guess bribing them to listen to you talk about god could work, but I didn't really like that they turned away one guy because he was 10 minutes late, and I don't really get why only christians should be given food. The centre wasn't open at any times other than the morning and afternoon services and the bible study, which I thought was a bit sad, because there didn't seem to be many conversations happening. They all sat in rows in the pews and ate their food silently, and the volunteers just kind of gave the food to them and they passed it down the line and noone really talked to anyone. If you look at the sf911 website, I think you can find a picture of it somewhere. I think I just missed the community feel that they had at Credo Cafe at Urban Seed in Melbourne, where everyone, even the volunteers eat together around the table. They also have prayers before these meals but you don't have to come to them. At the same time, what they were doing was really great, I just would have like to see a bit more community built, both between the helpers and the visitors.
I think the most entertaining part was talking to the people who worked there, both about the bible and politics/ american views. One of the Pastors in particular, talked a lot about the war, and his view (i thought) was kind of odd. He took the view that after 9/11, america's lifestyle was under threat, and so they had right to defend that. I asked about Iraq's culture, and he thought it hadn't really changed and if it meant that in 3 generations Iraqis were being brought up with christian values, it would make all of the suffering worth it. After all, people suffered when we went to war with Germany, but it was for the greater good eventually. Post any thoughts that you have on this, see if we can get a discussion happening! At what point is it ok to kill a person or culture? Is it ever! I'd love to hear some non-american thoughts on it!
There was also a 'gentlemans club' next door to the mission, and so I asked if they were doing any mission regarding that. The first response was that they prayed (which was always the typical american rant styly prayer, with every third work lord or god), and that they had been desperately praying for the owner, and that something would happen to make him stop, and a week later he had a heart attack and died. And apparently that was a good thing, even though another owner just took over. But the guy seemed to think this was quite an achievement!
So it was a very interesting 2 days, but among all of those bizarre things, there were a lot of cool things. It was a really relaxed, open, close community, not particularly focused on living simply, but about helping each other to live christianly. They had so much faith that god would provide for them, and they certainly had lots of food! Really different to anything I've seen in Australia, but they were doing cool stuff.
Let me know any thoughts you have on all of that, if you agree of disagree with any of my opinions, or want to know more. Sorry this has been so long!
Just went for another walk this arvo, and I mentally bought presents for all of you! Unfortunately, they won't fit in my bags so they had to stay in the shops but I kept finding things that made me think of different people. Heading off to Boston first thing tomorrow morning- it's going to be awesome going back!
Hope everyone's well and keep up the emailing/repling/texting!
Laura