Saturday November 21th, 2020 8:30-11:00am
Young Adults collaborated with Oakland residents to help councilman of the city of Oakland, Noel Gallo, with a community clean up service project. Noel Gallo shared a few remarks on the power of service through God by highlighting that we were chosen by God to be here. Before breaking off into teams, Markus von Euw opened up the service project with a powerful prayer mentioning the hope that we can be a vessel for God to express his love to the Oakland community. That we can be God’s eyes, ears, and hands throughout the service project.
Noel Gallo led us to the corner of Foothill Blvd and High Street and pointed out the many foreign immigrants who wake up early waiting to get the chance to earn a day job in contrast to the high numbers of American homelessness present in Oakland. He expressed his hope to change the current homelessness and unemployment situation and how our diligence in showing up to help the community is much appreciated.
Groups were then dispersed into opposite directions to clean up the streets of Oakland until 10:30am. During the service project, Yuuki Tanaka had the opportunity to exchange an impactful conversation about the homeless situation happening in Oakland with Noel Gallo. Yuuki later shared with the young adults his takeaways from the conversation, which opened up new perspectives and sentiment to the service project and Oakland community.
After the service project, young adults were given time to reflect on what it means to come out and participate in a community clean up particularly during Covid and what they were able to gain from today’s event. Younng Joo Scharf shared her realization of the importance of what it means to cultivate an attitude of taking responsibility. She made connections to Noel Gallo’s morning message, Yuuki’s takeaway and her participation in the service project that giving back to the community can spark even the smallest positive inspiration to be passed on to those around and eventually create a peace loving community.
Written by Julia Chai
