Box City

This past Thursday evening, October 25, Chain of Lakes Church and Blaine High School partnered to share Box City.  Box City is an event where students and adults from Blaine High School and Chain of Lakes sleep in boxes on the Blaine Tennis courts.  The purpose of the event is to simulate for participants what it must be like to be homeless.  Participants sleep in a box on Thursday night and then go to school or work on Friday—just as a youth who is homeless would have to do.

Helping and preventing youth homelessness is the heart-burst issue at Chain of Lakes. Box City is one of the many ways that the people at Chain of Lakes help.  Ultimately our congregation wants to be part of a movement to end youth homelessness.  

We work to end youth homeless through partnerships.  Chain of Lakes has a partnership with three high schools, Blaine High School, Anoka Regional High School, and Anoka Technical High.  We were just recently approached to have a partnership with another school whose mission is to educate homeless youth.  These partnerships start by developing a relationship with the Social Worker(s) or other staff at the school.  We ask one basic question—“How can we help?” The roles in the partnership are simple. People from the school identify the needs; the people from Chain of Lakes response to the needs. In these partnership meetings I have said multiple times that the role of the people of Chain of Lakes is not to guess at what the needs are. The schools can tell us the needs. The role of the people at Chain of Lakes is to respond with effectively to the needs.

Chain of Lakes has also partnered with HOPE 4 Youth in multiple ways, ever since HOPE 4 Youth was started. That partnership goes beyond what I can share in a short blog posting.  Chain of Lakes was presented with the Faith partner of the year by HOPE 4 Youth in 2017.

This is the fifth year that Box City has taken place. The people from Chain of Lakes partner with leaders from the Outdoor Adventure Club of Blaine High School.  We’ve worked together for so long that we only need two or three meetings to organize the event. This year I didn’t even attend the planning meetings.

But I wouldn’t miss participating in Box City. I need to be reminded what it’s like to be homeless.

It was inspiring to have a group of ten people from Chain of Lakes participate in Box City and to have my daughter, Hannah, participate.

Box City started with a program in the media center of the high school. Two youth who live at HOPE place spoke. HOPE place is the only residential facility for homeless youth in Anoka County. It’s run by HOPE 4 Youth. Beau Fields was one of the speakers. Beau participates in Chain of Lakes. He was baptized at Chain of Lakes in June 2017 and comes to worship almost every Sunday.

One highlight this year was a presentation by Richard Bahr. He cofounded Threshold to New Life https://threshold2newlife.org/ and also recently authored a book, “Those People.”  https://www.amazon.com/Those-People-True-Character-Homeless/dp/0990807398

In this presentation he talked about the views that many people have about the homeless. He shared a story of how one person is homeless because he shares all his money with his daughter.  Wow!  His presentation really was a call to look at a homeless person with compassion and not judgment. He challenged everyone to work through the inevitable stereotypes about a homeless person and to try to learn with compassion the story of a homeless person.

After the program it was time to go to the tennis courts. When we got to the tennis courts most people built their “home” for the night by setting up their boxes. Some of the students were very creative in putting their boxes together. They created a village of boxes. I put two boxes together and placed them by a fence. It took me a while to put my “stuff” into the box. The slight rain didn’t help.  Fortunately this year it wasn’t cold this year.

As part of Box City people from Chain of Lakes came around with peanut butter sandwiches. Nothing flashy, but helpful. Many of us spent much of the evening standing around burn barrels that were set up and talking.  

At 10:00 I went into my box. Fortunately I had a pad that another person from Chain of Lakes loaned to me. I covered myself in blankets and tried to sleep. Not easy to do. Even with my mat the ground was very hard. I woke up freezing at 1:30.  Eventually I was able to move some of my “stuff” so that I could stay warm for the night. I woke up at 5:30.  Most of the youth awoke at 6, and we cleaned up the tennis courts.

The youth participating in Box City are fabulous. In five years I can’t remember ever hearing a complaint about sleeping in a box. The way that the youth help each other and want to help is inspiring.

In his presentation Richard Bahr shared how physically demanding it is for a person to be homeless. I could relate to this in sleeping in a box for one night. The experience gave me once again a lens to view the world from a homeless person’s perspective. I take so much for granted by sleeping in a comfortable bed every night.  It is a privilege to sleep in a box and be reminded for a short time what life is like for a homeless person.

Enjoy a short video that Channel 5 News did on Box City
https://kstp.com/news/minnesota-moment-sleepout-in-blaine-raises-money-for-homeless-youth/5122856/?fbclid=IwAR1D_ELaGKfKYc0LYo11KFH1GA20NztYmPuK6dWb2cTLBc6KsgS4onN-rLY#.W9MryrnDmCs.facebook

Would you take a moment to subscribe to this blog?  Put your email in the box on the right hand side of this blog.  You'll be asked a few questions to ensure you are really a human being.  You'll then receive an email whenever a blog is posted.