Monday Denver Day 2

Today was quite the eventful day  and our first taste of what our service in Denver will be like. My half of the group started our day off with morning prayer and mass with the Beatitudes followed by breakfast. Then we headed off to where Christ in the City is located in order to be introduced to the service we will be doing and meet up with the other half of our group. This is where the real “fun” began.  As an introduction/orientation, we all split into groups and were given a tour of the area that the Christ in the City missionaries work in. The area spans from Colfax Ave. to 16th Street Mall to down by the river. It was a bit hard to go on this type of tour because there was a focus on the homeless and how they have been gradually alienated form the eye of the general public. Cody and Amanda, a couple of the missionaries that lead my group, pointed out all the changes made by the city of Denver that have made it harder for the homeless to get by. From taking out benches in the mall to putting up gates under the bridges on the river, it seemed to a lot of us that Denver is just treating these people as something to be dealt with rather than individuals with dignity. This is why I put fun in quotations and with some sarcasm up above, because it is not fun to see people treated like pariah. What is beautiful about Christ in the City is that they do treat the homeless like people with feelings and aspirations. The thing that I am most excited about tomorrow is that we finally get to go out make connections with the homeless and show them that they are loved. It a lot of cases, I feel, that is just all they need.

-Sidney Bryn