Long grass is waist high. Our knees are shaking of nervousness. Glass is covering the ground like ice, trash is lying all around like I haven’t cleaned my room for 3 years. Houses that have been burnt are now crumbled to almost nothing. The looks of a ghost town around us. The vision of a community in need of hope, Detroit, Michigan. As a result, my church along with many other churches around the United States, 32,000 teens to be exact, went to the city of Detroit to help clean up a neighborhood affected by poverty. These experiences were unbelievably terrifying but we knew we were doing something for the better of others.

“Okay, it’s 6:30. Is everybody ready to load the buses? Does everybody have what they need for the day? We won’t get back here until around midnight,” the pastor says to six teenagers in bright orange t-shirts, who look like living zombies standing in the lobby of a hotel. We loaded our busses and about a half hour later arrived to our destination of the downtown city of Detroit. There we were joined with 10,000 other walking zombies in bright t-shirts who were all anxious to find out what our service projects were going to be for the day. There was live, loud, upbeat music trying to get the energetic side of teenagers going. I personally was not in the mood to “bust a move” ,So we  all just waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for about three hours until the people who were in charge got there stuff together and figured out the “who goes where” situation.

“I was getting tired of standing there I almost could’ve walked back to our hotel and gone back to bed,” I heard someone say from the seat behind me. I honestly felt the same way, but I was too worried thinking about where this sketchy bus driver was taking us. I heard other people previously talking about how some people got to go to orphanages to read and work with kids, some got to paint murals at parks, and some had to work with construction. I was very nervous but excited to see where we were going to end up.

“Hi, I’m everyone’s leader today, I hope everyone stays safe and if there are any emergencies or problems please let me know immediately. I think everyone will enjoy where we are going and what you will be doing. Just know that you are helping people out majorly in their life and these people appreciate what you are doing for their community.” This was the kind lady who we followed onto the bus. She gave us a short speech then sat down for the rest of the ride to wherever we were going. When we finally arrived to our destination it wasn’t what most of us had in mind. We slowly got off the bus, sun beating down on us, and we stand and glare at the astonishing view around us.

Standing in the middle of the depressed ghost town of Detroit, we listened to the man giving us directions. After he talked and talked, we finally got to work. Some of us picking up trash, sawing down trees by hand,  gathering lose glass, and chopping down some grass which could be home to who knows what. We thought we were making a positive impact on this community until the  abrupt sound of squealing tires came to a quick stop. The red beaten up car was sitting in the middle of the road like roadkill she was laying on her horn with all her anger. Standing in fear, no movement, nervous and still as if someone was about to push me off a cliff. We didn’t know what to do. “You guys aren’t going to move theses buses?!” Give or take a few explicit words, this lady was furious. Nobody moved.

We stood like statues. Statues that were cemented to the ground, our eyes glued to the target. No movement. We had no power. We are just statues standing in fear, afraid of the unknown people and actions.
She got out of her car fairly quickly as everyone stared but tried to seem like they hadn’t noticed her yet. She made her way over to one of the bus drivers as she was tossing vulgar language left and right.
“This is ridiculous! These need to be moved now! Do you know who I am?!”

“I’m going to have to ask you to go back to your car if you could just please be patient they will be moved in the next few minutes.”

The furious lady finally made it back to her car after arguing with the bus driver for a while. Maybe she realized how much she over reacted about a couple busses that were blocking the road when she lived the next block down and could’ve easily went around another block. As long as she didn’t come near me I was satisfied. I guess I just don’t understand why she was getting so upset about the whole situation when we were just trying to make her neighborhood look a little more pleasant.

On the other hand, there were at least two men who stopped to thank us for all our effort. One man drove by saying “This looks amazing! Oh my God, thank you guys so much!” as he honked his horn. Another elder man walked from a couple blocks down and was talking to pastors and some of the teens who were working.
“This town has looked like this for about three years and nobody had the energy or desire to help clean it up. This place is starting to look a lot better thanks to you guys. I thank you people from the bottom of my heart.”

The grass is freshly cut, crisp and green. The nervousness in or legs has escaped. The glass is cleared like ice melted away when spring is near. The trash is gutted away into a heaping pile next to the street to get picked up by the dumpster. The houses still look abandoned but have been cared for and worked around. The ghost town is recovering from its depression and I was giving it hope. My friend Lily and I were talking on the way home from the tiring and exciting trip. “This turned out to not be such a terrible trip after all. I don’t think I’ll forget this one.” She explained to me. “I agree. This was a great experience for all of us. Good and Bad.”