Crosby Church youth to build Box City May 25

... [W]hatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me, Jesus said in a New International Version translation from Matthews Gospel. Taking the scriptures to heart, the youth of Crosby Church will build and will dwell overnight in a camp that they will make out of cardboard boxes like those in which many homeless people are known to sleep.

In the process of this temporary exercise, participating youth will raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and will collect donations of goods that those who are homeless need.

The youth are collecting building materials now. They will assemble and live overnight in their Box City from 8 p.m. on May 25 until 8 a.m. on May 26, hearing from speakers and taking part in other activities that will be planned.

The outreach is not a run-of-the-mill Friday night. Box City is not a run-of-the-mill construction project. Then, again, homelessness is not supposed to be a run-of-the-mill state.

Im just really excited about our Box City event, Crosby Church Senior Pastor Keenan Smith said. The young people will be setting up boxes, tarps, and different temporary structures, something similar to what someone who is homeless would be living in or making accommodations with.

All of our young people are going to experience a night of homelessness. They are going to be sleeping in the parking lot, just out under the stars. If its adverse weather, they will be in the rain. If its chilly, they will be cool, whatever it is, to just kind of help them understand and recognize not only them but our community the plight of the homeless. Admission is a sack of canned goods that will be donated to a homeless shelter.

Crosby Church youth will show the community that which they will learn, what some of the least among us experience.

Im really excited about what it pours into our young people, the value and the appreciation of the things that we have, Smith said, and an understanding that there are those, that are all around us, in our midst, that are less fortunate, and the responsibility that we have, as a church and as a society, to be able to reach out and to help them get back on their feet or find a place.

Smith has planned events in recent years, such serving food or donating shoes or socks to homeless people, to instill in young congregants the palpable sense of hopelessness that accompanies homelessness. Each activity, Box City included, is a two-fold reality check about the nature and the proximity of the problem.

It is a sad indictment that a lot of our young people didnt realize that you dont have to go to a third-world country, that some of it is right around here, Smith said. So I think it is just really a neat awareness thing that is going to be happening in our region and in our community.

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Crosby Church youth to build Box City May 25