Community service – CSO in action

It’s a chilly Wisconsin morning and my heart is full with much to share about what’s been happening with our CSO’s outreach efforts on the UW-Madison campus and in our local community. We have a group of six or so CSO participants who meet every Tuesday evening. In addition to these meetings, we are interested in finding ways to partner with our community to bring a sense of hope, healing, and renewal.

There are two main organizations with whom we work. The first organization, Savory Sunday, is comprised of a group of students and community members who provide warm meals each Sunday to those in need. Food is donated from local grocery stores, and restaurants and volunteers work together to create a meal-with great creativity and expertise! Then the meal is transported up to the state Capitol or a local park for serving.

CSO students have been involved with the cooking, serving, and cleaning over the past couple years. Savory Sunday was founded after Hurricane Katrina-a response to the needs of people in our very own Madison community. Though we’re modest contributors, it’s been a great way for the CSO to link up with other people in our community.

For me personally, my work with Savory Sunday has helped me to settle in to this new town-make some friends-and be more active in my prayers for homelessness which is not always a comfortable feeling but needed. Now when I see someone on the street who is asking for money or who appears to be homeless, I often recognize or know them by name-and the divide of privileged and homelessness dissolves to a place of just a brother loving a brother. To me, this opportunity to know someone more deeply is the opportunity to see my own and another’s spiritual and true selfhood. I’m glad for the ways that it’s impacting me.

The second organization the CSO is involved with is the Road Home. The Road Home has been around for about 10 years. What I love most about this organization is that they are really achieving their mission! They are helping families in the Madison community who are in transition or homeless to move towards long-term success.

Local churches are part of a circuit within which four or so families move. At the end of a week-long stay at one of the churches, families pack up and move to the next church. During the week-day, families are off to school, work, and the day center where they work with social workers to figure out transition plans. After ten weeks, families move out of the church rotation into apartments and back on their feet.

The Lutheran church next to where the CSO meets on campus is one of these host churches. The CSO has been involved with serving meals, hanging out with the families, cleaning and moving luggage/cots at the close of the week. Recently, I was touched by one CSO participant’s involvement. She woke up early on a Sunday morning to go help move cots, even though no one else from our group went.

Another lesson that I wanted to mention was when I was on evening duty. After supper, I was hanging with one of the families’ ten-month old baby boy. He was delightful and curious, but what was most moving was seeing a middle school girl from another family so lovingly, proudly, and tenderly care for this little baby-like he was her own brother. I am reminded of this quote from Mary Baker Eddy, “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man.” ¹ There was a deep sense of family, even though at first-glance it seemed like a pretty tenuous living situation. It’s not ideal to have families without homes, but I saw at that moment that home and family aren’t restricted to places and people but a feeling of divine Love. This kind of Love penetrates even the most adverse circumstances.

As Christian Scientists, there is a lot we can bring and share with our communities. Certainly, there isn’t a substitute in the world for the mental activity and impact of prayer. And yet, I am learning that my love for God can’t help but spill over into every aspect of life. There is just one awesome, healing whole. “As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing.” ²

Members of the CSO express gratitude for a sense of belonging and purpose that reaching out has afforded us. We look forward to hearing from you.

- Ginger