Mission Trip USA

By Pastor Alan Hardiman and Erin Hardiman

Mr. Will, 70 years old—50 of those years spent intoxicated—leaned in and mentioned that he had had “a little something” to drink before we arrived, but he was definitely not drunk. Looking over Mr. Will’s shoulder, I winced in disgust as I watched a roach crawl up the wall and onto one of our team member’s, Jordan, sleeve, causing him to do a spirit jig like I had never seen before. Such is life at the Chippewa Hotel in Buffalo, New York. It is located about two blocks from the Buffalo Dream Center and another two blocks, an entire world away, from the beautiful Hampton Suites Hotel where most of us stayed. The night before we arrived at this inner city breeding ground for crime, a drug-crazed young man looking to settle a score with a rival over a girlfriend, shot two young police officers during the battle in front of the Chippewa. One of the officers was shot in the neck and paralyzed; she was the mother of three small children. This was going to be anything but a typical mission’s trip; the yellow “caution” tape floating just above the black pavement still lined our path to the hotel when we visited a few nights later.

My family was part of a team led by Pastors John and Shirley Tasch from North Carolina. They are well-known family and children’s ministers who have led hundreds of mission’s trips all over the world, bringing children as young as eight years old to wherever people need Jesus. The Tasch’s have special ties to Buffalo, as it is their hometown. Pastor John actually attended the Dream Center, then the Buffalo Christian Center, when he was a youth. Back then, Buffalo was a growing, thriving community of mostly working class heroes. Today it ranks among the top five cities for crime, drugs, gangs, illiteracy, and broken homes—truly a mission field.

Pastor Eric John and his wife, Michele, run the Dream Center and pastor a group of people, mostly under the age of thirty, who hardly ever come to church. He is a pastor of the streets. Every Thanksgiving, for the past seven years, Pastor Eric has lived in those streets with the homeless: he eats and sleeps with his congregation in the cardboard boxes, under the interstates, and around the fires in the trash barrels. The first time Pastor Eric took to the streets, the media was all over it. While he did not seek such attention, he used it to promote the cause and bring awareness to the plight of the people. This got the attention of some charitable individuals, who showed their support by giving generous donations of food, toys and gifts. Private citizens and corporations alike made a decision to reach out to these poor unfortunate people, after Pastor Eric’s boldness made them aware of the need. The spark that Pastor Eric ignited was the beginning of the development of programs to distribute food and Christmas presents to thousands of underprivileged children and adults in the community. What originally began with Pastor Eric, his family, and a few friends - essentially living in the warehouse where everything was stored for more than three weeks leading up to Christmas—has grown into a wonderful mission’s opportunity. For the last several years, teams of people have come from all over the country to be a necessary part of something much bigger than themselves.

For the first two days that we were in Buffalo, it was like Jesus’ workshop. Our small team packed over two thousand bags of groceries and wrapped over three thousand toys and gifts. The following day, in addition to our bagging and wrapping, we went out into the neighborhoods and brought kids back to the Dream Center for “Kid’s Club”. One neighborhood that we visited happened to be the worst in the entire city. Most of the houses were boarded up and in deplorable condition and essentially uninhabitable. Yet, the kids poured from the houses Ironically, this was the neighborhood where Pastor Shirley grew up.

One might expect kids from these surroundings to be hard-hearted, wild and unruly, but as a testimony to the consistent love they receive from the Dream Center staff, they were not. Quite the opposite, in fact. These children are artists and musicians; athletes and actors; good students and great kids. We were instructed to be sure to give out a lot of hugs. This was a unnecessary command as these kids loved on us like we were old familiar friends.
When we arrived at the Dream Center, we provided the kids with a hearty meal. Some of the kids ate six or seven tacos. For many of them, it would be their only meal of the day or for several days. After dinner, there was a time for physical activities followed by a time of ministry, much like a service at IFC’s Kid’s Church. After lots more hugs and kisses, we got the kids back on the bus and sent them home with all of our hearts in tow.

During the next two days, our team went to several different venues for food and gift distribution. Our small but enthusiastic group was able to impact thousands of families. Knowing that they were important and respected enough to be served and blessed, made their day and maybe their year. We discovered that there were many sides to the wrong side of town: our team visited a men’s housing unit, a Sudanese group of families, a Meals-On-Wheels group, a home for the elderly, and the Chippewa Hotel. The Chippewa is literally a crack house that is home to lots of roaches and some of the wildest characters you’d ever want to meet. This was my personal favorite part of the trip. We weren’t able to park in the usual space in front of the hotel because of the previously mentioned crime scene and caution tape. My wife Jan and I dropped the team off and parked at our hotel and then walked quite briskly, the two blocks back to the Chippewa. I still have Jan’s fingernail marks in my arm.

Our team was supposed to have had a room to use for ministry and the distribution of groceries but it was not available so instead, we used the hallway. The people and bugs came out of the woodwork to get some food and have a chat (No, the bugs did not chat—now that’s a crazy missions trip!). Our background ministry music was the sound of screaming, fighting, and breaking glass. One precious lady came to me with a bottle of olive oil and asked if I would come bless and anoint her room. Later, we were ministering to an obviously altered young woman. When we thought we were making some progress with her, the oil lady showed up with a dollar bill full of crack and we both left the scene; we lost them both. I spoke with a gentleman who had been shot seven different times and had died on the operating table on three separate occasions; his faith in Jesus has literally kept him alive.

Then, there was the self-appointed leader of the pack, Mr. Will. He was a soft-spoken, intelligent man who had known but a handful of sober days in his seventeen years at the hotel. He was estranged from his family and had only recently attempted to see them. Spurned by the ones he loved, he returned home lower than his lowest. And at the Chippewa, it gets pretty low. When we found him, he was spiraling miserably in an alcohol-induced tailspin. I spent quite a bit of time talking to him, ministering the Word to him, assuring him of God’s love, and emphasizing how much the people at the Dream Center missed him when he wasn’t there. He told me he was too embarrassed to go there with booze on his breath. I told him they would be so excited to see him, they wouldn’t care what was on his breath. As I hugged the old man, tears rolling down our faces, I told Mr. Will that I expected to see him at church on the next day. I told him that if I didn’t see him, I would come down to his room at the Chippewa and bring him there myself. On Sunday, I waited by the door, looking for my old new friend. He did not disappoint me. When Mr. Will arrived, I ran to him and hugged him and many others followed. I gave him the “thumbs up” sign and left him to relish in the love that so many others showered on him that morning. They were truly blessed to see him and he was blessed to be seen.

These are just some of the many stories I could relate from the Buffalo mission’s trip. It has so impacted our family that we have committed to be a part of this outreach in our own community. I truly believe that we can impact the community of Lawrence in the same way that Pastor Eric and his team have impacted Buffalo. Our trip was a mission for a vision. I deeply encourage anyone who has never been to a Lawrence outreach to take the opportunity to make your mark here, at home. You can be Jesus to hurting people. You can give love to someone who is alone. You can bring value to someone who to the world sees as worthless. You will never be the same—guaranteed.