[Sandwich Run] A Poem

One of the men we met at People's Park in Berkeley when Watermark made a Sandwich Run was a gifted poet and shared a few of his poems with us.

155.  1 Wish

A moonbeam lites the path to what I want…

      more than anything else, more than everything an’ nothing put together

    only who can grant wishes, who can I trust?

      More than Creation

      More than Death

      More than the Life given by the Sun

What I want Time can’t pay for

Freedom, Spiritual awakenings, moments with no one.

Higher an’ higher, farther than any dream.

More real than reality.

No kisses or instructions. Savage. I’m willing to give anything.

My Life, my sanity, every single capability

        every single possibility. Any chance to succeed

  I’d turn myself in…

For just this 1 wish…

The air I breathe. My last breath. Heat

                            Food

                            Water

                      an' Shelter

                            My manhood, my reason for Being.

                            Happiness, an all emotional stability…

      An’ things You can’t even begin to comprehend.

My car, my job, every single hair on my head that is curly.

My eyes so I can’t see

My heart so I can’t feel

What I want, if need I will kill

For just this 1 wish…

My nose an’ I cannot smell

My hands – I can’t feel or touch anything that isn’t right here.

                 I’d give my 3rd eye or even my health, stock options

                                    all my money an’ wealth

     Intuition an’ reasoning I want this more than whatever Hope can bring.

                                 I desire this because I’ve heard Truth sing.

                                                Realization for what I need

God give it to me on bended knee…

For just this 1 wish…

I wish, I wish…to breathe, be relived and cry freely.

[Sandwich Run] A Personal Reflection

(Guest post by Brandon Fu)

On Valentine's day, most people are more concerned about their dates and themselves, instead of the homeless and the poor, whom most view with varying levels of disapproval, however, the group, LTS (Lead to Serve), part of WaterMark, went to feed these people on Valentine's day. This activity is called the “Sandwich Run” where we made sandwiches and then gave them out for free to those homeless and poor.

The homeless and poor are often thought by society as people who don't try in their jobs, that they “deserved” it, that if they just went and got a job, they would get what they need, what they want. The thing is this is not the case, we, the society, are just treating these people like animals, as well as the fact that it goes into an infinite cycle that they are poor and don't have a job, but because they don't have a house and other things, they cannot getting a job, thus staying poor. This image of the poor is very wrong. When we went out there to those at Berkley, some had rich personalities.

During this trip we made those sandwiches at Berkley, and then, at 1 PM, we split into three groups and then went to People's park and its surrounding area to pass out the sandwiches. I was put into group two and we went to the surrounding areas to pass them out. Near the end of our route, mine was one of the only sandwich bags left, so I went and gave it to one man. This man was very interesting. When I gave the bag to him, he said with broken speech, “Can you say a prayer (for) me”. At first, I couldn't understand, so he got the others in my group and one of them understood, Edward. After we found out what he said, we prayed for him and went on our way. When we got back to the park, I went and had interesting conversations with the ones at the park.

The interesting things about this trip, was that before we even went on the trip, is that we went to mass, and the daily gospel reading was Mark, Chapter 8, verses 14-21. In this passage, Jesus preformed the miracle of feeding five thousand people. This is interesting, as that same day, we went and gave “bread” to about 80 (?) people. In addition, during the briefing, we were told the safety tips and the fact that society looks down on the homeless, and that the homeless weren't treated well, which coincides with that day's (Saturday) Bible Study passage (and the Sunday's Gospel), of Jesus healing the Leper, whom is, in a way, treated very much like the homeless right now in this timeperiod.

[Sandwich Run] Realize the Reality

(Guest post by Daniel Fu)

This world is full of prejudice. There are judgments about any kind of people who are different, whether it is a variation of skin color, of where you are from, or of how you live your life. These are pre-judgments are caused by almost everyone around you; friends and peers, elders, and even teachers and authorities. One important group of people attacked by prejudice is the homeless.

Many times, the homeless are thought to be disrespectful, dumb, and dirty. They are often treated like animals, although they should not be. During this experience of the LTS sandwich run, all these prejudices were shattered and disappeared. I met a tall African-American man named Alexander. He was much more knowledgeable than I had expected him to be. He carried around a backpack, containing a dictionary, thesaurus, many pencils and pens, a notebook, and a binder stocked full with pages. In the notebook were his poems in work, which he created in his free time. In the binder was all of his inspiration, his important documents, and many poems and pictures. He had Rosemary read out one of the poems he read, and it was the most amazing poem I’ve ever read. It made me realize many truths of reality.

In this one day, I learned how amazing of a person that anyone can be, no matter where they are from, what they do for a living, what they look like, or anything else. Prejudice is an illusion, and you just need someone to open your eyes and you will realize the reality.

What is "Lead To Serve (LTS)"?

Hey Watermark!

This post is to inform you about Lead To Serve (LTS). So basically, there are two parts to LTS. The first is the "leaders" aspect of LTS. This will be a group of high schoolers who are interested in creating, preparing, and leading service activities in our local and bigger community. The physical commitment of the group is to meet consistently (amount of meetings per month is yet to be decided), and to come to all service events. As we have said repeatedly in our many announcements, the biggest goal of LTS is to create an awesome Kids For Christ (KFC) event! The planning of this event, and the fundraisers leading up to this event, will be created by the LTS leaders. This is only one of the many service opportunities that will be created this year. If you are interested in being a part of leading LTS, please email: LTSO@googlegroups.com. We will be having a meeting to talk go into further details and to talk about the commitment. The group will be solidified the week after the meeting. So email us! It'll be LOTS of fun!(:

The second part of LTS is the service aspect, which is less of a commitment and more participating. This group will be the body of LTS, and the physical helping hands of the service group. The only commitment is to participate or serve in as many activities as possible. This group is aimed towards those who might not necessarily have as much time to contribute, but still want to serve the community and have fun being a part of what LTS will plan. As an example of what the second group may do, is leading or volunteering at Kids For Christ. There will be many opportunities to participate, have fun, and be active in our events. If you are interested in being a part of this group, you do not need to email us; we will let you know of the upcoming activities during watermark!


So if you are looking to lead FUN and beneficial group to better our community, PLEASE email us so that we may let you know about the upcoming meeting of those who are interested.



Thanks!
-LTS
Rosemary, Hannah, Derek, Alan