When you think of Daytona Beach, you probably think of a tourist trap beach town, with nice hotels and resorts. But actually, most of the physical space and population of the city are completely different, and forgotten about.
On Tuesday, I rode 10 hours to the city to serve a church in the heart of this neglected area. We first helped this church fix up their building a little bit, because they had some damage from the hurricanes last year. But the real highlight of the trip was walking around giving out bags with cleaning supplies and gift cards and talking to people in the neighborhood. It is basically like the projects, very poor, neglected, and forgotten about. Nobody goes to Daytona to visit this neighborhood, and all the money coming into the city goes to build up the really nice tourist areas (which we stayed in).
The residents were not the class of people that I regularly interact with, and I bet most people on this site would feel the same way. There is a lot of physical need there, and people were completely willing to open their doors and even invite you into their homes. That’s the complete opposite of my town, where basically everyone is affluent, and it’s almost considered an invasion of privacy to knock on people’s doors.
The trip really gave me a new perspective on serving the people that are physically near me. The pastor at this church walks the blocks near the church on a daily basis, and knows everyone. Meanwhile, at my church we don’t do anything for the houses that are directly behind the church itself.
good perspective