They go to Oasis International, a ministry serving thousands of refugees who have been relocated to St. Louis. There, they meet young men and women their age, who have lost family through war or lived in refugee camps for most of their lives. Students work with the Franciscan Connection, a community of friars serving low-income families in south St. Louis and see neighborhoods beyond their campus. They soon realize that the needs in this city require much more than a fresh coat of paint for a run down house. Citylights helps students wrestle with broken systems and broken people. In turn, they start to see the brokenness in their own lives.
Race was a hot topic at Citylights this year. Fueled in part by recent events on SLU's campus where a couple of Caucasian guys pounded on the door of a couple of African American women, shouting racist and threatening insults. Because students worked with diverse groups of people during Citylights, this provided a forum for them think about issues of race in their own contexts. Some white students were pretty shocked to find out that their ethnic minority friends didn't feel loved when told "But I don't even see your race!" Ethnic minorities were challenged to consider whether they've written off white people as "culturally ignorant". The conversations weren't easy, but students started opening up about their different experiences with race and racism. We saw the first steps towards building reconciliation.
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