As some of you know, I’m working with the San Francisco Night Ministry this summer. SFNM walks the street every night of the year to be with some of the most vulnerable people in the city, operates a care line, hosts community programs, and holds outdoor worship services. If you want to support this important work, here’s a link to donate. I’ll be posting regular updates about my experience doing Clinical Pastoral Education (chaplaincy training). Here’s installment one.

On Sundays, a group of people gathers at the UN Plaza in San Francisco, a little ways away from the farmer’s market. This is Open Cathedral, led by clergy connected to the San Francisco Night Ministry. They do all the things congregations do: they pray, sing, take communion, pass the peace, tell their stories and catch up with other people. But they do it outside, on folding chairs, near a farmer’s market and with police patrolling in the background. Some of the regulars are unhoused, others are housing insecure or are struggling in other ways to make ends meet in San Francisco.

A couple Sundays ago, this was the psalm we said together. I was incredibly moved by the last verses, to be saying them with a group of people who are largely invisible and ignored and who live the reality of this psalm. These are incredibly resilient people, survivors, who faithfully come together every week to lift their eyes to God in the heavens. It’s an honor to be there with them, frankly.

After the service ends, folks head out with a bagged lunch under their arm, and hopefully with a reminder in their heart: that they matter and that they are not forgotten, not by God or by other people. It feels like a drop in the bucket–what’s one lunch, one moment of dignity and respect in the face of so much need?–and like the most important work in the world. That’s ministry for you.

Want to know more about the work SFNM does? Go to sfnightministry.org to learn more and find out how you can help.