Good Evening everyone! If you do not know me, my name is Timothy Ye and I am a
rising senior. As I have been on two past Boston Project Mission trips, I thought I knew what to
expect from this BP experience and even thought that this experience would be not as impactful
as my first BP. I was wrong. Each year I go to BP, God teaches me something different. This
year I believe he focused on teaching me the importance of a community, not only the
community of Dorchester, but also our own community. During this past week, I saw a lot of
familiar faces and service sites. However, it really took me off guard to see how much could
change in a community after a year. All of the counselors at BP were different from last year and
there was a greater sense of unity as well. For example, one of the service projects were
helping to paint murals on nearby walls and streets. We didn’t actually paint the murals, but we
did the backgrounds of them. These murals not only portrayed an image of peace and love, but
also served as a safety tool. Cars would slow down and take a look at the murals, either on the
ground or to their sides. I heard so many, “ Wow, it looks great” or “Thanks for helping with the
mural”. This led me to think that God was trying to show me their community and how
communities build each other up through encouragement. Not only were we told to spread
shalom in the Dorchester community, but we were encouraged to also spread shalom in our
own community. (Shalom means peace or all that God desires) Spreading shalom in my own
town has been a hard task for me, since no one is planning out your service projects or driving
you to each project like Boston Project. I would have to be extra proactive and be very
intentional in serving my own community. I want to feel the same comfort that I did in Dorchester
and I have the same courage to greet any strangers. On that same note, I also felt an increase
of familiarity in our own youth community. One of the themes of this past week was integration.
Some of the older youth would encourage boys and girls to sit among each other instead of just
sitting in gender clumps. In the beginning of the week, the older youth would have to insert
themselves among the younger youth. By the end of the week, integration seemed almost
natural and this was very heart-warming to see. I pray that I have the boldness to serve in my
own community and that our community just keeps on growing closer because a sense of
community is so important.