VIDALIA — In participation of a New Orleans street ministry, Milah McGraw wanted her son Kodi, 15, to experience a real-life situation that would change his thought process and perception of other people.

So when Charla Knapp asked Milah if she wanted to travel to New Orleans for the mission, Milah accepted with Kodi in mind. She knew it would demand some convincing as well.

“I really didn’t want to go,” Kodi said. “Afterwards, as I look back, it was a pretty cool experience.”

Knapp, who has taken numerous week-long mission trips overseas in the past four years, was intrigued by a weekend mission event in Memphis, Tenn., last year, and after she prayed about traveling to somewhere locally for a weekend, she began preparing a small street mission in New Orleans for April, where she would hand out bags full of snacks, soap and a bible to homeless people with Milah, Kodi and William Handjis, 17. Milah and Knapp reached out to Handjis, because they wanted to bring another youth member along for the experience, a youth member both knew they wouldn’t have to worry about.

After the four members of First Baptist Church in Vidalia visited Victory Fellowship in Metairie, La. for an inspiring play entitled “Beyond the Grave” on Friday night, the group woke up early Saturday morning and went to Jackson Square to minister from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“It was an experience to give these young men an opportunity to see the hurt and see the pain when people are bound by addictions,” Knapp said.

Along with the goody bags, color-coated bead bracelets were given out. Kodi said the bracelet had five colors, which symbolized Christian’s relationship with Jesus. The First bead was black, which represented sin, the second was red, which stood for Jesus’ blood, the third was blue for Baptism, the fourth was yellow for gold in Heaven and the fifth was white, which represented the purity of God.

The beads served as a gateway for these church members to talk with homeless people and spread their ministry. While most were friendlier than Kodi anticipated, he did encounter a woman of the Jewish faith, who did not want to hear about Jesus. Milah said the woman raised her voice, shouting “don’t you come preaching to me!”

“We’ve never been encountered by that before, so we were like, ‘well, what do we say?’” Milah said.

Knapp, who reached out to other street ministries for advice before the trip, was well trained for the situation. Following the No. 1 rule of not getting into an argument or confrontation, Knapp diffused the situation.

“It’s very easy to offend someone,” Knapp said. “If I do, I tell them, ‘I’m sorry, I love you, God loves you,’ and I back away.”

The group also encountered a homeless man who was very knowledgeable about the Bible, but he was turned off by religion because “he had the Bible shoved down his throat.” If he did not make up his bed or do his chores, he would have to write lines and most of the time it was scripture, therefore he saw religion as punishment.

“We told him that it wasn’t about that,” Milah said. “It’s about love. Jesus loves us.”

After the experience, the four embarked back to Vidalia with a new sense of gratitude.

“It showed me how blessed we are by God to have a house and a family and to have people there for us,” Handjis said. “We need to reach out to unfortunate people.”