The view from Upper Queen Anne

By Bella Sison

On Thursday, June 22, Izzy and I traveled to Queen Anne for my last day of outreach! We had our morning meeting with Jake Lowe, a member of First Church in Seattle, discussing our outreach strategies and how our summer has gone. He shared some wonderful testimonies of his experiences in Christian Science, along with some advice from a local perspective about exploring the city. After our morning discussion and reading of the Sermon on the Mount, Jake drove us to the monorail, which we took to the Seattle Center.

Once we arrived, Izzy and I headed towards Upper Queen Anne, distributing free samples of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly as we went. We found that the Upper Queen Anne area was great for literature distribution, with lots of coffee shops, nail parlors, and other suitable businesses with magazine tables. We also handed out sample copies and had conversations with the workers in less expected places.

We also visited a place which had received a free gift subscription last year, and they were happy to accept a free subscription renewal!

It felt odd to realize that this was my last day of outreach for the Compass the City program. Since mid-May when I arrived, I have learned so much about how outreach works and the impact that the Monitor can have on the community. Even in just one day at Queen Anne, we distributed 100 copies of the Monitor and spoke to more than 60 workers. We can’t know how many people will be impacted by the copies we left, but with so many placed in public areas, we can expect that many other customers and workers will benefit from it (in addition to those we already spoke to). Overall, the fact that this was my last day helped me remember to slow down and appreciate the impact we are able to make on the community we were visiting. We had a lovely day, and I’ll miss being here, but I’m so grateful that I was able to be a part of this project!