Through Bridgetown Ministries, Westside students have experienced a one-week mission trip serving the homeless right here in Portland. As part of this "Week of Purpose", student missionaries get a dollar and a map, and they have to figure out how to feed themselves and find bathrooms during a long afternoon on the streets. The experience helps them have a better appreciation of what it is like to be without a home; they begin to understand that they are among people, not just "the homeless".

The students then go out and serve with a new level of understanding and compassion. They share meals with people over whom others step or walk quickly past, they cut hair, give a cup of coffee or a sandwich, wash feet. They laugh with, cry with, and pray over people. They spend a day pushing their "teen-aged" interests to the back seat and play with children in low-income housing. They love people who are down on their luck and help them understand that someone loves them.