One Sunday a month, a group of about 15 young professionals join Washington Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville on the streets of D.C. as they hop from one park to another, visiting friends along the way.

“There’s John!” said Caroline McGervey, as she and her husband, Patrick, pulled up to the first stop in their car, which was full of supplies that they had bought to give out during the group’s homeless mission on May 6.

The McGerveys joined up with several other cars filled with young adults, as they took turns speaking with their friend, John, who looks forward to their visits every month.

“It is really about connecting, about building relationships, and being a source of hope,” said Caroline McGervey.

The young professionals raise money for their mission through a Venmo account, which is an app that allows people to send each other money. The D.C. Young Catholic Professionals group also holds a happy hour once a month, and they often encourage the participants to save the money they would have spent on another drink to contribute to the homeless mission.

“These young people really believe in the dignity of the human person,” said Bishop Dorsonville.

After raising money, the group purchases clothing, non-perishable food, and supplies like sleeping bags to give out to the people who they visit. Sometimes they will take special requests, and Bishop Dorsonville in the past has brought a computer and a bicycle to different people whom they have gotten to know.

While the group is generous in giving out these items, “We are not there to solve material needs,” said volunteer Steve Simchak. “…The point is to develop relationships and treat them with the dignity they deserve to be treated with and rarely receive.”

The young adults know most of the people they encounter by name, and make a point to stop and have long conversations with them. During one stop on May 6, a man asked a group of the young adults if they wanted to pray together, and everyone got in a circle, holding hands.

He began the prayer by praying for children, the elderly, and “people hurting out here,” and also prayed for the young adults, saying to God, “You use them to spread your love.”

The volunteers’ faith is a large part of what fuels their work, Juan Pablo Segura noted, because they believe that when they encounter people, they are “not just ships passing in the night; we are children of God,” he said.

Simchak tried to explain that belief to one of their homeless friends who had asked why the young adults do what they do. As Simchak told him that he believed they were equal brothers in Christ, the man kept asking, “Really?” and Simchak kept confirming, “Yes.”

“It is about breaking down the false distinction between us and them; breaking down barriers and prejudices,” said Simchak, who later told the Catholic Standard, “There is no difference between them and me in our relationship with God. We have equal dignity. We are equal sinners in God’s eyes.”

Through his work with the mission, Simchak has grown in love for the people who he encounters on the streets, and also for the person who is doing the mission work by his side – his girlfriend, Courteney Coyne.

“For Courteney and I, this is a big part of our relationship with each other,” said Simchak, “We often say, ‘This is the best thing we do together.’”

For that reason, Simchak said he could not think of a better place to propose to Coyne, and when the group arrived at the park that would be the last stop for the night on May 6, Simchak brought Coyne over to a park bench and asked her to marry him. She said yes.

“For us both, this mission has been such a source of joy…the opportunity to encounter Christ in community with you all has been one of the best parts of our life together,” Coyne said, as they shared the news of their engagement with the rest of the group, who enthusiastically jumped up and down, clapped and cheered.

Bishop Dorsonville, who helped Simchak plan his proposal, noted that the group’s mission is about being a vision of love to others, and said, “what better vision of love than to say to another person, ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’”

Simchak and Coyne both attended Trinity College in Hartford, but never met each other while they were there. They did eventually meet through mutual friends when Simchak was visiting Boston, where Coyne lived, and a friend was trying to set her up with another guy.

That didn’t go as planned, since Simchak and Coyne hit it off and started dating a couple of months later. After some time as a long-distance couple, Coyne moved to Washington in 2014 and now teaches first grade at Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School in Washington. Simchak graduated from Georgetown University Law School and now works as a lawyer for the American Insurance Association.

“My relationship with Courteney is the thing that gets me closer to being the person God wants me to be,” said Simchak.

Coyne had known she wanted to marry Simchak for some time, and she can still remember one moment that made that clear.

The couple has become good friends with a woman named Kathleen, and one day on the homeless mission, Simchak asked, “Kathleen, may we pray with you?”

“The moment when I saw Steve pray over her and watched as he received her prayers, it was one of those moments when I knew I wanted to marry him,” said Coyne.

Through moments like that, the couple said serving together through the mission has strengthened their love for each other.

“I’m astounded by the love Courtney expresses for other people,” said Simchak. “It makes me realize what a terrific person she is.”

Participating in the mission together has “provoked conversations with us we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” and has also “stripped down and revealed to us what is essential,” said Coyne.

“The mission has allowed us to live our faith. It has given it legs. It has given us community,” said Coyne. “One of the things I’ve learned is faith happens with other people.”