SAN DIEGO — It’s not about the bag, pastor Mike Haskins said to the group of Chicago students who had come to San Diego to learn about the homeless here.

“We give out 10,000 of these a year,” he said, referring to plastic bags filled with water bottles, socks, snacks, and other items. “For me, they don’t represent 10,000 bottles of water and socks. Those were 10,000 opportunities for conversations.”

Haskins is a pastor with New Vision Christian Fellowship, and for the past eight years he’s run the church’s weekly Urban Missions program, which he calls unique in the nation. Recently, he led about two dozen young people, ranging from middle schoolers to recent college graduates, who had come from Chicago to learn how to respectfully approach people on the street to offer prayer and conversation.

“Our goal is interaction, not handouts,” he said about the homeless outreach program.

Those interactions may be brief, but can be impactful.

Haskins shared a story about a woman he knows who was homeless in Los Angeles when she met a 13-year-old girl in an outreach program. The encounter made the woman think of her own daughter, triggering a desire to overcome her homelessness, he said. She now volunteers at New Vision’s rehabilitation program.

“I wouldn’t take it on the street if I didn’t think there was an impact there,” he said. “I’m not about taking the kids slumming or looking at homeless people.”

The program also has an impact on the participants themselves, who may come away with greater empathy and an understanding of challenges faced by people on the street. Some participants have taken what they learned in San Diego to create outreach programs in their hometowns.

“When I got back to our church, we started our own bag ministry with what we were taught by Pastor Mike,” said Maddie Loper, a 2017 graduate of Kansas State University who participated in Urban Missions three years ago and returned for more.

She and others in the weeklong trip arranged by Gloria Dei Lutheran Church near Chicago took part in several activities, including distributing school backpacks to refugee families in El Cajon. In another activity, they were dropped off in North Park for two hours and tasked with finding food, water and a place that would be safe to sleep at night.

“You think it’s easy to live on the street, but then you get an idea of how hard it is,” said Josie Bormann, 20.

“It was definitely harder than I thought,” Loper said. She and others in her group found free food by asking for samples at a grocery store deli and got water at a Starbucks.

The students did not pretend to be homeless, but were asked to carry a piece of cardboard, collect aluminum cans for recycling and hang out in front of a building for 20 minutes.

“People start to look at them a little differently,” Haskins said. “The point is for them to see what it feels like to have somebody look at them and sometimes even turn them away from using a bathroom. They’re measuring you. When they’re leaning against a building, people start walking by and trying to not make eye contact.”

Participants pay $275 a week to cover expenses, including room and board. Haskins is cautious in describing the program, stressing that it is about empathy, compassion and faith, and not some sort of “homeless tourism.”

Recently, before heading out to meet homeless people in downtown San Diego, the group met in one of the church’s buildings in Encanto to assemble bags and get training lessons on how to respectfully approach people.

Haskins advised them to make eye contact, introduce themselves by name, then ask the name of the other person. Rather than just handing them the bag, Haskins said to not assume they know what people need, and instead ask them if there was anything they’d like.

“Next, we’re going to ask, ‘Is there something specific I can pray with you about?’ ” he said. “I’m not going to burst out my ‘homeless-person prayer card’ and start reading a rote prayer for them. That person is a unique person with a unique day with their own issues. Saying it specifically, gives them the idea you’re talking to them as an individual.”

In role-playing exercises before going out, Haskins had prepared the youths about what they may encounter. In varying roles, he was receptive, hostile, indifferent or mentally unstable.

Later in East Village, Haskins ran through one last drill before participants dispersed in groups of five.

“Number one, show respect,” he said. “And please refrain from taking pictures. Nothing shuts down ministry more than do-gooders taking pictures of themselves.”

One group met Patch Sasias, 55, sitting alone in the shade of a downtown building. Asked if he needed a prayer, he asked them to instead prayer for others, including people in jail.

“I think it’s great,” he said after they left. “My philosophy is sharing is caring, you know. Putting others before yourself is pretty important.”

One group stopped near 14th Street and Island Avenue to talk with Lorenzo Herrera III, who said he was an artist who had been homeless off and on since 2005. In a long conversation, they learned he knew Pete Contreras, lead pastor with New Vision, and they tried to get him reconnected with the church and its services.

Outside of God’s Extended Hand Church on Island Avenue, Karen Adamson kneeled and prayed with Fran Dryden, who said she has been homeless for three years.

“She was a very nice lady,” Dryden said after speaking several minutes with Adamson. “But I don’t know exactly what they’re trying to do out here.”

Adamson, who came from Chicago with her two teenage children, said she hopes the experience will broaden their exposure to the world.

“I think it’s great for the kids to get out of their comfort zone,” she said.

Bormann said she had been in other service programs at her church back home, but she wanted to come to San Diego for Urban Missions because she was looking for something more interactive.

Haskins said about a quarter or a third of students in the program are local, with the rest coming from out of state.

Over the years he estimates 10,000 have participated in the weekly program, with people coming from all of the West Coast states, plus Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and other areas.

Students from California Baptist University in Riverside come several times a year and have performed many community service projects while here, he said.