One of your agent's ministry activities involves Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Skid Row. Identified by some expert from the United Nations as the WORST location for poverty in the urbanized world, which is pretty scary, considering the competition: New York, East LA, Kolkata.
Maybe it's a bit of hyperbole from someone wanting to contrast the phenomenal wealth which parks its collective bottom just a couple of blocks away in the luxury suites at General Motors Place or is visible from the DTES on the North Shore mountains. Maybe he's trying to wake up the powers that be, as we get ready to preen on the world stage with the 2010 Winter Olympics (am I allowed to use that name without copyright infringement?).
Or maybe he's absolutely right.
Whatever, it ain't pretty, and Gospel Mission (not Union Gospel), which is the oldest mission in Canada (since the 20s), is right bang in the worst postal code in the country. The alley next to our building generally reeks of ... well, it reeks ... people smoke up and shoot up outside the Mission, either in a doorway or in Pigeon Park, a longtime gathering place for the poor and destitute.
These people are victims of a lot of things, including theories. A popular theory among civic officials is that if you give drug addicts a safe, healthy environment in which to do their drugs, that will somehow reduce the harm and therefore solve the problem. I'm not a stupid person, but I'm having a hard time getting my head around the theory, especially as I pick my way around the bald, obvious evidence that IT'S NOT WORKING.
When the federal government wanted to take a second sober look at the concept before approving any more funding, the screeching from the program's proponents (including those who were being paid to run it) was deafening. "The site is working!" they protested, while not exactly stating how they arrived at that conclusion, leaving me feeling a little like John Cleese, when Michael Palin has just told him his cheese shop is the finest in the district: "Explain the reasoning behind that statement!" The closest I've seen to a benchmark for measuring "success" has been the claim that no one had yet died from an overdose at the safe injection site.
Sorry ... my benchmark for any kind of drug program is the number of people who have kicked the habit, and the number of people who no longer shoot up in back alleys or smoke their crack in open view ... not because they've been given a safe, out-of-sight/out-of-mind place to do it, but because THEY'RE NO LONGER ON DRUGS!
So what does this have to do with showers? Surprisingly, a lot. People who come to our "upper room" at 331 Carrall Street have a tendency to be quite dirty. Filthy, in fact. Many try to stay clean by going to our laundry area at the back and washing up at the laundry tub before our services. They live in shelters, long-term, single room hotels or on the streets. Where do they wash up, otherwise?
In late September, I took a trip to New York City. I have a friend there I hadn't seen in almost 30 years, but beyond that reunion, I didn't have much planned. But I had a notion to go and check out the ministries serving the poor and destitute there and see how they did it. That notion got kicked into high gear when I went to a series of meetings at my home church, Westpointe Christian Centre, with Lee Grady, publisher of Charisma magazine.
Lee is a prophet, and invited those in Ministry to come up for a word from the Lord. The word he spoke over me was that God would be sending me on a journey (he had no way of knowing I was about to leave for NYC) and that I would be acquiring a lot of new ideas about ministering to people. He used the image of "axe heads", like the one that Elisha caused to float to the surface in I Kings. Lee prophesied that God would provide me with more and sharper axe heads, which would finally cut through, rather than bounce off.
Among the places I visited in NYC was the Bowery Mission, the second-oldest rescue mission in NYC and third oldest in the US (there's one in Chicago that's in-between the two in NY). Pastor Reggie Stutzmann -- a Pentecostal -- gave me over an hour of his time to show me around the place and share some of the things they do. One of those services is a shower program. Twice a week for men -- and once a week for women -- they open up for people to come in and get a shower and a change of clothes.
Suddenly, I had an "axe head". I brought back others to Vancouver, but this was one worth considering. The problem was, where was the handle?
Gospel Mission occupies the second floor of a two-storey walkup. Its space is very well used, with a commercial kitchen, chapel area, baptismal tank, office, prayer room ... but noplace to put showers. So I let the idea lie fallow for a while, waiting for God to provide the handle.
He did, early in November, when our senior pastor, Barry Babcook, mentioned off-handedly that one of the two ground-floor tenants -- an anti-everything coalition I had dubbed the "rebels without a clue" -- had moved out.
I told Barry about the shower idea, and he told me he'd had the same thing on his heart for years, but it was a matter of space. He called the landlord and the landlord agreed to give us two weeks to come up with a plan -- and money to go with it. I started sending out letters soliciting funds -- which has not been my forte -- and doing a lot of praying.
I've had some good personal success with praying things into existence, and when God has His hand on something, there shouldn't be any doubt that it will happen. Looking at the timing of everything and the landlord's willingness to give us the chance, it was obvious God's hand was on this project, and we just needed to push from our end.
Three days before the self-imposed deadline, Barry called to give some encouragement -- mainly pointing out that when God wants something done, He'll generally wait until the 11th hour, 59th minute.
Two days before the self-imposed deadline, one church -- ironically, one on Vancouver Island where I fellowshipped in the year or so leading up to my going into Ministry -- came through with a large one-time donation and a pledge of monthly contributions, and a gentleman of "some means" who attends my church in Vancouver -- Westpointe Christian Centre -- called to say we could count him in for an even larger up-front donation, with more to come later.
As usual, God pulls off the "grandstand play" with the game on the line!
So as of this writing, we are getting our heads into the fact that this project is a go. More donations are coming in, along with pledges of monthly contributions -- which will be the next big challenge: making sure the operating expenses -- rent, heat, water, etc. -- are covered.
The prophecy Lee Grady spoke isn't the only one involved here, you know: the pastor at that church on Vancouver Island spoke one over Barry a few years back, that Gospel Mission would expand. This shower project gives us a street-level presence that we haven't had since we moved into the Upper Room in the 1940s. There's enough room in that space to do other outreach activities.
For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? (Isa. 14:27)
I'll keep you updated.
Want to contribute? You can send a one-time donation, or pledge a monthly amount ($50, say), to Gospel Mission, PO Box 57151, Vancouver BC V5K 1Z1 Canada. Write "Showers" in the memo line on the check.
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