Vancouver City Council has just voted to allow Mixed Martial Arts events in the city.
Last night, one of our elders at Gospel Mission was mugged: beaten and robbed of $40. We are praying for Bill's quick recovery, that the money will be restored to him and then some, and that the people who did it to him are forgiven and will be brought to repentance.
But here's the riddle: why is one form of people bashing people legal and the other not?
And here's another: are the people cheering the Council decision the same ones who would be outraged at the revelations of animal cruelty at a Wild Animal Park? Or those who nod sagely at the large adverts on buses telling us to buy free-range eggs because cages are cruel to chickens?
Sports Illustrated has, or used to have, a whimsical little section titled, "This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us".
I think I have a suggestion for this week.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Pigeon Park - back open again!
It's been the subject of a fair bit of cynicism and suspicion ... and no little frustration on all parts for various reasons ... but one of the focal points of the Downtown East Side is back in business, as it were. Pigeon Park officially re-opened on Tuesday (Dec. 15), after being closed for several months for the work on the Carrall Street Greenway.
Pigeon Park is the primary reference point for Gospel Mission/The Lord's Rain. Barry Babcook occasionally refers to the Mission as "The Pigeon Mission" (although that's becoming less and less common) and for about four months, it was really hard for us to describe to people where we were located, because "Pigeon Park", for all intents and purposes, didn't exist.
One interesting little anomaly: I think I'm stopped illegally in this picture, because there's a "no 
stopping/bus zone" pictogram at the front of that space ... but no sign at the other end. There aren't any buses going down that block, anyway, but as you can see from the trolley overheads above the car (look closely), the buses will be back soon.
stopping/bus zone" pictogram at the front of that space ... but no sign at the other end. There aren't any buses going down that block, anyway, but as you can see from the trolley overheads above the car (look closely), the buses will be back soon.
What's really neat about this is, here is our little church - right in the midst of this lovely Greenway. People taking advantage of the new facility, be it for biking or walking, will see Gospel Mission, and I believe will start to see the good-news stories that are coming out of both the Mission and The Lord's Rain. People might suggest that the Greenway and renewed Pigeon Park are connected with the great bogeyman called "gentrification", but I say this Greenway is really a pathway that will, at last, bridge that Great Divide between the DTES and the ROTC (Rest Of The City). As I've said before, we have to stop looking at the poverty and homelessness and hopelessness issues as a matter of Us and Them. It's Us and Us, and once we get our heads around that, we'll be more than halfway there.
Besides, don't people in the area have just as much a right to nice-looking streets as those in other parts of town? Just like a shower and a fresh set of clothes, there are times when sprucing up the outward appearance can do wonders for the inward reality.
What I really like about the renewed Pigeon Park -- and the Carrall Street Greenway -- is the message the city is sending to the area. With all the beautification going on as the city prepares for the Olympics, that's a stretch that could have been ignored -- but it wasn't.
And yes, it is called -- now and forever -- Pigeon Park. There was some talk that it would be re-named "Pioneer Park", in the way that other parts of Vancouver grope for signs of "heritage", even as 21st Century high-rises (oh-so-environmentally-friendly, dontcha know) sprout like ragweed around us. But no: the official Vancouver Parks sign proclaims that Pigeon Park it shall be. Really - no other name would have gotten any traction at all.
Mind you, there's a certain historical/heritage aspect to the name Pigeon Park, because I seem to recall a time back in the Hippie 60s when there was a controversy over making that the official name. Must check with Chuck Davis - he'd know.
Not that the renewed park doesn't have a streak of ersatz history. I think I noted in a previous post that they'd installed streetcar rails in the pavement. I believe the streetcar did run along that route (the old BC Electric carbarn is across the street, now home to an art gallery and a variety of offices, including those of Red Robinson and Bruce Allen), but what makes the rails such a strange addition is that they fool nobody. For one thing, they run at sidewalk level, not at street level. On the other side of the carbarn, on Pender Street, streetcar rails also cross the sidewalk and then continue running across the street. If you really tried to run a streetcar along those tracks, that'd be a heckuva bumpy ride going from the sidewalk to the street.
There are Biblical analogs to Pigeon Park, as well. I've written before that the DTES is Vancouver's "Samaria", and Jesus makes special mention of that area in His instructions to us. When Jesus journeyed towards Galilee, He went via Samaria and then stopped and rested beside Jacob's Well, a place that had over 2,000 years of history behind it even then. It was a place where you could be guaranteed to meet a Samaritan. Pigeon Park is right at the edge of the original city limits of Vancouver, and would have been a site of some kind of settlement -- right back to the native Indian villages prior to the arrival of the white man -- for generations.
Jesus went out of His way to reach out to Samaria and Samaritans, and we need to remember that He also called on us -- His followers -- to make that a priority.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
New brochure for the Mission
Went to the "White Breakfast" yesterday morning, laid on by Business in Vancouver magazine, where the topic was philanthropy. Some notes will come later, but here's the text of the brochure I handed out to anyone who wanted. It's a good overview of who we are and what we do.
“Homelessness” is a typo
Much is said about Vancouver’s “homelessness” problem, but the metrics often refer to the number of people living on the street versus those in shelters or single-room-occupancy hotels. But are those “homes”? Matters like drugs and crime and mental illness are closer to the core of the problem, but the real root cause is hopelessness. Without Hope, why should someone try to beat drugs? Why should someone reach out for help? Why should someone even want to get up in the morning?
At Gospel Mission, we believe that Hope is found in the Gospel: the good news that God has not given up on His people and has already gone to extraordinary lengths to draw them close to Him. People need to know that it is possible to transform their lives and move forward, regardless of their situation, background or age.
We’re small – like the point of a spear
After its move from the Hastings Street storefront to Pigeon Park, it took another 50 years for Gospel Mission to expand beyond its “Upper Room” to street level. But as Jesus says, “ye shall know them by their fruits”, and the fruits of this Mission are tangible. We take joy in seeing changes coming over people, whether they get jobs, make a firm decision to move away from the area and its personal memories and issues, or just get a handle on their anger and pain. Personal victories like that seem small, but they drive to the heart of the problems that afflict people in the area. Those people can also go out and encourage their friends by their own examples.
A good place to philanthropize
Recently, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation provided a donation of $15,000 to Gospel Mission, out of a special fund the Foundation set up to help organizations at a time when other contributors might reduce their giving because of the current fears of economic downturn. The Foundation has given us permission to mention this contribution to encourage other businesses and foundations to follow that example.
Generous in-kind donations from Cobs Bread and Waves Coffee also help defray our food costs.
The really cool thing about ministering the Gospel is that it doesn’t cost much. A Bible, love and a good set of lungs have always been the tools of the trade. But James writes, “if … one of you say unto [a destitute person], ‘Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled’; [but] give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?” (James 2:15-16). Gospel Mission is a church first, not a “feeding program”: but meals are provided, as well as the showers and a warm refuge. We’re all volunteers: contributions go directly to the service: for rent, utilities, groceries and maintenance.
Building The Lord’s Rain started when there was incredible prosperity: not many could see global financial crisis, just as it was when Gospel Mission was founded in 1929. But God knew what was coming: that people would crash out and His servants had to be there to break their fall. It’s not about providing more shelters and more programs: we believe it’s about giving people hope that the world can’t give so they can clean up, turn their lives around and move on – to make room for the new ones coming in. “The poor ye shall have always,” Jesus says, but He doesn’t say they’ll be the same poor.
Canada’s Worst Postal Code -- or Whitest Fields?
Jesus looked at Samaria – which, like the Downtown East Side, was a land of outcasts – and declared, “the fields are white for harvest”. So much “bad news” is reported about the area, but we see a lot of good news at Gospel Mission. We also know that in business, people are loath to invest in things that are not successful: they want to know that their investments do pay off. We have seen how investments in Gospel Mission so far are successful both for individuals and society as a whole. There is good news, plenty on which to build further.
Jesus also said, “the labourers are few”, and Gospel Mission is always in need of volunteers – people motivated by love to help make a difference by listening to people and encouraging them; showing them there is Hope.
We’d love for you to visit us some time:
Services:
Sunday – 12:30pm
Monday, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday – 6:30pm
Wednesday Bible Study – 7pm
Thursday Movie Night – 7pm
The Lord’s Rain:
Monday & Friday 10am-3pm
Tuesday 6:30-9am
Saturday 6:30-10am
Tuesday (Ladies Only) 1-4pm
For more information, please contact:
Barry Babcook, Senior Pastor,
604-328-3987; or
Drew Snider, Ass’t Pastor,
604-803-3199
Gospel Mission
serving up “Jesus with the skin on” since 1929
Follow that “pillar”
In 1929, the area of Vancouver along Hastings between Cambie and Main was the happenin’ part of town. A look at the City Directory of the time shows theatres, restaurants and consulates all along that strip, anchored by the Dominion Building on one end and the Vancouver Public Library (now the Carnegie Centre) on the other. There were three major department stores – Woodward’s, Eaton’s and Army and Navy; Chinatown, with its blaze of neon, was a block away; the Pantages Theatre was on that strip, and Mr On Lee’s seafood joint had already been there for 17 years.
That year, in a storefront next to that famous neon seahorse, the Apostolic Church of Pentecost (ACOP) set up its first Vancouver church: Gospel Mission. Later that same year, the Great Depression hit.
Gospel Mission has a history of “following the pillar”: moving either physically or spiritually ahead of the curve, as God has directed, to be in position to catch the most vulnerable, forgotten and abandoned in our city. In the 1940s, the Mission moved kitty-corner to its current location at 331 Carrall Street, right at the edge of Pigeon Park, just in time to catch people trying to recover from the experience of the Second World War. As the “happenin’ part of town” moved west, others who fell through society’s cracks wound up in what was becoming known as the Downtown East Side.
Gospel Mission is housed in one of the oldest buildings in Vancouver: a two-storey brick pile, built in 1888 – two years after the Great Fire – and now across the street from one of the city’s worst locations for drug dealing, prostitution and violence. The “pillar”, like the beacon of cloud by day and fire by night that guided the Israelites through the wilderness, has stayed in that location, but in 2007, its form changed.
Showers of blessing – the Lord’s Rain
One of the obvious things about people on the Downtown East Side is that they’re generally filthy. Living on the street or in shelters, that’s hard to avoid. But it’s also obvious that they’d rather be clean. We saw people come into Gospel Mission and wash up at the laundry tub at the back, drying their hair with dishtowels, and wanted to do something about it; in late 2007, God provided the motive, opportunity and means.
One of the ground-floor spaces in our building came vacant, and even though we had zero dollars to make it happen, our landlord gave us the opportunity to draw up a plan for a showers facility.
From the beginning, God made it clear that the project was His will. Two days before our deadline, pledges came in totalling $4,000. The Oasis Church in Duncan, which has supported Gospel Mission for many years, put together a work party to build the stalls and sub-floor; a plumber who was “saved off the streets” at Gospel Mission donated his labour (and much of the material); Andrew Sheret, Ltd., donated four shower enclosures and the fittings; financial contributions, large and small, started coming in as others caught the vision. The media played an important role at key times, telling the public what was going on. On one occasion, a door was left unlocked through an oversight and some tools were stolen; when a TV report was aired, an anonymous donor stepped forward with a large cash donation to replace the tools and keep the project on track.
The Lord’s Rain, so dubbed by Judy Babcook, wife of senior pastor Barry Babcook, opened on April 30, 2008. Since then, it has provided more than 700 showers, thousands of cups of coffee and, in a glorious twist on The Law Of Unintended Consequences, a community place where people can escape from the streets, find good conversation, ranging from the Canucks to current events to others on the street to the Bible. We don’t outwardly evangelize, but the people who come in know who we are. That understanding, plus the fact that The Lord’s Rain exists to provide one of the basic needs of human life – cleanliness – brings the Light of Christ to that dark area and puts the Gospel into action. “Jesus with the skin on,” is the way senior pastor Barry Babcook describes it.
Further, the fact that The Lord’s Rain came about not through government programs or a single large corporation but by a group of private individuals and businesses with their unique gifts infuses the place with the intangible sense that people do care.
serving up “Jesus with the skin on” since 1929
Follow that “pillar”
In 1929, the area of Vancouver along Hastings between Cambie and Main was the happenin’ part of town. A look at the City Directory of the time shows theatres, restaurants and consulates all along that strip, anchored by the Dominion Building on one end and the Vancouver Public Library (now the Carnegie Centre) on the other. There were three major department stores – Woodward’s, Eaton’s and Army and Navy; Chinatown, with its blaze of neon, was a block away; the Pantages Theatre was on that strip, and Mr On Lee’s seafood joint had already been there for 17 years.
That year, in a storefront next to that famous neon seahorse, the Apostolic Church of Pentecost (ACOP) set up its first Vancouver church: Gospel Mission. Later that same year, the Great Depression hit.
Gospel Mission has a history of “following the pillar”: moving either physically or spiritually ahead of the curve, as God has directed, to be in position to catch the most vulnerable, forgotten and abandoned in our city. In the 1940s, the Mission moved kitty-corner to its current location at 331 Carrall Street, right at the edge of Pigeon Park, just in time to catch people trying to recover from the experience of the Second World War. As the “happenin’ part of town” moved west, others who fell through society’s cracks wound up in what was becoming known as the Downtown East Side.
Gospel Mission is housed in one of the oldest buildings in Vancouver: a two-storey brick pile, built in 1888 – two years after the Great Fire – and now across the street from one of the city’s worst locations for drug dealing, prostitution and violence. The “pillar”, like the beacon of cloud by day and fire by night that guided the Israelites through the wilderness, has stayed in that location, but in 2007, its form changed.
Showers of blessing – the Lord’s Rain
One of the obvious things about people on the Downtown East Side is that they’re generally filthy. Living on the street or in shelters, that’s hard to avoid. But it’s also obvious that they’d rather be clean. We saw people come into Gospel Mission and wash up at the laundry tub at the back, drying their hair with dishtowels, and wanted to do something about it; in late 2007, God provided the motive, opportunity and means.
One of the ground-floor spaces in our building came vacant, and even though we had zero dollars to make it happen, our landlord gave us the opportunity to draw up a plan for a showers facility.
From the beginning, God made it clear that the project was His will. Two days before our deadline, pledges came in totalling $4,000. The Oasis Church in Duncan, which has supported Gospel Mission for many years, put together a work party to build the stalls and sub-floor; a plumber who was “saved off the streets” at Gospel Mission donated his labour (and much of the material); Andrew Sheret, Ltd., donated four shower enclosures and the fittings; financial contributions, large and small, started coming in as others caught the vision. The media played an important role at key times, telling the public what was going on. On one occasion, a door was left unlocked through an oversight and some tools were stolen; when a TV report was aired, an anonymous donor stepped forward with a large cash donation to replace the tools and keep the project on track.
The Lord’s Rain, so dubbed by Judy Babcook, wife of senior pastor Barry Babcook, opened on April 30, 2008. Since then, it has provided more than 700 showers, thousands of cups of coffee and, in a glorious twist on The Law Of Unintended Consequences, a community place where people can escape from the streets, find good conversation, ranging from the Canucks to current events to others on the street to the Bible. We don’t outwardly evangelize, but the people who come in know who we are. That understanding, plus the fact that The Lord’s Rain exists to provide one of the basic needs of human life – cleanliness – brings the Light of Christ to that dark area and puts the Gospel into action. “Jesus with the skin on,” is the way senior pastor Barry Babcook describes it.
Further, the fact that The Lord’s Rain came about not through government programs or a single large corporation but by a group of private individuals and businesses with their unique gifts infuses the place with the intangible sense that people do care.
“Homelessness” is a typo
Much is said about Vancouver’s “homelessness” problem, but the metrics often refer to the number of people living on the street versus those in shelters or single-room-occupancy hotels. But are those “homes”? Matters like drugs and crime and mental illness are closer to the core of the problem, but the real root cause is hopelessness. Without Hope, why should someone try to beat drugs? Why should someone reach out for help? Why should someone even want to get up in the morning?
At Gospel Mission, we believe that Hope is found in the Gospel: the good news that God has not given up on His people and has already gone to extraordinary lengths to draw them close to Him. People need to know that it is possible to transform their lives and move forward, regardless of their situation, background or age.
We’re small – like the point of a spear
After its move from the Hastings Street storefront to Pigeon Park, it took another 50 years for Gospel Mission to expand beyond its “Upper Room” to street level. But as Jesus says, “ye shall know them by their fruits”, and the fruits of this Mission are tangible. We take joy in seeing changes coming over people, whether they get jobs, make a firm decision to move away from the area and its personal memories and issues, or just get a handle on their anger and pain. Personal victories like that seem small, but they drive to the heart of the problems that afflict people in the area. Those people can also go out and encourage their friends by their own examples.
A good place to philanthropize
Recently, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation provided a donation of $15,000 to Gospel Mission, out of a special fund the Foundation set up to help organizations at a time when other contributors might reduce their giving because of the current fears of economic downturn. The Foundation has given us permission to mention this contribution to encourage other businesses and foundations to follow that example.
Generous in-kind donations from Cobs Bread and Waves Coffee also help defray our food costs.
The really cool thing about ministering the Gospel is that it doesn’t cost much. A Bible, love and a good set of lungs have always been the tools of the trade. But James writes, “if … one of you say unto [a destitute person], ‘Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled’; [but] give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?” (James 2:15-16). Gospel Mission is a church first, not a “feeding program”: but meals are provided, as well as the showers and a warm refuge. We’re all volunteers: contributions go directly to the service: for rent, utilities, groceries and maintenance.
Building The Lord’s Rain started when there was incredible prosperity: not many could see global financial crisis, just as it was when Gospel Mission was founded in 1929. But God knew what was coming: that people would crash out and His servants had to be there to break their fall. It’s not about providing more shelters and more programs: we believe it’s about giving people hope that the world can’t give so they can clean up, turn their lives around and move on – to make room for the new ones coming in. “The poor ye shall have always,” Jesus says, but He doesn’t say they’ll be the same poor.
Canada’s Worst Postal Code -- or Whitest Fields?
Jesus looked at Samaria – which, like the Downtown East Side, was a land of outcasts – and declared, “the fields are white for harvest”. So much “bad news” is reported about the area, but we see a lot of good news at Gospel Mission. We also know that in business, people are loath to invest in things that are not successful: they want to know that their investments do pay off. We have seen how investments in Gospel Mission so far are successful both for individuals and society as a whole. There is good news, plenty on which to build further.
Jesus also said, “the labourers are few”, and Gospel Mission is always in need of volunteers – people motivated by love to help make a difference by listening to people and encouraging them; showing them there is Hope.
We’d love for you to visit us some time:
Services:
Sunday – 12:30pm
Monday, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday – 6:30pm
Wednesday Bible Study – 7pm
Thursday Movie Night – 7pm
The Lord’s Rain:
Monday & Friday 10am-3pm
Tuesday 6:30-9am
Saturday 6:30-10am
Tuesday (Ladies Only) 1-4pm
For more information, please contact:
Barry Babcook, Senior Pastor,
604-328-3987; or
Drew Snider, Ass’t Pastor,
604-803-3199
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Beaming at the Mission
We are beaming this morning after last night's service at Gospel Mission. One of the messages I like to come back to is that anyone can share the Gospel with others - and that the guys (women come to the Mission services, too, but I call them all "guys") are uniquely qualified to witness to other street people, since they do have that shared experience.
This isn't a return to the belief I held for a while, that my own experience was too "white-bread" for people on the DTES to relate to. I finally got rid of that when the Lord reminded me, "you nearly died, and I saved you. That's all that matters. Now tell them about it." No, it's a question of people overcoming any thoughts that you have to have "Rev." in front of your name or a string of letters after it in order to preach the Gospel, but that each and every one of us is "allowed" and empowered to be Jesus' witnesses. His commandment to us in Acts 1:8 is directed at everybody.
Friday nights suddenly came vacant about 6 weeks ago, and we spent some time praying for another "team" to step up. It's a great opportunity for a church from outside the DTES to move into this vital mission field. After all, as I've mentioned before, Jesus' instructions to us in Acts 1:8 are to minister to "Samaria" -- land of the outcasts in our own backyard -- even before we turn our attention to "the uttermost part of the earth". But then Kim, Lincoln, John and Bill, who manage to fill in for me on Saturdays, said, "why don't we do it?" Barry and I prayed about it, and we've decided to try it out for a month.
Last night was Night One of the new team, and listening to Sean -- a fellow Bill brought in from the Salvation Army -- leading Worship, it hit me: this was the start of that "peer ministry" the Lord had put on my heart two years ago. Lincoln led the service, Kim gave a very well-researched message about God's desire for His people to prosper in all ways, Bill and Fred (who was very much involved at Rainbow Mission) made the food.
People were riding a "high" afterwards: they pulled it off, and I'll be interesting to see how far the Lord takes it and where it goes.
(Kim was also riding a high after seeing himself on the cover of the Vancouver Courier, featured in a story about "Free Geek". Check it out.)
***
And amid the hubris, something had to give. Fred had just been to the memorial for a young woman who'd died of an overdose. They were friends: he'd just seen her in a bar, and she told him, "I have to go home now". "You need to stop drinking, is what you need," he said. That evening, he saw the coroner's van outside the hotel where she lived and they were taking out a body. The next day, he found out who it was.
"She was always happy," he said. Can we say with a straight face that someone who was wired to drugs and booze on the Downtown East Side was "happy"? Oddly enough, in this part of town, there's a certain plausibility about that.
It turned out, she was one of four people of the same family who died in the past 10 days. One of them was Bingo, a man who came into The Lord's Rain often -- and sometimes upstairs to Gospel Mission. He was given to wearing colourful ties and keeping himself fairly neat. Apparently, he contracted food poisoning.
Amid the beaming and buzzing from a successful Opening Night for the new Friday "team", something to remind us about the reality of the job we have to do.
***
And another reminder of that reality: arriving this morning at The Lord's Rain, I came down the alley between Cordova and Hastings ... watching the rats darting back and forth (NB - we've had NO rats at Gospel Mission in well over a year: another sign God is protecting this place!) ... and there, in one of the doorways, was a young woman, tying an elastic around her arm, getting ready to shoot heroin. She knew I saw her, but it didn't matter: she was getting fix, and that was all that counted. But about half an hour later, she came into The Lord's Rain for coffee and a bun. At least she had a warm, dry place to come to.
The poor will always be with us, Jesus tells us, which is something we have to keep remembering when we see scenes like that or hear about Bingo and Fred's friend. Jesus didn't say they would be the same poor people. We're kidding ourselves to think we can ever eradicate poverty -- sorry, Bono: we can't make poverty history -- at least, not for the world. But with the Gospel and God's blessing, we can give hope to individuals so that they can make their own personal poverty history. Friday night at Gospel Mission showed us just how possible that can be.
This isn't a return to the belief I held for a while, that my own experience was too "white-bread" for people on the DTES to relate to. I finally got rid of that when the Lord reminded me, "you nearly died, and I saved you. That's all that matters. Now tell them about it." No, it's a question of people overcoming any thoughts that you have to have "Rev." in front of your name or a string of letters after it in order to preach the Gospel, but that each and every one of us is "allowed" and empowered to be Jesus' witnesses. His commandment to us in Acts 1:8 is directed at everybody.
Friday nights suddenly came vacant about 6 weeks ago, and we spent some time praying for another "team" to step up. It's a great opportunity for a church from outside the DTES to move into this vital mission field. After all, as I've mentioned before, Jesus' instructions to us in Acts 1:8 are to minister to "Samaria" -- land of the outcasts in our own backyard -- even before we turn our attention to "the uttermost part of the earth". But then Kim, Lincoln, John and Bill, who manage to fill in for me on Saturdays, said, "why don't we do it?" Barry and I prayed about it, and we've decided to try it out for a month.
Last night was Night One of the new team, and listening to Sean -- a fellow Bill brought in from the Salvation Army -- leading Worship, it hit me: this was the start of that "peer ministry" the Lord had put on my heart two years ago. Lincoln led the service, Kim gave a very well-researched message about God's desire for His people to prosper in all ways, Bill and Fred (who was very much involved at Rainbow Mission) made the food.
People were riding a "high" afterwards: they pulled it off, and I'll be interesting to see how far the Lord takes it and where it goes.
(Kim was also riding a high after seeing himself on the cover of the Vancouver Courier, featured in a story about "Free Geek". Check it out.)
***
And amid the hubris, something had to give. Fred had just been to the memorial for a young woman who'd died of an overdose. They were friends: he'd just seen her in a bar, and she told him, "I have to go home now". "You need to stop drinking, is what you need," he said. That evening, he saw the coroner's van outside the hotel where she lived and they were taking out a body. The next day, he found out who it was.
"She was always happy," he said. Can we say with a straight face that someone who was wired to drugs and booze on the Downtown East Side was "happy"? Oddly enough, in this part of town, there's a certain plausibility about that.
It turned out, she was one of four people of the same family who died in the past 10 days. One of them was Bingo, a man who came into The Lord's Rain often -- and sometimes upstairs to Gospel Mission. He was given to wearing colourful ties and keeping himself fairly neat. Apparently, he contracted food poisoning.
Amid the beaming and buzzing from a successful Opening Night for the new Friday "team", something to remind us about the reality of the job we have to do.
***
And another reminder of that reality: arriving this morning at The Lord's Rain, I came down the alley between Cordova and Hastings ... watching the rats darting back and forth (NB - we've had NO rats at Gospel Mission in well over a year: another sign God is protecting this place!) ... and there, in one of the doorways, was a young woman, tying an elastic around her arm, getting ready to shoot heroin. She knew I saw her, but it didn't matter: she was getting fix, and that was all that counted. But about half an hour later, she came into The Lord's Rain for coffee and a bun. At least she had a warm, dry place to come to.
The poor will always be with us, Jesus tells us, which is something we have to keep remembering when we see scenes like that or hear about Bingo and Fred's friend. Jesus didn't say they would be the same poor people. We're kidding ourselves to think we can ever eradicate poverty -- sorry, Bono: we can't make poverty history -- at least, not for the world. But with the Gospel and God's blessing, we can give hope to individuals so that they can make their own personal poverty history. Friday night at Gospel Mission showed us just how possible that can be.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Blessings where you can find them
The funny thing about doing ministry in an impoverished area like the Downtown East Side is, it's hard to get "good news" stories Out There. There are some endeavours that almost thrive on bad news -- health and climate change research, for example -- as if people would stop paying attention (and stop giving money) if it looked as though the problem were licked.
Or look at it this way: if a mining company were to explore over and over again and come up snake-eyes over and over again, would you support it? Do you invest in a company that repeatedly reports failure?
So with Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain, I prefer to tell about success; the blessings that have come raining down on the place: the indisputable signs that God's hand is on both the Mission and the Downtown East Side and encourage people that their money, efforts, supplies and pr
ayers are well-used.
So to that end, let's look at some of the blessings I've seen lately around the Mission. It's a symbiosis, to use a really poncy intellectual term: the ministry blesses people and the people bless us.
Or look at it this way: if a mining company were to explore over and over again and come up snake-eyes over and over again, would you support it? Do you invest in a company that repeatedly reports failure?
So with Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain, I prefer to tell about success; the blessings that have come raining down on the place: the indisputable signs that God's hand is on both the Mission and the Downtown East Side and encourage people that their money, efforts, supplies and pr
ayers are well-used.So to that end, let's look at some of the blessings I've seen lately around the Mission. It's a symbiosis, to use a really poncy intellectual term: the ministry blesses people and the people bless us.
One of the most palpable is the sense of community at The Lord's Rain. Creating the showers facility has raised ministry to a new level, so that whether people come in for a shower or not, that spirit of permanence and caring brings a new hope and optimism. Conversations range through the Bible, personal issues, current affairs, and really important stuff like the Canucks and the Lions.
Barry
He arrived from the Regina area about six months ago, and it's been easy to remember his name: with the remnants of a mullet, he bears a striking resemblance to Barrie Melrose, the sometime coach of the Los Angeles Kings. Unfailingly polite, a sharp dresser, especially considering he's been moving from shelter to shelter; he brings a measure of class to the Mission. Rather like Chet, who came at the same time as Barry, from the Six Nations Reservation near Ottawa (his is a story that's still unfolding).
Recently, Barry set out to find an agent to kick-start his acting career. Turns out, he did some TV and films in Saskatchewan and decided to try to get similar work in these parts. "It was a choice between getting an apartment and finding an agent, and I went for the agent," he told me.
This past week, he signed on with an agent and went for photo shoots. He certainly has a "look" and the kind of intelligence to work well on a set, so this is, definitely, a sign of hope for him.
Richard
"Have some coffee, Drew: it'll wake ya up!" That's Richard's catch-phrase, and he'll say it whether I've just arrived and haven't tucked into one of Danilo's signature brews (provided as a major blessing from Waves Coffee) or I'm working on my third.
To look at Richard, you could easily label him. He's native, tall and gangly, always wearing a toque (even in the summer), and his herky-jerky motion, whatever he happens to be doing, is a sign of current or former drug over-use. He has a capacity for our pre-mixed coffee (Danilo mixes the sugar and whitener in ahead of time) that is amazing, which almost doubles when he picks up "another cup to take to my ol' lady".
I'm beginning to think that Richard's "ol' lady" is a bit like Duffy on "Duffy's Tavern" or Maris on "Frasier": a character talked-about but never actually seen. Be that as it may, Richard's appearance continually reminds me how wrong you can be if you judge a book by its cover. This past Saturday, I brought in some Christmas cards for the people at the Mission to sign, and I did a double-take at Richard's penmanship.
"You have great handwriting," I said.
"I'm an artist," he replied. Ink and paper is his specialty -- he also carves, but doesn't have any tools at present. I'll take him some paper and pens on Saturday and turn him loose. Maybe -- if he does requests -- I'll get him to do a hummingbird for Amelia. Another native artist on the DTES -- name of Angelo -- did an ink drawing for me of a wolverine. I like wolverines. Amelia said, "why didn't you get a hummingbird?" So now I'm on the lookout for a native artist to do a hummingbird.
Anyway ... Richard's blessing: he'll be getting a room of his own in the "social housing" component of the new Woodward's development. He's really looking forward to it, and rightly so. A lot of the rental housing in the DTES is not noted for the cleanliness or attention to maintenance. What's intriguing is that this is the same Woodward's development that was the target of protests by the rent-a-mobs a few years ago -- indeed, the same ones who formerly occupied the space that is now The Lord's Rain. Go figure.
Kim
I've known Kim for years -- back to the days at Rainbow Mission, in fact -- and seen him grow in the Lord. By that I mean, he's gone from being the guy who showed up just as the message was ending, in time to get the food, to someone who fills in for me giving the message on nights when I'm not there (last time, he and Lincoln took turns). He trained as a cook and started training a few months ago for a service on the Downtown East Side called "Free Geek", which repairs and rebuilds computers and trains people in the area. Recently, he was promoted to a "trainer" position.
Walter
A native from Manitoba, he's heading back to a town near his reserve to work over the winter building cabins. The job takes him closer to his 17-year-old daughter, which means they'll be together for Christmas.
Pete
"Who here has never screwed up?"
I was on a preachin' roll that night. The message was about "belonging" and how we all belong with Jesus and I was heading for Paul's oft-quoted reminder that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
"Who here has never screwed up?" Pause for dramatic effect. One hand comes up. It's Pete.
70-something, alcoholic (on and off the wagon), in and out of prison most of his life, Pete was the most miserable sod you'd ever want to meet when I first met him; but in the past year and a half, it seems he's realized there has to be more to life than what he's been going through, and has changed considerably. Lately, he was diagnosed with cancer. He actually laughed when I asked him how he was. "I got cancer!" he said. And now, with exquisite timing that would have made Jack Benny proud, he sticks up his hand at my rhetorical question. We've been praying over him, and I believe his coming closer to God came just at the right time for this new challenge.
Lincoln
From what I know of him, Lincoln has always believed in and always sought God, and lately, he's been finding who he is in the Lord -- and who the Lord is in him. Breakthroughs like that are huge: he now fills in for me when I'm away, either going solo or partnering with Kim.
Shannon & Brannen
I mentioned Shannon in a previous post, in deep conversation with Howard when I arrived at The Lord's Rain one morning: an indication of how people who come to Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain often counsel one another. This couple are on the methadone treatment program and have a variety of chronic ailments from drug abuse. Recently, Brannen got a job at the hotel where they live; the living accommodations are, by their account, atrocious - mold, leaky roof, underheated - but they're a great example of the blessing of having each other to help face those trials.
Barry
He arrived from the Regina area about six months ago, and it's been easy to remember his name: with the remnants of a mullet, he bears a striking resemblance to Barrie Melrose, the sometime coach of the Los Angeles Kings. Unfailingly polite, a sharp dresser, especially considering he's been moving from shelter to shelter; he brings a measure of class to the Mission. Rather like Chet, who came at the same time as Barry, from the Six Nations Reservation near Ottawa (his is a story that's still unfolding).
Recently, Barry set out to find an agent to kick-start his acting career. Turns out, he did some TV and films in Saskatchewan and decided to try to get similar work in these parts. "It was a choice between getting an apartment and finding an agent, and I went for the agent," he told me.
This past week, he signed on with an agent and went for photo shoots. He certainly has a "look" and the kind of intelligence to work well on a set, so this is, definitely, a sign of hope for him.
Richard
"Have some coffee, Drew: it'll wake ya up!" That's Richard's catch-phrase, and he'll say it whether I've just arrived and haven't tucked into one of Danilo's signature brews (provided as a major blessing from Waves Coffee) or I'm working on my third.
To look at Richard, you could easily label him. He's native, tall and gangly, always wearing a toque (even in the summer), and his herky-jerky motion, whatever he happens to be doing, is a sign of current or former drug over-use. He has a capacity for our pre-mixed coffee (Danilo mixes the sugar and whitener in ahead of time) that is amazing, which almost doubles when he picks up "another cup to take to my ol' lady".
I'm beginning to think that Richard's "ol' lady" is a bit like Duffy on "Duffy's Tavern" or Maris on "Frasier": a character talked-about but never actually seen. Be that as it may, Richard's appearance continually reminds me how wrong you can be if you judge a book by its cover. This past Saturday, I brought in some Christmas cards for the people at the Mission to sign, and I did a double-take at Richard's penmanship.
"You have great handwriting," I said.
"I'm an artist," he replied. Ink and paper is his specialty -- he also carves, but doesn't have any tools at present. I'll take him some paper and pens on Saturday and turn him loose. Maybe -- if he does requests -- I'll get him to do a hummingbird for Amelia. Another native artist on the DTES -- name of Angelo -- did an ink drawing for me of a wolverine. I like wolverines. Amelia said, "why didn't you get a hummingbird?" So now I'm on the lookout for a native artist to do a hummingbird.
Anyway ... Richard's blessing: he'll be getting a room of his own in the "social housing" component of the new Woodward's development. He's really looking forward to it, and rightly so. A lot of the rental housing in the DTES is not noted for the cleanliness or attention to maintenance. What's intriguing is that this is the same Woodward's development that was the target of protests by the rent-a-mobs a few years ago -- indeed, the same ones who formerly occupied the space that is now The Lord's Rain. Go figure.
Kim
I've known Kim for years -- back to the days at Rainbow Mission, in fact -- and seen him grow in the Lord. By that I mean, he's gone from being the guy who showed up just as the message was ending, in time to get the food, to someone who fills in for me giving the message on nights when I'm not there (last time, he and Lincoln took turns). He trained as a cook and started training a few months ago for a service on the Downtown East Side called "Free Geek", which repairs and rebuilds computers and trains people in the area. Recently, he was promoted to a "trainer" position.
Walter
A native from Manitoba, he's heading back to a town near his reserve to work over the winter building cabins. The job takes him closer to his 17-year-old daughter, which means they'll be together for Christmas.
Pete
"Who here has never screwed up?"
I was on a preachin' roll that night. The message was about "belonging" and how we all belong with Jesus and I was heading for Paul's oft-quoted reminder that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
"Who here has never screwed up?" Pause for dramatic effect. One hand comes up. It's Pete.
70-something, alcoholic (on and off the wagon), in and out of prison most of his life, Pete was the most miserable sod you'd ever want to meet when I first met him; but in the past year and a half, it seems he's realized there has to be more to life than what he's been going through, and has changed considerably. Lately, he was diagnosed with cancer. He actually laughed when I asked him how he was. "I got cancer!" he said. And now, with exquisite timing that would have made Jack Benny proud, he sticks up his hand at my rhetorical question. We've been praying over him, and I believe his coming closer to God came just at the right time for this new challenge.
Lincoln
From what I know of him, Lincoln has always believed in and always sought God, and lately, he's been finding who he is in the Lord -- and who the Lord is in him. Breakthroughs like that are huge: he now fills in for me when I'm away, either going solo or partnering with Kim.
Shannon & Brannen
I mentioned Shannon in a previous post, in deep conversation with Howard when I arrived at The Lord's Rain one morning: an indication of how people who come to Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain often counsel one another. This couple are on the methadone treatment program and have a variety of chronic ailments from drug abuse. Recently, Brannen got a job at the hotel where they live; the living accommodations are, by their account, atrocious - mold, leaky roof, underheated - but they're a great example of the blessing of having each other to help face those trials.
The Cobs Kids
Here's one outta left field for you. As we've mentioned before, we receive bread products from the new Cobs Bread location in Caulfeild (West Vancouver). It brings me closer to full circle, because it's just a chip shot from Caulfeild Elementary School, where I went in 6th and 8th grades more years ago than I'd care to remember.
There's a high school in the area, and some of the people working at this new Cobs are students at that high school, and picking up the bread on Monday nights has brought me in touch with a couple of them. They are both very interested in the work going on -- particularly at The Lord's Rain. West Van is an exceptionally affluent area -- much moreso than when I lived there, 30 years ago -- and anything that gets these kids thinking about what they can do -- and more importantly what is possible to be done -- is the seeds of a major blessing for the future.
It would be prideful to say that these blessings come because of Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain, but there's no denying that we are part of a distinct move of God over the Downtown East Side. If you unpack Ezekiel 40, which describes the building of the Temple in intricate detail, you'll see that each of us has a job to do, but the entire plan, in the final analysis, is in God's hands.
It would be prideful to say that these blessings come because of Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain, but there's no denying that we are part of a distinct move of God over the Downtown East Side. If you unpack Ezekiel 40, which describes the building of the Temple in intricate detail, you'll see that each of us has a job to do, but the entire plan, in the final analysis, is in God's hands.
What's more, we get to be witnesses to that move -- and to tell others about it.
It's easy to portray the people on the Downtown East Side as pathetic victims, but on the principle that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21), if we keep on hammering that message, then the situation remains the same. We can bear witness to the fact that there are VICTORIES going on as we speak, and these people are just a few examples. These are just the ones I've seen, and as soon as I hit "publish post", I'll probably think of many more examples of people being blessed. Watch out for sequels.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57).
It's easy to portray the people on the Downtown East Side as pathetic victims, but on the principle that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21), if we keep on hammering that message, then the situation remains the same. We can bear witness to the fact that there are VICTORIES going on as we speak, and these people are just a few examples. These are just the ones I've seen, and as soon as I hit "publish post", I'll probably think of many more examples of people being blessed. Watch out for sequels.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57).
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Shelters - rights and responsibilities
The president of Union Gospel Mission, Bill Mollard, raises some interesting points in his op-ed piece in the Vancouver Sun on Nov. 11, about the provincial government's new emergency shelter law.
The law gives police the authority to force a homeless person to go to a shelter when the weather is particularly nasty. On the surface, it looks like a good way to keep people from freezing to death. Bill's main point is that forcing people to go to a shelter -- even ostensibly for their own good -- takes away their dignity by taking away their freedom of choice; police officers are not social or outreach workers; the government would do better to support outreach programs. Bill's right on this count: I know a lot of street people who prefer not to go to a shelter. They don't want to be caught up with the fights, the thefts, the attitude problems -- often conflicting with their own -- and the fact that, especially in flu season, airborne sickness in an enclosed space is a concern (whether real or imagined).
I'm not sure I agree, though, with his opinion of the ability of police officers to assess a situation. That's part of their training, and frankly, there are few people I've met on the Downtown East Side who are more compassionate than the cops. For all the paranoia-mongering of the "activists" in the area, the cops are there and they care about the people. The son of some friends of mine at church recently became a full-fledged constable, and while he's been working other parts of the city to start with, he's said his ideal is to work the Downtown East Side and make a difference with the people there.
Then there's that "freedom of choice" issue. A lot of people on the Downtown East Side don't have freedom of choice. People who are mentally ill or so strung out on drugs that their sole aim in life is to find the next hit don't know what's good for them. They don't realize they could die from exposure ... or set themselves on fire by trying to stay warm. What are we, as a society, supposed to do? Are they to die because, at that one particular moment, they're incapacitated? Does our concept of "freedom of choice" and "dignity" take precedence over their right to live?
We leave them to die on the streets in the cold, and they're gone. We do something to help them live another day, and they have another chance to straighten their lives out.
And that leads to the problem I have with the legislation. One of the incidents that gave it added impetus was the horrifying death of a woman last winter. She had made a makeshift shelter with a shopping cart and a tarp, then started a fire to keep warm. Something went wrong and she burned to death. If I recall correctly, she had been advised by police to find a shelter, but since they couldn't force her, they let her be.
What's noteworthy about this is that this incident happened not on the Downtown East Side but on Davie Street, an area noted for self-absorbed self-indulgence. In the summer preceding the incident, I came across Clive, a man I used to know at Rainbow Mission. I hadn't seen him for several months, but this one afternoon, I saw him wandering, zombie-like, past a crowd of partyers waiting to get into one of the bars, the partyers apparently oblivious to Clive's very existence.
I saw the same thing with another woman, sitting in a wheelchair with a ventilator in her nostrils, begging. We chatted for a time and prayed together, and she said no one had even stopped to talk to her.
Did anyone who wasn't paid to be there stop to check on the woman who died in the fire? Funny: I think it's more likely that the people on the DTES would have noticed and tried to convince her to find a place -- and might have been more successful than someone in uniform -- a representative of The Man.
That -- along with the distinct possibility that the aforementioned paranoia merchants will use it to claim that the government wants an excuse to run homeless people off the streets and hide them until after the Olympics -- is what concerns me about this legislation. Is this legislation truly a caring move by government, or a way to wash our hands of a situation by giving the appearance of doing something? It's the flip-side of the "homeless censuses" that come out every so often, laying a guilt trip on society about how many more shelter beds we need. Will more shelter beds solve the homelessness situation? Is a shelter a home? Or is it just a number of beds on a ledger, which someone thinks will indicate that the problem is solved if it equals the number of people who would otherwise be on the street. "Well, we tried," the government can say, and people can go on partying to their hearts' content, since someone else is taking care of things.
Doesn't Jesus call us to be that "someone else"?
Having a "right" is one thing, but we as human beings, children of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, have a responsibility that we are all too willing to shirk. (Note what I've said in the past, that the DTES is "Samaria", and Jesus specifically includes Samaria in His final instructions to us in Acts 1:8.) If we are walking in love towards one another, we take care of one another. Maybe that means seeing if they want to go to a shelter; maybe it means sharing the Gospel and the hope of the knowledge that God has not forgotten them -- and neither have people in the "other half". It's amazing how much warmer you can feel when you know that. I believe that's one of the reasons why Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain have been successful in achieving transformational revival: we're not a big organization, and our support comes from countless people coming forward in countless ways, with donations big and small, of money, time, labour and supplies, as the Lord lays it on their hearts. That sends an important subliminal message: that "someone else" from "the other half" does care.
The law gives police the authority to force a homeless person to go to a shelter when the weather is particularly nasty. On the surface, it looks like a good way to keep people from freezing to death. Bill's main point is that forcing people to go to a shelter -- even ostensibly for their own good -- takes away their dignity by taking away their freedom of choice; police officers are not social or outreach workers; the government would do better to support outreach programs. Bill's right on this count: I know a lot of street people who prefer not to go to a shelter. They don't want to be caught up with the fights, the thefts, the attitude problems -- often conflicting with their own -- and the fact that, especially in flu season, airborne sickness in an enclosed space is a concern (whether real or imagined).
I'm not sure I agree, though, with his opinion of the ability of police officers to assess a situation. That's part of their training, and frankly, there are few people I've met on the Downtown East Side who are more compassionate than the cops. For all the paranoia-mongering of the "activists" in the area, the cops are there and they care about the people. The son of some friends of mine at church recently became a full-fledged constable, and while he's been working other parts of the city to start with, he's said his ideal is to work the Downtown East Side and make a difference with the people there.
Then there's that "freedom of choice" issue. A lot of people on the Downtown East Side don't have freedom of choice. People who are mentally ill or so strung out on drugs that their sole aim in life is to find the next hit don't know what's good for them. They don't realize they could die from exposure ... or set themselves on fire by trying to stay warm. What are we, as a society, supposed to do? Are they to die because, at that one particular moment, they're incapacitated? Does our concept of "freedom of choice" and "dignity" take precedence over their right to live?
We leave them to die on the streets in the cold, and they're gone. We do something to help them live another day, and they have another chance to straighten their lives out.
And that leads to the problem I have with the legislation. One of the incidents that gave it added impetus was the horrifying death of a woman last winter. She had made a makeshift shelter with a shopping cart and a tarp, then started a fire to keep warm. Something went wrong and she burned to death. If I recall correctly, she had been advised by police to find a shelter, but since they couldn't force her, they let her be.
What's noteworthy about this is that this incident happened not on the Downtown East Side but on Davie Street, an area noted for self-absorbed self-indulgence. In the summer preceding the incident, I came across Clive, a man I used to know at Rainbow Mission. I hadn't seen him for several months, but this one afternoon, I saw him wandering, zombie-like, past a crowd of partyers waiting to get into one of the bars, the partyers apparently oblivious to Clive's very existence.
I saw the same thing with another woman, sitting in a wheelchair with a ventilator in her nostrils, begging. We chatted for a time and prayed together, and she said no one had even stopped to talk to her.
Did anyone who wasn't paid to be there stop to check on the woman who died in the fire? Funny: I think it's more likely that the people on the DTES would have noticed and tried to convince her to find a place -- and might have been more successful than someone in uniform -- a representative of The Man.
That -- along with the distinct possibility that the aforementioned paranoia merchants will use it to claim that the government wants an excuse to run homeless people off the streets and hide them until after the Olympics -- is what concerns me about this legislation. Is this legislation truly a caring move by government, or a way to wash our hands of a situation by giving the appearance of doing something? It's the flip-side of the "homeless censuses" that come out every so often, laying a guilt trip on society about how many more shelter beds we need. Will more shelter beds solve the homelessness situation? Is a shelter a home? Or is it just a number of beds on a ledger, which someone thinks will indicate that the problem is solved if it equals the number of people who would otherwise be on the street. "Well, we tried," the government can say, and people can go on partying to their hearts' content, since someone else is taking care of things.
Doesn't Jesus call us to be that "someone else"?
Having a "right" is one thing, but we as human beings, children of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, have a responsibility that we are all too willing to shirk. (Note what I've said in the past, that the DTES is "Samaria", and Jesus specifically includes Samaria in His final instructions to us in Acts 1:8.) If we are walking in love towards one another, we take care of one another. Maybe that means seeing if they want to go to a shelter; maybe it means sharing the Gospel and the hope of the knowledge that God has not forgotten them -- and neither have people in the "other half". It's amazing how much warmer you can feel when you know that. I believe that's one of the reasons why Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain have been successful in achieving transformational revival: we're not a big organization, and our support comes from countless people coming forward in countless ways, with donations big and small, of money, time, labour and supplies, as the Lord lays it on their hearts. That sends an important subliminal message: that "someone else" from "the other half" does care.
HELP WANTED - some real opportunities at Gospel Mission
This is called "casting your net wide". If you've read anything on this blog before, you'll know that Gospel Mission is small but motivated, and we've definitely had the hand of God on us for blessing in the work that we do. The more we reach out with the Gospel -- straight-no-chaser -- to let people know that God has not forgotten them and that the real turnaround they need is only possible through His Son, Jesus Christ, the more He blesses us with the resources that we need.
We have a couple of "human resource" needs at Gospel Mission, and I'm casting the net here to see who's interested. Sometimes, people don't step up to the plate because they're not even aware that there's a plate to step up to (lousy grammar, but I think you know what I mean). After all, the only reason I wound up ministering on the Downtown East Side is because God got right in my face about it. First, He first placed me at a job right at the worst intersection in Victoria (Broad and Pandora -- ironically, right beside City Hall) and then at a job where I had to run a gauntlet of drug addicts and panhandlers (CKNW, right beside Granville Station). It was then that I heard Him tell me, "these people don't need handouts ... they don't need money ... they don't need programs ... they need Me. They need My Son. And you have to tell them what I did for you."
So here are the opportunities:
1 - a ministry team for Friday nights. A good team would consist of 6-10 people -- one for the Worship music, one to preach, two in the kitchen, and the rest to serve coffee and meals, help with cleanup afterwards, and help disciple people and encourage them to focus their minds and hearts on Jesus and away from "the world".
2 - helping at The Lord's Rain on Tuesday mornings. We recently received a major blessing of bread from Cobs Bread and coffee from Waves Coffee. I need a couple of people to come in on Tuesday morning between 6:30 and 9 to help wrap bread and store it, and to make breakfast sandwiches for the people we serve.
3 - a team to open The Lord's Rain early on other mornings. The Lord's Rain is open Mondays and Fridays from 10-3, but the intent has been to have the place open early -- like 6:30 or 7am -- to give people a place to come after they get booted out of the shelters. We're open at those hours on Tuesday and Saturday; the early opening also gives one time to go to an office job afterwards (I close The Lord's Rain at 8:30 on Tuesdays, so I can get out to Metrotown by 9:15 or so).
The more people can spend time at Gospel Mission or The Lord's Rain, the more they're NOT out on the streets surrounded by the world, and the more they're hearing the Word of God and exposed to the Holy Spirit. (We don't preach at people at The Lord's Rain: it's what senior pastor Barry Babcook calls "soft evangelism" or "Jesus with the skin on" -- living and demonstrating the love of Christ.
The fruits are palpable. We've seen tremendous transformations in people. They're not cataclysmic, shaft-of-light-and-the-voice-of-john-ashbridge-from-the-clouds turnarounds, but gradual, definite, positive steps forward.
If you're interested in making a real, positive difference in an area that for decades has been long on bad news, please contact me.
We have a couple of "human resource" needs at Gospel Mission, and I'm casting the net here to see who's interested. Sometimes, people don't step up to the plate because they're not even aware that there's a plate to step up to (lousy grammar, but I think you know what I mean). After all, the only reason I wound up ministering on the Downtown East Side is because God got right in my face about it. First, He first placed me at a job right at the worst intersection in Victoria (Broad and Pandora -- ironically, right beside City Hall) and then at a job where I had to run a gauntlet of drug addicts and panhandlers (CKNW, right beside Granville Station). It was then that I heard Him tell me, "these people don't need handouts ... they don't need money ... they don't need programs ... they need Me. They need My Son. And you have to tell them what I did for you."
So here are the opportunities:
1 - a ministry team for Friday nights. A good team would consist of 6-10 people -- one for the Worship music, one to preach, two in the kitchen, and the rest to serve coffee and meals, help with cleanup afterwards, and help disciple people and encourage them to focus their minds and hearts on Jesus and away from "the world".
2 - helping at The Lord's Rain on Tuesday mornings. We recently received a major blessing of bread from Cobs Bread and coffee from Waves Coffee. I need a couple of people to come in on Tuesday morning between 6:30 and 9 to help wrap bread and store it, and to make breakfast sandwiches for the people we serve.
3 - a team to open The Lord's Rain early on other mornings. The Lord's Rain is open Mondays and Fridays from 10-3, but the intent has been to have the place open early -- like 6:30 or 7am -- to give people a place to come after they get booted out of the shelters. We're open at those hours on Tuesday and Saturday; the early opening also gives one time to go to an office job afterwards (I close The Lord's Rain at 8:30 on Tuesdays, so I can get out to Metrotown by 9:15 or so).
The more people can spend time at Gospel Mission or The Lord's Rain, the more they're NOT out on the streets surrounded by the world, and the more they're hearing the Word of God and exposed to the Holy Spirit. (We don't preach at people at The Lord's Rain: it's what senior pastor Barry Babcook calls "soft evangelism" or "Jesus with the skin on" -- living and demonstrating the love of Christ.
The fruits are palpable. We've seen tremendous transformations in people. They're not cataclysmic, shaft-of-light-and-the-voice-of-john-ashbridge-from-the-clouds turnarounds, but gradual, definite, positive steps forward.
If you're interested in making a real, positive difference in an area that for decades has been long on bad news, please contact me.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The windows of blessing are open!
They come big and small, and in all forms ... last month, we received the check from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation ... this month, it's staple foods for Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain.
Cobs Bread has an "end of day giving program", where any of its bakemeats (to use the KJV expression) unsold at closing time are given to charities. We have been signed up for the Monday night "pickup" at the new Cobs location in West Vancouver (next to the Safeway just off the Upper Levels in Caulfeild, in what used to be woods where we kids would play while at Caulfeild Elementary School 40+ years ago).
The amazing thing is, when I walked in last Monday night for the first pickup, the shelves were practically full. I was told they have a corporate philosophy that their customers should have a wide selection of product no matter what time of day they walk in ... but I suspect there's also a corporate philosophy to give of their best to people in need.
So as well as using it for our own needs at the services (and it also means people coming to The Lord's Rain will have breakfast goodies, like Danishes, cinnamon rolls and the like), we'll give it away to those who need it.
One of our biggest expenses -- especially at The Lord's Rain at this time of year -- is coffee, and Waves Coffee is coming to the rescue, donating 20 lb of whole bean coffee a month (anyone got a large coffee grinder they're not using?). Barry receives donated coffee from another company for Gospel Mission (up till now, we'd been buying our coffee for The Lord's Rain), but I'm not sure if they want their name mentioned. Neither Cobs nor Waves has said one way or the other, whether they want publicity, so this is me, blowing a horn for them out of gratitude.
(It's an interesting paradox. Some of our contributors have said they don't want their names mentioned -- they're not after publicity. Others say "go ahead", not so much for the publicity, but to encourage others to help out, as well.)
Cobs Bread has an "end of day giving program", where any of its bakemeats (to use the KJV expression) unsold at closing time are given to charities. We have been signed up for the Monday night "pickup" at the new Cobs location in West Vancouver (next to the Safeway just off the Upper Levels in Caulfeild, in what used to be woods where we kids would play while at Caulfeild Elementary School 40+ years ago).
The amazing thing is, when I walked in last Monday night for the first pickup, the shelves were practically full. I was told they have a corporate philosophy that their customers should have a wide selection of product no matter what time of day they walk in ... but I suspect there's also a corporate philosophy to give of their best to people in need.
So as well as using it for our own needs at the services (and it also means people coming to The Lord's Rain will have breakfast goodies, like Danishes, cinnamon rolls and the like), we'll give it away to those who need it.
One of our biggest expenses -- especially at The Lord's Rain at this time of year -- is coffee, and Waves Coffee is coming to the rescue, donating 20 lb of whole bean coffee a month (anyone got a large coffee grinder they're not using?). Barry receives donated coffee from another company for Gospel Mission (up till now, we'd been buying our coffee for The Lord's Rain), but I'm not sure if they want their name mentioned. Neither Cobs nor Waves has said one way or the other, whether they want publicity, so this is me, blowing a horn for them out of gratitude.
(It's an interesting paradox. Some of our contributors have said they don't want their names mentioned -- they're not after publicity. Others say "go ahead", not so much for the publicity, but to encourage others to help out, as well.)
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The Lord's Rain -- it's all about the fellowship
Busy morning at The Lord's Rain, which isn't surprising, because it's just chuckin' it down out there ...
John arrived early to open up, and I was a few minutes late, and arrived to find Howard and Shannon in deep conversation. Howard is John's roommate, having more or less escaped from a group home. John's been a real blessing to him, giving him friendship and treating him as a normal person -- there's no doubt he has issues, but in his case, knowing that having issues is actually quite "normal" can help a lot.
For her part, Shannon -- along with her husband -- is going through recovery from drug addiction. She has a very kind heart and even though they have next to nothing, they have a strong relationship. And there she is, talking to Howard about his issues, sharing what she's learned from going through her own.
John and Mario are talking Scripture again. John's a charismatic and Mario is Catholic, so you can imagine they get into some interesting discussions. The beauty of it is that, unlike a lot of discussions masquerading as religious dialogue, their conversations don't degenerate into an "I'm right/you're wrong" battle.
It's about the fellowship, and one of the really cool things about The Lord's Rain -- something we'd never envisioned when we launched the project 2 years ago (gad! 2 years this month!) -- is the way people feel free to discuss and explore their faith and the various forms it takes. And we thought it was all about the showers.
Speaking of which, another fellow found us for the first time today. Very grateful for the shower and the dry clothes ... hearing someone say, "I feel like a new man", is wonderful! "I never knew you guys were here," he said, "until I saw someone with the coffee and they told me about the coffee and the showers."
The other thing "they" need to tell others is how to get here. The Carrall Street Greenway Project continues to create an urban adventure in actually navigating around the jobsite to the Mission. On Tuesday, I found the sidewalk blocked on one side and had to cross to the other and move the metal fences to get through. This morning, the sidewalk was blocked about 20' from the entrance, and I had to slide past the workers and another metal fence to get through.
This, too, shall pass (I keep telling myself) ...
Not the most productive conversation with the city re parking during the Olympics. At first, it appeared we might be able to buy a meter hood and pre-empt a parking space during Games Time; then I was told they couldn't do that and besides, people would park there anyway and their Bylaw Enforcement Officers couldn't be everywhere at once ("don't bother working with the system because no one obeys the law anyway"?) ... and of course, if word got out that we got "special treatment", others would want it too.
As Spike Milligan once said, you could explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity to a roomful of monkeys for 6 months, and at the end of it all, they'd still be monkeys.
But (and here's the kicker) "we really want to help you".
I then felt like John Cleese in the cheese shop (to leap to another British humorist): explain the reasoning behind that statement.
Then we discovered that the owners of the parking lot at Army & Navy (a block away) would charge approximately 1/3 of what we'd pay for a city parking meter hood that (apparently) no one would obey, anyway.
Looks like we will maintain our record of never receiving anything from the City.
The wintry winds blow ... and the rain is cascading down .. meaning warm coats and boots and socks will be in demand again ... donations are always welcome -- email me or leave a message at the Mission (604-684-3097).
John arrived early to open up, and I was a few minutes late, and arrived to find Howard and Shannon in deep conversation. Howard is John's roommate, having more or less escaped from a group home. John's been a real blessing to him, giving him friendship and treating him as a normal person -- there's no doubt he has issues, but in his case, knowing that having issues is actually quite "normal" can help a lot.
For her part, Shannon -- along with her husband -- is going through recovery from drug addiction. She has a very kind heart and even though they have next to nothing, they have a strong relationship. And there she is, talking to Howard about his issues, sharing what she's learned from going through her own.
John and Mario are talking Scripture again. John's a charismatic and Mario is Catholic, so you can imagine they get into some interesting discussions. The beauty of it is that, unlike a lot of discussions masquerading as religious dialogue, their conversations don't degenerate into an "I'm right/you're wrong" battle.
It's about the fellowship, and one of the really cool things about The Lord's Rain -- something we'd never envisioned when we launched the project 2 years ago (gad! 2 years this month!) -- is the way people feel free to discuss and explore their faith and the various forms it takes. And we thought it was all about the showers.
Speaking of which, another fellow found us for the first time today. Very grateful for the shower and the dry clothes ... hearing someone say, "I feel like a new man", is wonderful! "I never knew you guys were here," he said, "until I saw someone with the coffee and they told me about the coffee and the showers."
The other thing "they" need to tell others is how to get here. The Carrall Street Greenway Project continues to create an urban adventure in actually navigating around the jobsite to the Mission. On Tuesday, I found the sidewalk blocked on one side and had to cross to the other and move the metal fences to get through. This morning, the sidewalk was blocked about 20' from the entrance, and I had to slide past the workers and another metal fence to get through.
This, too, shall pass (I keep telling myself) ...
Not the most productive conversation with the city re parking during the Olympics. At first, it appeared we might be able to buy a meter hood and pre-empt a parking space during Games Time; then I was told they couldn't do that and besides, people would park there anyway and their Bylaw Enforcement Officers couldn't be everywhere at once ("don't bother working with the system because no one obeys the law anyway"?) ... and of course, if word got out that we got "special treatment", others would want it too.
As Spike Milligan once said, you could explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity to a roomful of monkeys for 6 months, and at the end of it all, they'd still be monkeys.
But (and here's the kicker) "we really want to help you".
I then felt like John Cleese in the cheese shop (to leap to another British humorist): explain the reasoning behind that statement.
Then we discovered that the owners of the parking lot at Army & Navy (a block away) would charge approximately 1/3 of what we'd pay for a city parking meter hood that (apparently) no one would obey, anyway.
Looks like we will maintain our record of never receiving anything from the City.
The wintry winds blow ... and the rain is cascading down .. meaning warm coats and boots and socks will be in demand again ... donations are always welcome -- email me or leave a message at the Mission (604-684-3097).
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
"Every wise-hearted one ..."
We've devoted a couple of the most recent postings to the contribution we've received from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, but the Lord woke me up around 4 this morning with a reminder: don't forget the others!
Right, as usual, Sir. After all, when you hear of a whacking big donation from a foundation, you might be tempted to think, "what good would my 50 bucks do?" ... and the answer is, Gospel Mission -- and especially The Lord's Rain -- was built not on one or two major donations, but on a whole lot of smaller donations.
Indeed, the same day that I deposited the cheque from the Westons, I also deposited a $50 cheque from one friend and US $20 from another. And that's how our Mission has grown.
The Lord's Rain is a perfect example. When we set out to build it, we approached a wealthy Christian businessman to underwrite the project. We were turned down flat. At first, we were perplexed, but then God started to show that He had other ideas. People started coming forward with donations, large and small. Yes, it was two larger donations that kick-started the project, but they were "convincers", responses to our request for a sign that The Lord's Rain was supposed to move forward.
People also started coming forward with their talents. If you read the Book of Exodus, you'll see that the Tabernacle was built by "wise-hearted" people or "those whose hearts were willing" (Exodus 35:10 et seqq.): that's how The Lord's Rain was built.
And that's how it should be. I've said it before: the reason why The Lord's Rain has been successful has been because it was built by a variety of people with a variety of gifts to bring. The love that comes with that effort and dedication permeates The Lord's Rain and shows the people who come in, whether it's for showers or just coffee and conversation, that people from The Other Half really do care.
And that's love ... which sows the seeds of hope ... which sows the seeds of transformational revival.
--
No Plague Shall Come Nigh My Dwelling Dep't.: Heaven knows, we saw enough rats in and around the Mission during the time that work was going on at the old Woodward's site a block away. Prayer, oil and some judiciously placed packets of Wilsarin dealt with that menace, but then came renovations at the hotel-or-whatever-it-was next door and the total destruction of the 300 block Carrall Street. More rats were sighted in the alley and scampering across the sidewalk ... but nowhere near Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain. We haven't been using Wilsarin, either. Go figure. Praise the Lord, Who protects His people!
Right, as usual, Sir. After all, when you hear of a whacking big donation from a foundation, you might be tempted to think, "what good would my 50 bucks do?" ... and the answer is, Gospel Mission -- and especially The Lord's Rain -- was built not on one or two major donations, but on a whole lot of smaller donations.
Indeed, the same day that I deposited the cheque from the Westons, I also deposited a $50 cheque from one friend and US $20 from another. And that's how our Mission has grown.
The Lord's Rain is a perfect example. When we set out to build it, we approached a wealthy Christian businessman to underwrite the project. We were turned down flat. At first, we were perplexed, but then God started to show that He had other ideas. People started coming forward with donations, large and small. Yes, it was two larger donations that kick-started the project, but they were "convincers", responses to our request for a sign that The Lord's Rain was supposed to move forward.
People also started coming forward with their talents. If you read the Book of Exodus, you'll see that the Tabernacle was built by "wise-hearted" people or "those whose hearts were willing" (Exodus 35:10 et seqq.): that's how The Lord's Rain was built.
And that's how it should be. I've said it before: the reason why The Lord's Rain has been successful has been because it was built by a variety of people with a variety of gifts to bring. The love that comes with that effort and dedication permeates The Lord's Rain and shows the people who come in, whether it's for showers or just coffee and conversation, that people from The Other Half really do care.
And that's love ... which sows the seeds of hope ... which sows the seeds of transformational revival.
--
No Plague Shall Come Nigh My Dwelling Dep't.: Heaven knows, we saw enough rats in and around the Mission during the time that work was going on at the old Woodward's site a block away. Prayer, oil and some judiciously placed packets of Wilsarin dealt with that menace, but then came renovations at the hotel-or-whatever-it-was next door and the total destruction of the 300 block Carrall Street. More rats were sighted in the alley and scampering across the sidewalk ... but nowhere near Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain. We haven't been using Wilsarin, either. Go figure. Praise the Lord, Who protects His people!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
What's in a name?
What a great day.
We received the cheque today from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation -- $15,000, which for Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain, will go a very long way in doing what we're called to do on the Downtown East Side.
Mark Mitchell, a third-generation Weston and director of the Foundation, came to the Mission along with Carlo Fierro, manager of the Superstore at Rupert and Grandview Highway, where we do a lot of our shopping (Barry buys a lot at the Real Canadian Wholesale Club, too, which is also owned by the Weston Family). Sherry Chen and her
shooter, Dennis, came from BCIT to cover the presentation, as did Teddy Huang from CTV.
Teresa and her crew had done a wonderful job of repainting inside the chapel upstairs; as I mentioned before, Barry and some others had done more work on the drywalling at the back. Aside from some newly donated clothes which hadn't been put away, the place looked great.
Chet Lalonde seized the moment to shave and put on a tie.
But there was one little "off" note that got me thinking. When CTV aired the story on the 5:00 news, they referred to us as Union Gospel Mission.
Oops.
I called the assignment desk and the young man there apologized profusely. I didn't catch the latter part of the newscast, so I couldn't see if they made the correction there; the story didn't air on the 6:00 package.
I have to admit, I'd had high hopes for a good story on CTV. It was Peter Grainger's story on CTV back in February 2008, which mentioned the theft of some tools from the jobsite, that led to one of God's "grandstand plays", to show that He was ordaining and providing for this "Next Level" ministry on the Downtown East Side. Janet Dirks, who's now the Alberta bureau chief, has been a big supporter from Day One. So it was a little off-putting to hear that they had gotten us mixed up.
I do go out of my way to let people know that we're two different organizations, largely out of courtesy to UGM; it's an important distinction on both sides, because, while we have similar names, so do Michael and Larry Jordan and, well, those two brothers are JUST a bit different*.
Gospel Mission was founded in 1929, more than a decade before UGM came along. I know there were "discussions" about the name similarities over the years, but those, I understand, are pretty much lost to memory.
So what is in a name?
Why wouldn't we change our name to something like "Carrall Street Church", which is the "secondary" name on our legal documents, to avoid confusion and possibly a lot of lost donations as people think they're giving to one organization but are really giving to another?
It's simple: "Gospel Mission" is the name God gave the Work He ordained through the Apostolic Church of Pentecost back in 1929. To change the name would be to second-guess God. To change the name would be to change the assignment He gave us when we have no right to do so.
To use a tired advertising cliche, The Name Says It All. It's a Mission. It spreads the Gospel.
Would we change the name to avoid confusion and not miss out on contributions? That would be a purely fleshly consideration. If people don't know the difference between the two ministries, whose problem is that? God's? Or ours?
Now, at this point, I was about to fall into the sar-chasm** about media coverage, except that the Lord is right now checking me about being ungrateful towards the media. After all, He's reminding me, it was the media -- like Peter on CTV (not to mention Pamela Martin's ad lib that it would be nice if someone stepped forward to help us), Cheryl Rossi at the Courier, my friends at CityTV, Clint Nickerson and Jen Palma at Global, Rick Cluff at CBC, Robert Groulx on Radio-Canada, Al Siebring at the Cowichan Valley Times and George Orr at BCIT -- who gave us vital ink and airtime when we were getting started.
What matters, He says, is that He knows the difference and He blesses us both in different ways. What matters is that Gospel Mission has succeeded because we're true to the assignment reflected in the name. What matters is that God has tapped people on the shoulder -- from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, hectoring on other Foundations to keep giving even in tough times, to the anonymous donor who handed me a horse-choking wad of cash when he saw Peter's story, to the young boy who gave us $46 he'd collected through bottles and odd jobs because he couldn't bear to think of the people on the street with no food -- to let them know we have a need and they can fill it. And most importantly, the people on the street know who we are.
And that's what's in the name.
=========
*According to Answers.com, MJ idolized his older brother to the extent that he chose #23 as his jersey number with the Bulls because Larry wore #45 and he wanted to be half the man his brother was. I saw Larry play for the Chicago Express in the late-unlamented World Basketball League (I was PA announcer for the Vancouver Nighthawks): wonderful player - but at 5'8", well, you do the math.
**That's a neomorphologism meaning to utter one cynical remark, which leads to another ... and another ... until you're out of control and into a festival of negativity. That's an original. You're welcome to it.
We received the cheque today from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation -- $15,000, which for Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain, will go a very long way in doing what we're called to do on the Downtown East Side.
Mark Mitchell, a third-generation Weston and director of the Foundation, came to the Mission along with Carlo Fierro, manager of the Superstore at Rupert and Grandview Highway, where we do a lot of our shopping (Barry buys a lot at the Real Canadian Wholesale Club, too, which is also owned by the Weston Family). Sherry Chen and her
shooter, Dennis, came from BCIT to cover the presentation, as did Teddy Huang from CTV.Teresa and her crew had done a wonderful job of repainting inside the chapel upstairs; as I mentioned before, Barry and some others had done more work on the drywalling at the back. Aside from some newly donated clothes which hadn't been put away, the place looked great.
Chet Lalonde seized the moment to shave and put on a tie.
We showed Mark around The Lord's Rain and up into Gospel Mission upstairs. 
Amelia took great pride in showing off the kitchen -- a tribute to the people who work back there while the service is going on -- the Mission is truly a team operation. In his remarks for the cameras, Mark paid us some nice compliments while I took the opportunity to say that I hoped the special fund set up by the Westons to help organizations that help feed and clothe the needy make it through the economic downturn would inspire other such foundations to step up their giving at this time.
Amelia took great pride in showing off the kitchen -- a tribute to the people who work back there while the service is going on -- the Mission is truly a team operation. In his remarks for the cameras, Mark paid us some nice compliments while I took the opportunity to say that I hoped the special fund set up by the Westons to help organizations that help feed and clothe the needy make it through the economic downturn would inspire other such foundations to step up their giving at this time.
L-R Mark Mitchell, self & Carlo Fierro
But there was one little "off" note that got me thinking. When CTV aired the story on the 5:00 news, they referred to us as Union Gospel Mission.
Oops.
I called the assignment desk and the young man there apologized profusely. I didn't catch the latter part of the newscast, so I couldn't see if they made the correction there; the story didn't air on the 6:00 package.
I have to admit, I'd had high hopes for a good story on CTV. It was Peter Grainger's story on CTV back in February 2008, which mentioned the theft of some tools from the jobsite, that led to one of God's "grandstand plays", to show that He was ordaining and providing for this "Next Level" ministry on the Downtown East Side. Janet Dirks, who's now the Alberta bureau chief, has been a big supporter from Day One. So it was a little off-putting to hear that they had gotten us mixed up.
I do go out of my way to let people know that we're two different organizations, largely out of courtesy to UGM; it's an important distinction on both sides, because, while we have similar names, so do Michael and Larry Jordan and, well, those two brothers are JUST a bit different*.
Gospel Mission was founded in 1929, more than a decade before UGM came along. I know there were "discussions" about the name similarities over the years, but those, I understand, are pretty much lost to memory.
So what is in a name?
Why wouldn't we change our name to something like "Carrall Street Church", which is the "secondary" name on our legal documents, to avoid confusion and possibly a lot of lost donations as people think they're giving to one organization but are really giving to another?
It's simple: "Gospel Mission" is the name God gave the Work He ordained through the Apostolic Church of Pentecost back in 1929. To change the name would be to second-guess God. To change the name would be to change the assignment He gave us when we have no right to do so.
To use a tired advertising cliche, The Name Says It All. It's a Mission. It spreads the Gospel.
Would we change the name to avoid confusion and not miss out on contributions? That would be a purely fleshly consideration. If people don't know the difference between the two ministries, whose problem is that? God's? Or ours?
Now, at this point, I was about to fall into the sar-chasm** about media coverage, except that the Lord is right now checking me about being ungrateful towards the media. After all, He's reminding me, it was the media -- like Peter on CTV (not to mention Pamela Martin's ad lib that it would be nice if someone stepped forward to help us), Cheryl Rossi at the Courier, my friends at CityTV, Clint Nickerson and Jen Palma at Global, Rick Cluff at CBC, Robert Groulx on Radio-Canada, Al Siebring at the Cowichan Valley Times and George Orr at BCIT -- who gave us vital ink and airtime when we were getting started.
What matters, He says, is that He knows the difference and He blesses us both in different ways. What matters is that Gospel Mission has succeeded because we're true to the assignment reflected in the name. What matters is that God has tapped people on the shoulder -- from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, hectoring on other Foundations to keep giving even in tough times, to the anonymous donor who handed me a horse-choking wad of cash when he saw Peter's story, to the young boy who gave us $46 he'd collected through bottles and odd jobs because he couldn't bear to think of the people on the street with no food -- to let them know we have a need and they can fill it. And most importantly, the people on the street know who we are.
And that's what's in the name.
=========
*According to Answers.com, MJ idolized his older brother to the extent that he chose #23 as his jersey number with the Bulls because Larry wore #45 and he wanted to be half the man his brother was. I saw Larry play for the Chicago Express in the late-unlamented World Basketball League (I was PA announcer for the Vancouver Nighthawks): wonderful player - but at 5'8", well, you do the math.
**That's a neomorphologism meaning to utter one cynical remark, which leads to another ... and another ... until you're out of control and into a festival of negativity. That's an original. You're welcome to it.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
... His hand is stretched out still ...
Today is Thursday, October 29 -- the 80th anniversary of the Great Stock Market Crash, which many pinpoint as the start of the Great Depression.
Whether that was the exact turning point is open for discussion, but the date is significant for Gospel Mission, because the crash happened just after the Mission was founded -- and the history, as I piece it together, is a study in God's planning and provision for His people.
Simply put, it illustrates that God is always ahead of the curve.
Gospel Mission was planted by the Apostolic Church of Pentecost in 1929, which -- if my historical knowledge serves me right -- was a time of great prosperity up till the stock market crash. GM was first established in the Hastings-and-Abbott area (we moved to 331 Carrall Street in the 40s), which itself was a place of great prosperity in Vancouver. If you look at the City Directories for that time period - and up till the early 50s, in fact - you'll find that what is now Canada's Worst Postal Code was a happenin' part of town. There were law offices, consulates, restaurants, theatres (including the Avon -- originally the Pantages -- where my parents met) and the Carnegie Public Library (now the Carnegie Centre).
Why set up a rescue mission in the midst of that prosperity? Because God knew what was coming -- not just with the depression but the aftermath of World War 2, when soldiers who'd been demobbed but couldn't re-adjust to civilian life -- perhaps because of medical/mental conditions -- would wind up in that area and then the gradual transition into what it is today -- and He knew He needed His people in the area to help catch those who fell.
Now consider this: The Lord's Rain was conceived and built at a time of great worldwide prosperity. Things were bad enough on the DTES, but the Global Economic Downturn hit around the same time that The Lord's Rain opened and you can expect more people would fall victim to the effects of the downturn -- or at least of the fear of the downturn -- and wind up in the area.
Of course, we couldn't see that downturn coming when we took on the project. People who stepped forward to help financially and with funds and labour might have been spooked if we'd started the project just 6 months later, when the economic storm clouds were rolling in. Again, God moved ahead of the curve to make sure His influence -- His Hope -- would be there for people to see.
So the anniversary of the Crash of '29 has an interesting connection with Gospel Mission -- something that none of the people who actually planted the church could have anticipated. As with so many other things that God wants -- including The Lord's Rain -- people respond out of obedience, without knowing even a tenth of the reason why they're supposed to.
And as we obey Him, His hand stays stretched out for blessing.
Whether that was the exact turning point is open for discussion, but the date is significant for Gospel Mission, because the crash happened just after the Mission was founded -- and the history, as I piece it together, is a study in God's planning and provision for His people.
Simply put, it illustrates that God is always ahead of the curve.
Gospel Mission was planted by the Apostolic Church of Pentecost in 1929, which -- if my historical knowledge serves me right -- was a time of great prosperity up till the stock market crash. GM was first established in the Hastings-and-Abbott area (we moved to 331 Carrall Street in the 40s), which itself was a place of great prosperity in Vancouver. If you look at the City Directories for that time period - and up till the early 50s, in fact - you'll find that what is now Canada's Worst Postal Code was a happenin' part of town. There were law offices, consulates, restaurants, theatres (including the Avon -- originally the Pantages -- where my parents met) and the Carnegie Public Library (now the Carnegie Centre).
Why set up a rescue mission in the midst of that prosperity? Because God knew what was coming -- not just with the depression but the aftermath of World War 2, when soldiers who'd been demobbed but couldn't re-adjust to civilian life -- perhaps because of medical/mental conditions -- would wind up in that area and then the gradual transition into what it is today -- and He knew He needed His people in the area to help catch those who fell.
Now consider this: The Lord's Rain was conceived and built at a time of great worldwide prosperity. Things were bad enough on the DTES, but the Global Economic Downturn hit around the same time that The Lord's Rain opened and you can expect more people would fall victim to the effects of the downturn -- or at least of the fear of the downturn -- and wind up in the area.
Of course, we couldn't see that downturn coming when we took on the project. People who stepped forward to help financially and with funds and labour might have been spooked if we'd started the project just 6 months later, when the economic storm clouds were rolling in. Again, God moved ahead of the curve to make sure His influence -- His Hope -- would be there for people to see.
So the anniversary of the Crash of '29 has an interesting connection with Gospel Mission -- something that none of the people who actually planted the church could have anticipated. As with so many other things that God wants -- including The Lord's Rain -- people respond out of obedience, without knowing even a tenth of the reason why they're supposed to.
And as we obey Him, His hand stays stretched out for blessing.
Gospel Mission gets major $$$!
Here's the text of a news release I've just sent to the media. Praise the Lord Who provides!
(In case the "serious bread" line is lost on you: the Weston Foundation grew out of Weston's Bakeries and the family now owns Superstore, Loblaws, the President's Choice product line and a bunch of other grocery-related concerns.)
News Release Oct. 27, 2009
Weston’s provides serious bread for Gospel Mission
Gospel Mission Society and its ministry, The Lord’s Rain, which provides showers for people on Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, have received a major boost to their financial resources from a major Canadian charitable Foundation.
The W. Garfield Weston Foundation has selected Gospel Mission to receive a grant of $15,000 to go towards its work in what some call “Canada’s Worst Postal Code.” Mr Mark Mitchell, a Director of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation and a third-generation member of the Weston family, will present the cheque at a small ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 9:30am at Gospel Mission, 331 Carrall Street.
This contribution is part of a one-time special program initiated by The Foundation to help organizations like Gospel Mission make it through the current economic downturn. In all, $1.8 million is being divided among 120 groups. Further information about this special program can be found at http://www.westonfoundation.org/tigs/Pages/default.aspx.
Since Gospel Mission and The Lord’s Rain are run by volunteers (except for one paid administrator’s position), money contributed to the Society goes directly where it’s needed most: rent, utilities and supplies.
"We are very pleased be able to assist Gospel Mission in providing guidance and food for people in need,” says Mr Mitchell. “For 80 years, it has ministered to people regardless of race, gender or background, while The Lord’s Rain literally helps people ‘clean up’. We’re confident this contribution will have a direct and immediate impact."
“The provision for this ministry has been a case of the Lord tapping people on the shoulder – individuals, businesses, churches and organizations – to contribute as and when needed,” adds Drew Snider, Assistant Pastor at Gospel Mission. “This contribution makes it so much easier for us to minister the Hope that people need to turn their lives around.”
Founded in 1929 by the Apostolic Church of Pentecost, Gospel Mission is a church that has served Vancouver’s Downtown East Side through the Great Depression, World War II and countless economic ups and downs, helping to catch people who have fallen and encouraging them with the knowledge that they are loved. The Lord’s Rain opened in April 2008, providing showers and a place where people can escape from the street and find friendly conversation (not to mention free coffee!).
Att’n assignment editors: the media are invited to the cheque presentation on Tues. Nov. 3 at 9:30 am. The presentation will take place at Gospel Mission, 331 Carrall Street. Due to the roadwork currently underway in the block, the best parking will be on Cordova Street between Abbott and Columbia.
-30-
(In case the "serious bread" line is lost on you: the Weston Foundation grew out of Weston's Bakeries and the family now owns Superstore, Loblaws, the President's Choice product line and a bunch of other grocery-related concerns.)
News Release Oct. 27, 2009
Weston’s provides serious bread for Gospel Mission
Gospel Mission Society and its ministry, The Lord’s Rain, which provides showers for people on Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, have received a major boost to their financial resources from a major Canadian charitable Foundation.
The W. Garfield Weston Foundation has selected Gospel Mission to receive a grant of $15,000 to go towards its work in what some call “Canada’s Worst Postal Code.” Mr Mark Mitchell, a Director of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation and a third-generation member of the Weston family, will present the cheque at a small ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 9:30am at Gospel Mission, 331 Carrall Street.
This contribution is part of a one-time special program initiated by The Foundation to help organizations like Gospel Mission make it through the current economic downturn. In all, $1.8 million is being divided among 120 groups. Further information about this special program can be found at http://www.westonfoundation.org/tigs/Pages/default.aspx.
Since Gospel Mission and The Lord’s Rain are run by volunteers (except for one paid administrator’s position), money contributed to the Society goes directly where it’s needed most: rent, utilities and supplies.
"We are very pleased be able to assist Gospel Mission in providing guidance and food for people in need,” says Mr Mitchell. “For 80 years, it has ministered to people regardless of race, gender or background, while The Lord’s Rain literally helps people ‘clean up’. We’re confident this contribution will have a direct and immediate impact."
“The provision for this ministry has been a case of the Lord tapping people on the shoulder – individuals, businesses, churches and organizations – to contribute as and when needed,” adds Drew Snider, Assistant Pastor at Gospel Mission. “This contribution makes it so much easier for us to minister the Hope that people need to turn their lives around.”
Founded in 1929 by the Apostolic Church of Pentecost, Gospel Mission is a church that has served Vancouver’s Downtown East Side through the Great Depression, World War II and countless economic ups and downs, helping to catch people who have fallen and encouraging them with the knowledge that they are loved. The Lord’s Rain opened in April 2008, providing showers and a place where people can escape from the street and find friendly conversation (not to mention free coffee!).
Att’n assignment editors: the media are invited to the cheque presentation on Tues. Nov. 3 at 9:30 am. The presentation will take place at Gospel Mission, 331 Carrall Street. Due to the roadwork currently underway in the block, the best parking will be on Cordova Street between Abbott and Columbia.
-30-
Monday, October 26, 2009
When is a "charity" not a "charity"? Hmm ...
On Saturday, I posted a remark about an item in the Vancouver Sun, stating that non-profit groups and charities were feeling the pinch from the recession. Then I started ruminating on that phase, "non-profits and charities", and thought of something.
Let's see if can express this without seeming smug or self-righteous.
See, my comment on the item in the Sun is that Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain was that no one interviewed us for the article, but if they had, they would have heard a different observation, namely, that the Lord will provide. And, indeed, He does. God does not experience recessions. So any kind of contribution -- from the big-ticket blessing from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation to an unexpected gift from the family of a gentleman who died recently and had been a supporter of ours in the past to an offering collected from the memorial for our dear sister Candy -- is a case of God at work.
But why us? For the true answer, look at us as an example that can apply to anyone else. To begin with, we declare that God is our source for provision and that so long as we are doing the work He has called us to do, we know we can rely on Him: not gaming revenue, not government whims, not companies that might tighten their belts in tough times.
Specifically, He has called us to bring the Light of Christ to people on the Downtown East Side, because from His Word comes the key to everything. Social justice, human rights, homelessness, poverty, crime, drug addiction: turn to the Word of God, and you'll find the solutions for all of that, and what more needful area can you think of than the Downtown East Side -- or any of the other "Samarias" all over the western world? (What do I mean by "Samaria"? Check out this blog entry.)
And He's sending the distinct message that those who answer that call won't have to worry about provision. Recession or no recession, He keeps coming through for us in ways that are so wondrous, they can only be God At Work, and we give Him the praise and the glory.
And what about the non-profits and charities that are feeling the pinch? The same provision God gives to us can go to them, too, if they take a moment and consider whether (a) they're doing what God has called them to do and (b) they're doing it His way.
***
An intriguing anniversary
Thursday, October 29, will mark the 80th anniversary of the Great Stock Market Crash, which many pinpoint as the start of the Great Depression. Whether that was the exact turning point is open for discussion, but the date is significant for Gospel Mission, because it occurred just after the founding of the Mission.
Huh?
Gospel Mission was planted by the Apostolic Church of Pentecost in 1929, which -- if my historical knowledge serves me right -- was a time of great prosperity up till the stock market crash. The Hastings-and-Abbott area, where GM was first established (we moved to 331 Carrall Street in the 40s), was a place of great prosperity in Vancouver. If you look at the City Directories for that time period - and up till the early 50s, in fact - you'll find that what is now Canada's Worst Postal Code was a happenin' part of town. There were law offices, consulates, restaurants, theatres (including the Avon -- originally the Pantages -- where my parents met) and the Carnegie Public Library (now the Carnegie Centre).
Why set up a rescue mission in the midst of that prosperity?
Because God knew what was coming -- not just with the depression but the aftermath of World War 2, when soldiers who'd been demobbed and maybe had debilitating medical/mental conditions would wind up in that area and then the gradual transition into what it is today -- and He knew He needed His people in the area to help catch those who fell.
Consider this: The Lord's Rain was conceived and built at a time of great worldwide prosperity. Things were bad enough on the DTES, but the Global Economic Downturn hit around the same time that The Lord's Rain opened and you can expect more people would fall victim to the effects of the downturn -- or at least of the fear of the downturn -- and wind up in the area. Again, God moved ahead of the curve to make sure His influence -- His Hope -- would be there for people to see.
So the anniversary of the Crash of '29 has an interesting connection with Gospel Mission -- something that none of the people who actually planted the church could have anticipated. As with so many other things that God wants -- including The Lord's Rain -- people respond out of obedience, without knowing even a tenth of the reason why they're supposed to.
****
Take neither purse nor scrip ...
The Lord's Rain got put to work in an unusual way this past weekend. I got a call from Peter Carlson, International Prayer Director with Grace Extended Ministries in Beaverton, Oregon. He'd heard about us through a mutual friend, Thor Tolo, the radio personality who interviewed me twice last year about my book, A Very Convenient Truth. Thor and I have become good friends since then, and he had no compunction about giving Peter my number when he found out Peter was leading a group of young missionaries up to Vancouver for a conference at Glad Tidings Church.
Funny thing is -- and you have to understand the way the minds of men and women of God work -- they piled into their vehicles and headed north without having a place to stay. 10 of them. And they called on Wednesday, with the conference starting on Saturday.
Well, we didn't have a place for them to crash, but we did have a place where they could shower-up, so on Saturday morning, five of them trooped over to The Lord's Rain to do just that. We also opened up for them early Sunday morning, which we don't normally do.
It was a great time to talk and compare notes about missionary work -- particularly work with urban poverty (a much better term than "the homeless", if only because you can have a roof over your head or a shelter bed and account for one less in the "homelessness register" ledger sheet and still not have a home) -- and pray together and encourage one another. It was also a wonderful blessing to be a part of the equivalent of Jesus' sending out the 70 disciples with the instruction not to take anything with them, but to rely on the hospitality of the people they met along the way.
("When I sent ye out, lacked ye anything?" He asked; "Nothing," they replied.)
And where did they crash? They stayed at "614", which is a ministry run by the Salvation Army's War College, about 2 blocks away. It just happened to be a ministry that they had wanted to connect with.
See what I mean about God providing in ways we can never imagine?
Let's see if can express this without seeming smug or self-righteous.
See, my comment on the item in the Sun is that Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain was that no one interviewed us for the article, but if they had, they would have heard a different observation, namely, that the Lord will provide. And, indeed, He does. God does not experience recessions. So any kind of contribution -- from the big-ticket blessing from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation to an unexpected gift from the family of a gentleman who died recently and had been a supporter of ours in the past to an offering collected from the memorial for our dear sister Candy -- is a case of God at work.
But why us? For the true answer, look at us as an example that can apply to anyone else. To begin with, we declare that God is our source for provision and that so long as we are doing the work He has called us to do, we know we can rely on Him: not gaming revenue, not government whims, not companies that might tighten their belts in tough times.
Specifically, He has called us to bring the Light of Christ to people on the Downtown East Side, because from His Word comes the key to everything. Social justice, human rights, homelessness, poverty, crime, drug addiction: turn to the Word of God, and you'll find the solutions for all of that, and what more needful area can you think of than the Downtown East Side -- or any of the other "Samarias" all over the western world? (What do I mean by "Samaria"? Check out this blog entry.)
And He's sending the distinct message that those who answer that call won't have to worry about provision. Recession or no recession, He keeps coming through for us in ways that are so wondrous, they can only be God At Work, and we give Him the praise and the glory.
And what about the non-profits and charities that are feeling the pinch? The same provision God gives to us can go to them, too, if they take a moment and consider whether (a) they're doing what God has called them to do and (b) they're doing it His way.
***
An intriguing anniversary
Thursday, October 29, will mark the 80th anniversary of the Great Stock Market Crash, which many pinpoint as the start of the Great Depression. Whether that was the exact turning point is open for discussion, but the date is significant for Gospel Mission, because it occurred just after the founding of the Mission.
Huh?
Gospel Mission was planted by the Apostolic Church of Pentecost in 1929, which -- if my historical knowledge serves me right -- was a time of great prosperity up till the stock market crash. The Hastings-and-Abbott area, where GM was first established (we moved to 331 Carrall Street in the 40s), was a place of great prosperity in Vancouver. If you look at the City Directories for that time period - and up till the early 50s, in fact - you'll find that what is now Canada's Worst Postal Code was a happenin' part of town. There were law offices, consulates, restaurants, theatres (including the Avon -- originally the Pantages -- where my parents met) and the Carnegie Public Library (now the Carnegie Centre).
Why set up a rescue mission in the midst of that prosperity?
Because God knew what was coming -- not just with the depression but the aftermath of World War 2, when soldiers who'd been demobbed and maybe had debilitating medical/mental conditions would wind up in that area and then the gradual transition into what it is today -- and He knew He needed His people in the area to help catch those who fell.
Consider this: The Lord's Rain was conceived and built at a time of great worldwide prosperity. Things were bad enough on the DTES, but the Global Economic Downturn hit around the same time that The Lord's Rain opened and you can expect more people would fall victim to the effects of the downturn -- or at least of the fear of the downturn -- and wind up in the area. Again, God moved ahead of the curve to make sure His influence -- His Hope -- would be there for people to see.
So the anniversary of the Crash of '29 has an interesting connection with Gospel Mission -- something that none of the people who actually planted the church could have anticipated. As with so many other things that God wants -- including The Lord's Rain -- people respond out of obedience, without knowing even a tenth of the reason why they're supposed to.
****
Take neither purse nor scrip ...
The Lord's Rain got put to work in an unusual way this past weekend. I got a call from Peter Carlson, International Prayer Director with Grace Extended Ministries in Beaverton, Oregon. He'd heard about us through a mutual friend, Thor Tolo, the radio personality who interviewed me twice last year about my book, A Very Convenient Truth. Thor and I have become good friends since then, and he had no compunction about giving Peter my number when he found out Peter was leading a group of young missionaries up to Vancouver for a conference at Glad Tidings Church.
Funny thing is -- and you have to understand the way the minds of men and women of God work -- they piled into their vehicles and headed north without having a place to stay. 10 of them. And they called on Wednesday, with the conference starting on Saturday.
Well, we didn't have a place for them to crash, but we did have a place where they could shower-up, so on Saturday morning, five of them trooped over to The Lord's Rain to do just that. We also opened up for them early Sunday morning, which we don't normally do.
It was a great time to talk and compare notes about missionary work -- particularly work with urban poverty (a much better term than "the homeless", if only because you can have a roof over your head or a shelter bed and account for one less in the "homelessness register" ledger sheet and still not have a home) -- and pray together and encourage one another. It was also a wonderful blessing to be a part of the equivalent of Jesus' sending out the 70 disciples with the instruction not to take anything with them, but to rely on the hospitality of the people they met along the way.
("When I sent ye out, lacked ye anything?" He asked; "Nothing," they replied.)
And where did they crash? They stayed at "614", which is a ministry run by the Salvation Army's War College, about 2 blocks away. It just happened to be a ministry that they had wanted to connect with.
See what I mean about God providing in ways we can never imagine?
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Olympics, Rail Implants and the Glam Couple
Don't park here - you shall smart for this!*
I'm really looking forward to the Winter Olympics, but there's no question the games are going to affect us all in different ways. The Olympic Transportation Plan Phase 2 has just come out, and my relief at Gospel Mission not being in one of those security "red zones" despite being near GM Place and BC Place suddenly turned sour when I saw the map in The Sun.
The map shows that yes, we're outside the security zone, but the stretch of Cordova Street running past Carrall will be a 24/7 no-stopping zone.
Couple that with the revamped Carrall Street outside the mission -- where there will be metered parking which will likely be snapped up during the Games -- and you can see we have a potential problem. See, the suggestion to bring in supplies during "off hours" (like between midnight and noon) may work for businesses, but the mission is considerably different. We come in at all hours and something is going on 6 nights a week plus Sunday afternoon. Barry comes in from Port Coquitlam. Teresa, from Richmond. The bus and walking is not an option for Daniel.
There are two potential solutions that I can see, and I'm contacting the City of Vancouver about them. One is to allow us to place a hood on one of the parking meters, essentially reserving it for Gospel Mission. Another is to work a deal to allow us to park up to 2 vehicles in the alley next to the building. We'll need prayer for favor in that one, I can tell you.
But consider: Olympics or no Olympics, winter is the time of greatest need in the Downtown East Side, and while businesses and individuals may be able to alter their schedules to accommodate transportation and other needs, that doesn't really work for the street people. A six-week disruption in the operations of Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain would make things even more difficult for our friends, and that's the very reason why so many individuals and groups have invested in the work we do. I'm sure the City will be willing to find a way to work this out.
Of course, the situation won't be solved by complaining, whining, protesting or dumping non-recyclable imported non-organic juice bottles on Gregor Robertson's front lawn. As we have done over and over again, we turn to the Lord for provision ... which leads us to ...
-----
*Specially for you Flanders & Swann fans!
God always has a ram in the bush!
And the ram this time comes in the form of a family built on bread. The W. Garfield Weston Foundation -- which came out of the company that was originally Weston Bakeries and now is responsible for a bunch of household names in this country, including Superstore and President's Choice -- has announced it's contributing $15,000 to Gospel Mission. It's part of a special fund they set up to help organizations that feed and clothe the poor make it through the current economic downturn, when many of their usual contributors have been pulling in their horns. The Westons put $1.8 million into the fund, to be cut up among 120 organizations -- including ours.
Some might say it's ironic: today's Vancouver Sun has an article about charities feeling the pinch because of the downturn. (There were similar stories several months ago, too, in fact.) No one's interviewed us, which is a shame because while we've had the ups and downs you always experience with a Mission, we keep reminding ourselves and anyone else that God has provided for Gospel Mission over the past 80 years, He has had His hand on The Lord's Rain for blessing and provision and He's not going to let a recession stop Him.
And He has heard our prayers!
The Glamour Kids Return
I've written before about Brendan and Charlotte, a 30-something couple that really make the uninitiated ask, "what happened????" He's good-looking; she's gorgeous; both are sharp as anything: and both have serious drug problems. It makes you realize that anybody can fall and need help. I also go into "dad" mode when I see them: when you meet someone who could be your daughter, it's hard not to.
They're definitely working towards rehab, but it's a long road and they need prayer -- lots of it. Cheryl Weber from "100 Huntley Street" interviewed Brendan during her visit in May (air date still TBA, but some time in 2010) and was amazed at his story of being too close to temptation and letting his life get out of control. But it's also a story of how people cannot be expected to pull themselves up and turn their lives around on their own strength. They need the X-Factor -- Christ. That's why Brendan and Charlotte need our prayers: they're earnest, smart, loving ... but it's in Christ that they'll find that strength to carry them when their own flesh is screaming for the drugs.
Watch that bump there!
The work continues on Carrall Street progresses (as noted above), and one of the elements of the beautification (as opposed to beatification) of Pigeon Park is a set of implants. Rails, to be precise. See, the building in the background used to be the car barn for the BC Electric Railway, and there are still streetcar rails in the pavement in the parking lot. The rails being implanted in Pigeon Park are a sort-of historical throwback and a symbolic continuation of the rails at the car barn. There's also a set of rails running across the sidewalk outside International Village -- the shopping mall on the other side of the old car barn on Pender Street -- and those rails then cross Pender into the parking lot.
Problem with the rails in the sidewalk is, there's no "cutaway" in the sidewalk, so that the rails in the sidewalk are a good 2" higher than the rails in the road -- so that if you really were on a streetcar, there would be this sudden bump (and possibly several derailments). But hey: who said form had to relate to function?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Lee Grady's message at Westpointe
I really hope churches read between the lines -- or catch the less subtle aspects -- of Lee Grady's message today at Westpointe (the audio should be posted soon). Using the image of the storms God sent over the ship that Jonah was riding on, trying to get away from his assignment to Nineveh, Lee says that the "storms" engulfing North America -- such as financial crises and deep, hate-filled political division and general finger-pointing -- have been caused by people of God (the churches) trying to run away from their assignments and lying, fast asleep, below decks.
Indeed, not only have the churches not been fulfilling their assignments, they've been doing things they weren't called to do in the first place.
I've been hearing for a few years, now -- and I'm sure I'm not the only one; it's good to get confirmation from someone like Lee. While the storms have been raging around us, churches (and I realize this is a generalization -- as one English prof used to say, "All generalizations are bad" -- because not all the churches have fallen into this) have been railing against sin and the bad things people are doing and forgetting what The Great Commission is all about. We're not supposed to be harping on what's wrong with the world: rather, we're supposed to be telling people what's right with Jesus. Jesus never told us to go forth and wipe out sin. He told us to be His witnesses. If we're doing that properly, sin and evil would be a non-starter. The Light, as John puts it in his Gospel, would shine and darkness would not be able to overpower it.
How many times do we have to hear it? "Resist not evil." "Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with Good." "Feed My sheep." "Ye shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth."
From where I sit, ministering Christ in the Downtown East Side, that last point is subtle, but significant. The DTES is our Samaria in Metro Vancouver: land of the outcasts, that the "good" people of the rest of the region would like to pretend doesn't really exist, of which the denizens are to be avoided. Yet if I construe Jesus' directions (in Acts 1:8 -- His last words to us on earth, in fact) as presenting an "order of operations", churches should be leading the charge to bring Christ to the urban poor even before they try to tackle the Third World.
Is showing off God's goodness, Jesus' love, and ministering that to the smelly, weird-looking "Samaria" of the urban poor is our "Nineveh" -- an assignment from God that we try desperately to avoid? Or ministering love and grace to the people who have -- at least for the time-being -- rejected Christ in favour of another "belief system" or their own fleshly desires? Are we trying to avoid those "mission fields" because we're afraid we'll be rejected, laughed-at or scorned?
Yet the storms persist and people's lives are at stake; but if we look at the metaphor Lee uses from Jonah, we see that the antidote is right within our grasp.
Lee Grady (the editor of Charisma magazine, whose prophecy was one of the keys to the realization of The Lord's Rain) speaks again tonight at 6:30, and Monday and Tuesday nights at 7 at Westpointe Christian Centre, 12th & Stephens (near Macdonald) in Vancouver.
Indeed, not only have the churches not been fulfilling their assignments, they've been doing things they weren't called to do in the first place.
I've been hearing for a few years, now -- and I'm sure I'm not the only one; it's good to get confirmation from someone like Lee. While the storms have been raging around us, churches (and I realize this is a generalization -- as one English prof used to say, "All generalizations are bad" -- because not all the churches have fallen into this) have been railing against sin and the bad things people are doing and forgetting what The Great Commission is all about. We're not supposed to be harping on what's wrong with the world: rather, we're supposed to be telling people what's right with Jesus. Jesus never told us to go forth and wipe out sin. He told us to be His witnesses. If we're doing that properly, sin and evil would be a non-starter. The Light, as John puts it in his Gospel, would shine and darkness would not be able to overpower it.
How many times do we have to hear it? "Resist not evil." "Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with Good." "Feed My sheep." "Ye shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth."
From where I sit, ministering Christ in the Downtown East Side, that last point is subtle, but significant. The DTES is our Samaria in Metro Vancouver: land of the outcasts, that the "good" people of the rest of the region would like to pretend doesn't really exist, of which the denizens are to be avoided. Yet if I construe Jesus' directions (in Acts 1:8 -- His last words to us on earth, in fact) as presenting an "order of operations", churches should be leading the charge to bring Christ to the urban poor even before they try to tackle the Third World.
Is showing off God's goodness, Jesus' love, and ministering that to the smelly, weird-looking "Samaria" of the urban poor is our "Nineveh" -- an assignment from God that we try desperately to avoid? Or ministering love and grace to the people who have -- at least for the time-being -- rejected Christ in favour of another "belief system" or their own fleshly desires? Are we trying to avoid those "mission fields" because we're afraid we'll be rejected, laughed-at or scorned?
Yet the storms persist and people's lives are at stake; but if we look at the metaphor Lee uses from Jonah, we see that the antidote is right within our grasp.
Lee Grady (the editor of Charisma magazine, whose prophecy was one of the keys to the realization of The Lord's Rain) speaks again tonight at 6:30, and Monday and Tuesday nights at 7 at Westpointe Christian Centre, 12th & Stephens (near Macdonald) in Vancouver.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Lord's Rain: The Elves get busy!
(There's an appeal of a different sort near the end of this posting, so even if you don't read the brilliant and engaging prose at the beginning, please cut down to the last 5 or so paragraphs.)
So I go away for 3+ weeks ... The first thing I noticed was the paint job on the outside of Wing's Cafe, the little coffee shop that shares the ground floor of our Carrall Street building with us. Then I realized that paint job extended to the outside of The Lord's Rain ... including the bars on the windows ... and all up the inside staircase (which had been in dire need of repainting* for quite a while).
The elves had arrived, in the form of some young people our sister Teresa Mancia (who does Monday evening services, oversees The Lord's Rain on Monday and Friday middays and filled in for the first two Saturday night services that I was away) had dragooned into helping out at Gospel Mission.
Then, I saw that the elves had also begun dealing with the back wall of The Lord's Rain. That's been one of the remaining jobs at The Lord's Rain: repairing and upgrading the wall in the back portion, where the electrical box is located and some spare lumber has been stored. But there had been other priorities -- like running the place -- and that part of the job was put aside. Not forgotten-about, mind you: just put on the back burner temporarily.
Anyway, Barry had attacked the back area himself, assisted by another of Teresa's elves (a young Muslim man, in fact), and while the job isn't complete, the sense that it's on the right track is a major load off our shoulders.
(There's a metaphor for Salvation in that last sentence: anyone who hangs about, waiting to see a completed work before admitting that they (or anyone else) are Saved is missing the whole point.)
But I digress ... I came home from vacation (honeymoon, in fact) to find the place had taken another big step forward -- a place where His people that we serve can feel comfortable and welcome.
Carrall Street itself is also a work in progress. You can see in this photo (taken on Tuesday) where the sidewalk bulges are taking shape, with stanchions for parking meters and/or bicycle lockups. The bicycle path will be along there, as well.
Here's what's become of Pigeon Park. I understand the City is installing a public washroom there -- one of those self-cleaning jobs, like the one at Main and Terminal, about a mile away.
It's going to look gorgeous, and while some people -- the activists who play off the fears and paranoia in the area -- portray the project as a step towards "gentrification", chasing away the homeless and disadvantaged, I see it as the City sending a subliminal message that these people have not been forgotten and are not being ignored.
That's an important message to an area beset with a spirit of abandonment. Maybe it's not 400 shelter beds or another dozen soup kitchens, but those are only temporary solutions, anyway. The spiritual message from "we know you're there and we want your street to be beautiful, too" brings hope -- Remember, the issue is not HOMELESSNESS but HOPELESSNESS -- that lingers long after the last sandwich has gone.
It's like a certain SkyTrain Attendant I know of, who has a supply of home-grown roses on hand, and when he sees someone who's looking depressed, he gives them one. He's been known to stay with the person and listen to their story. The immediate problem may be an overdue bill or a lost loved one, but the gesture that Somebody Cares opens people's eyes to possibilities they couldn't see before -- because God has suddenly been allowed into the picture.
The job now is to portray the Carrall Street beautification in that way and build on that with more indications that people haven't forgotten them. As I've said before, the fact that the Lord's Rain came together through the combined efforts of a group of individuals with a variety of gifts, is another indication of that.
==========
In closing, here are a couple of praise reports.
1 - we made an extraordinary appeal for financial support a couple of months ago, and the response was tremendous. We need to remember, though, that the need is ongoing (for the rent and utilities -- none of us gets paid to work at The Lord's Rain), so I hope you'll keep us in mind.
2 - the Lord has definitely blessed the move we made in the spring, refusing to accept funds from provincial gaming revenue. It meant that we had to say "thanks-but-no-thanks" to one ministry, and "the world" would probably say we were nuts to do that. But since then, contributions and new people to help minister have been coming in, sometimes from some surprising sources. In essence, we got out of God's way and allowed Him to do what He needed to do.
3 - Barry has been talking for some time now about his vision for The Lord's Rain to be open 6 days a week. Right now, we're open 4 days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday (plus Tuesday afternoons for "Ladies Day"). This brings us to the "unusual appeal": there are still some opportunities for anyone who might be led to oversee an opening time.
I believe the best times to be open are in the early morning, to give people a place to go after the shelters boot them out -- something especially needed as the weather turns colder. (The Tuesday opening is 7-8:30am, which allows me to get to the office by 9 or 9:15. I mention that because it is something that one can do prior to going to work.) I hope you'll consider that. Respond through this blog if you're interested.
Remember: when Jesus looked at Samaria and said "the fields are white for the harvest", He didn't follow that by saying, "but we don't have the money". He said, "the labourers are few". Money, as I said before, is always going to be a requirement, but the more people who can come down and share their love, experiences and time in the area, the better the connections will be between the people in our own "Samaria" and those from "the other half", and the greater the level of Hope that can be ministered.
(If you don't live in the Vancouver area, there are plenty of other districts like the Downtown East Side, please consider doing something similar in those districts.)
By the way, our mailing address has changed: it's now
Gospel Mission,
Box 1151,
Vancouver BC
V5K 1Z1.
Please make the checks payable to Gospel Mission Society, and if you want it to go specifically towards the showers project, write "The Lord's Rain" or "Showers" in the "memo" line.
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*I am reminded of the pastor who realized his church needed a new paint job, so he got out the paint and brushes to do it himself. But there wasn't enough paint, so he used thinner to make it stretch further. As the level of paint went down, he kept adding more thinner. He was almost finished the job, when a rainstorm hit and washed away all his work. And as he looked at the situation, a voice boomed from the Heavens, "Repaint! And thin no more!"
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Junior
It's been hard to know what to make of Junior. A short, slight, Englishman, with several front teeth missing and a perpetual swagger in his walk, he started coming into The Lord's Rain about a year ago. The most common themes in his conversation have been (a) that he was subject to arrest and deportation, even though he'd lived in Canada since the 60s, and (b) that he used to run with the Hell's Angels in Quebec and the Maritimes.
His big talk has always made me wonder. How much of it is real, how much is bravado and how much is just plain delusional? The wondering reached a peak a couple of months ago, when I casually asked him how he got his nickname "Junior". He went into a long story about being born in India when his father was in his 60s and had married (I think) a young Indian woman, but then was raised by older sisters back in England ... kicked out of various schools and then sent off to Canada, (and possibly not as a remittance man) ... and that's when he fell in with the bikers. "Junior" was what his dad called him, to the point that no one in his family knew who they were talking about when they used his right name.
The more I listened, the more I realized that the story was wild, crazy, out of left field, totally unbelieveable ... and there just might be something to it!
I hadn't seen Junior in a while, until he came into The Lord's Rain this past Tuesday. He had a coffee and sat down. Then another fellow came in, who I'd never seen before: he asked if the coffee was free (yes), then sat down and talked to Junior.
"Charlie East."
"Huh?"
"Charlie East."
"Dunno what you're talkin' about," said Junior.
"That's where I know you from."
"I never seen you before."
"We were in the same cell block."
"I been inside since."
To translate: the new guy was trying to convince Junior that they knew each other from doing time together in chokey. Junior seemed nonplussed. Finally, the new guy said, ever so casually, "come on outside, I want to talk to you."
"I'm not going outside with you."
You don't need to be Mario Puzo to get an idea of what was coming. Junior refused to go outside, and the new fellow was quite insistent. I was distracted by something else, and then I realized Junior had, incredibly, stepped outside with the guy. Danilo went out after them about 30 seconds later, but it was about 10 seconds too late. Danilo hollered for me, and when I got there, Junior was sitting in the alley, his back against the wall, face bloody and looking dazed. The other guy was haring off down the street. It had been, apparently, a two punch discussion.
Junior said "yes" when I asked if he wanted me to call 911, which surprised me: often, victims in what was apparently a "targeted hit" (to use the term the media love to jump on) are in no mood to cooperate with police, but Junior probably figured that was a safer proposition than hanging about in the area.
But I can't say much for the street-wiseness of the attacker. Rather than take off in the general direction of away, he wound up in the alley across the street from The Lord's Rain, in full view of our picture window, presenting an excellent opportunity for me to describe him to the police. Unfortunately, police arrived about a minute after he disappeared down the alley and out the far side.
A couple of cops arrived and walked Junior out to the ambulance, which wasn't able to get right to the Mission on account of that work still going on on Carrall Street.
I found out on Wednesday night that the story had flashed around the DTES and had made its way up to the Food Bank, except that it had morphed into a fight inside The Lord's Rain. Alas, trying to shut down a rumour like that on the Alley Telegraph is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.
Once again, The Lord's Rain is in the right place at the right time. Supposing that goon had caught up with Junior and there wasn't a place open where there were witnesses and a phone to call 911? It's not the first time we've provided a place for someone to come in and get help at a time when most places are closed, and it won't be the last.
His big talk has always made me wonder. How much of it is real, how much is bravado and how much is just plain delusional? The wondering reached a peak a couple of months ago, when I casually asked him how he got his nickname "Junior". He went into a long story about being born in India when his father was in his 60s and had married (I think) a young Indian woman, but then was raised by older sisters back in England ... kicked out of various schools and then sent off to Canada, (and possibly not as a remittance man) ... and that's when he fell in with the bikers. "Junior" was what his dad called him, to the point that no one in his family knew who they were talking about when they used his right name.
The more I listened, the more I realized that the story was wild, crazy, out of left field, totally unbelieveable ... and there just might be something to it!
I hadn't seen Junior in a while, until he came into The Lord's Rain this past Tuesday. He had a coffee and sat down. Then another fellow came in, who I'd never seen before: he asked if the coffee was free (yes), then sat down and talked to Junior.
"Charlie East."
"Huh?"
"Charlie East."
"Dunno what you're talkin' about," said Junior.
"That's where I know you from."
"I never seen you before."
"We were in the same cell block."
"I been inside since."
To translate: the new guy was trying to convince Junior that they knew each other from doing time together in chokey. Junior seemed nonplussed. Finally, the new guy said, ever so casually, "come on outside, I want to talk to you."
"I'm not going outside with you."
You don't need to be Mario Puzo to get an idea of what was coming. Junior refused to go outside, and the new fellow was quite insistent. I was distracted by something else, and then I realized Junior had, incredibly, stepped outside with the guy. Danilo went out after them about 30 seconds later, but it was about 10 seconds too late. Danilo hollered for me, and when I got there, Junior was sitting in the alley, his back against the wall, face bloody and looking dazed. The other guy was haring off down the street. It had been, apparently, a two punch discussion.
Junior said "yes" when I asked if he wanted me to call 911, which surprised me: often, victims in what was apparently a "targeted hit" (to use the term the media love to jump on) are in no mood to cooperate with police, but Junior probably figured that was a safer proposition than hanging about in the area.
But I can't say much for the street-wiseness of the attacker. Rather than take off in the general direction of away, he wound up in the alley across the street from The Lord's Rain, in full view of our picture window, presenting an excellent opportunity for me to describe him to the police. Unfortunately, police arrived about a minute after he disappeared down the alley and out the far side.
A couple of cops arrived and walked Junior out to the ambulance, which wasn't able to get right to the Mission on account of that work still going on on Carrall Street.
I found out on Wednesday night that the story had flashed around the DTES and had made its way up to the Food Bank, except that it had morphed into a fight inside The Lord's Rain. Alas, trying to shut down a rumour like that on the Alley Telegraph is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.
Once again, The Lord's Rain is in the right place at the right time. Supposing that goon had caught up with Junior and there wasn't a place open where there were witnesses and a phone to call 911? It's not the first time we've provided a place for someone to come in and get help at a time when most places are closed, and it won't be the last.
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