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.