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).