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
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