A seeming disconnect

It's hard to know what to make of this one.

Being Christmastime, it's not unusual for churches and other groups to make forays into the Downtown East Side and food or meals or do something Yuletide-ish. It's quite nice, really: Wednesday night, a group of young people strolled through the streets, carolling; Saturday night, an a cappella Gospel chorus rocked it up in Pigeon Park. In many cases, people are out there because they want to do something to help the situation, because they hear and read about it so much in the media. Don't think the people in the area don't appreciate it. But last night -- Monday -- something strange happened that can't help but leave one wondering.



The pile was about 5-times this size and in front of the window.





I arrived at the Mission with the Monday night bread pickup from Cobs in West Van to find a mountain (I kid you not) of clothes piled in front of the building. The doorway to The Lord's Rain was blocked; there was a Canadian Tire shopping cart in among the clothes, and a guy was picking through there.

There are two signs on the window of The Lord's Rain: NO SELLING OF ANYTHING IN FRONT OF GOSPEL MISSION OR THE LORD'S RAIN. So I pointed that sign out.

"I'm not sellin' nothin'," he said. "I'm picking some stuff out."

"Then whose is it?"

"The group that was over there (Pigeon Park) put it here. They said they'd just leave it here and we could go through it."

"They", it turned out, was a church group, but no one seemed to know the name. They had set up tables in Pigeon Park and handed out turkey dinner, boxes of food and used clothing. One fellow told me there must have been 500 people there. Global TV covered it, so they apparently had some advance work going on.

It was truly a "drive-by" blessing. I had gone to the Mission at 5 to pick up the bins for the bread; then we got back to the Mission around 7:45. During that time span, they had arrived, set up, served, torn down, and left, their final act being to take the unclaimed clothes and dump them in front of our building -- unaware that it was private property.

I'm not an alarmist, but one wacko with a cigarette lighter and a mad-on at the world could have done a lot of damage to our building and the people at the service inside.

So I piled as much of the stuff as I could -- clothes of various descriptions, shoes (some of which matched) and so forth -- onto the shopping cart and pushed the cart around the corner, putting the rest of it beside. Then I called Global TV, to see if they had a contact. I wanted to talk about this with someone who was responsible before deciding how to respond. The assignment desk, however, couldn't find the initial news release and the reporter only remembered talking to someone named "Sean".

Randall told me this morning he'd tried to speak with someone who was serving food and got a terse -- almost rude -- response. "We're a church group." "Oh, yes? Which church?" "Just a church."

One of the things that really ticks me off is that it's not as if no one was in the Mission at the time. As you can see in the photo, there are at least two large signs saying "CARRALL STREET CHURCH" on the front: there's also the illuminated sign showing The Lord's Rain, the wooden sign outside Barry's office window and a big flashing pseudo-neon sign that says "OPEN". Surely, somebody might have thought to ask if it was OK.

(To which I would have replied, "no", because we already have an enormous supply of clothing that we're trying to get rid of. But I never got that chance.)

Why give out boxes of non-perishable food when it could have bolstered the Food Bank's supplies? Why hand out clothing with no backup plan for the stuff that doesn't get taken? And why be rude to a "local" who just wants to know where you're from?

Not having spoken directly to any of the organizers, it's hard to say if they were being contemptuous or ignorant (dumping what was essentially junk could be a product of either or both); but it's a sign of what appears to be a disconnect between suburban churches and ministries on the Downtown East Side. It's rare to hear from them the rest of the year, and evidently this church group was unaware of our existence. They mean well, and they want to do something, but I really think the onus is on them to educate themselves about who's already doing what. The dinner idea is lovely, but what happens on the other 364 nights of the year? Who's there? How are they dealing with the situation? What do they need? (Hint: the answer is not necessarily money.) If they find those answers, they can concentrate their efforts and their obvious well meaning where they do the most good.

People living on the DTES -- druggies, pushers, prostitutes, mentally ill, people on disability pensions, down-and-outers -- are often like kids. You can throw all the money you want to at them, but at the end of the day, all they really want is someone's time, attention ... and love. And as Christians, we're supposed to love the unlovely. Trust me: on the DTES it's not hard.

After all, as I've said, there's really no shortage of money, food or clothing, but the laborers are few.

A special appeal from The Lord's Rain

This was sent to the Friends Of The Lord's Rain this morning. A special appeal -- as if people don't have enough hands reaching out for "special donations to remember the ******** in this Festive Season". But it's something that just came up, so I'm putting this on the SkyTrain to see if it gets off at Metrotown.

Our clothes dryer, a valuable donation when we opened The Lord's Rain 2-1/2 years ago, has packed it in. As John Cleese might put it, it has dried its last towel, shed its final lint, shuffled off its heating coil and gone to join the Choir Invisibule: it is an ex-dryer.



In a street outreach for which the very raison d’être involves showers and therefore clean, dry towels, the dryer is a necessity. In the earliest days, we did attempt to hang the towels around the facility, but that was unreliable and did tend to leave the towels rather hard, reminding one of the dialogue from the old "Barney Miller" TV series:

BARNEY: What happened to the towel in the bathroom?
YEMANA: It broke.

Given our space and electrical constraints, the solution is a stacking washer-dryer unit that can fit into the space where the washer and dryer are currently located.

SO ... would any of you be willing to contribute towards the purchase of such a unit? Are you aware of any companies that could donate or offer a discount on one? We're grateful for any suggestions or leads you might have.
 
Any such donations or leads can be directed to Gospel Mission -- http://www.gospelmission.net/ -- 604-684-3097 ... or leave a comment on this blog.

NEWS RELEASE: Weston again supports Gospel Mission

Vancouver church, showers project is again “President’s Choice”

(Vancouver, Dec. 8, 2010) -- For the second year in a row, Gospel Mission and The Lord’s Rain are receiving a timely infusion of support from a major Canadian philanthropic organization. The W. Garfield Weston Foundation has made a donation of $3,000.00 to help the Mission. This grant, presented to the Mission by Trustee Mark W. Mitchell, follows a $15,000.00 donation received in 2009 as part of a one-time, special initiative to assist charities in surviving the global economic downturn, when support from “usual sources” might be expected to decline.

Founded in 1929, Gospel Mission is a combined church and street outreach. Since the 1940s, it has been housed in an 1888 brick building that was originally a saloon. In 2007, the Mission took over a ground-floor space in the same building to construct The Lord’s Rain, which provides showers for people in the area who need them. A letter from Trustee Wendy Rebanks, who put forward this 2010 grant, notes that since The Lord’s Rain opened in April 2008, it has become “a community gathering place, where people can escape from the street and find friendly conversation”.


“To say we’re grateful is an understatement,” says Assistant Pastor Drew Snider. “Gospel Mission and The Lord’s Rain have been built over the years by a variety of people bringing a variety of ‘offerings to the storehouse’ – what they can, as they can. Contributions like these from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, combined with those from individuals and churches, let our friends here know that a lot of people from a lot of different walks of life are right behind them in their struggle.”


The W. Garfield Weston Foundation is a private Canadian family foundation, established in the 1950’s by Willard Garfield Weston and his wife Reta. In 1924 Garfield inherited his father’s company and during his life established bakeries and other successful enterprises throughout Canada and in many parts of the world. Today, these businesses include the George Weston Limited and Loblaw Companies Limited, companies in food retailing, processing and distribution. The founders believed that as the funds are generated through the hard work and success of these Canadian companies, grants should be given in Canada for the benefit of Canadians. For three generations, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation has maintained a family tradition of supporting charitable organizations across Canada. Today the Foundation directs the majority of its funds to projects in the fields of land conservation, education, and science in Canada’s North.


Gospel Mission is an all-volunteer organization covered by the Apostolic Church of Pentecost of Canada. It is cross-denominational in its approach: a church for those uncomfortable going to church. The Lord’s Rain offers what senior pastor Barry Babcook calls “Jesus with the skin on”. Gospel Mission services are Sunday afternoons and Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday evenings with meals served after each. Wednesday is Bible study and Thursday night is movie night. Services are also shown via closed-circuit TV in The Lord’s Rain, to accommodate people with disabilities.


The Lord’s Rain is currently open early Tuesday and Saturday mornings, Monday and Friday in the early afternoon, with a goal of opening six days a week in the early morning to give people a place to go when the shelters turn them out: this depends on volunteers stepping forward. Anyone interested in volunteering may contact the Mission via the website or by phone (604-684-3097).

Contact Drew Snider 604-803-3199

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Give me that old-time charitable contributions!

It's not that I'm a Luddite (except on days ending in "y"), but there are times when the New Technological Age leaves me cold. In fact, if I may throw my own spin on the tale of the Luddites, the rebellion -- smashing factory machines -- was not against the Industrial Revolution per se, but against the impersonalness of it all. I actually embrace technology, and in my day job with the BC Electric Railway Company, I have to, in order to keep pace with our communications strategy (much of which I've helped to design).

But there are times when I think Ned had a point.

Take, for example, QR code. Please.

Apparently, QR code, with a downloadable app on your mobile device (there's a sentence I never would have used two years ago!), enables you to pay for things directly through your cell phone, even (according to one CBC reporter who breathlessly described it to me a few weeks ago) ordering a latte from your SkyTrain ride and having it ready for you when you get off the train.

She didn't explain why I would want to do that, but that's not the point. The point is that now, one can debit one's bank or credit card account for practically anything, faster than the speed of thought.

And therein lies the issue.

The QR ("Quick Response") phenomenon does appear to be a boon for fundraisers. Show a poster with a gripping image of a person being helped by an organization, put the code on the poster, someone is moved by the image and can quickly make a donation to the cause and go about the rest of their lives. "Less than five bucks? Hey: no skin off my nose!", and on they go.

But what's the spirit behind that fundraising method? Is it a prayerful, considered contribution, or the same thought process that leads us to buy a package of Life Savers when we get to the cashier?

It makes our way of raising funds at Gospel Mission seem so Last Century -- cash, checks and credit card donations (and we only added the credit card option a year ago, when someone said that she couldn't find the credit card option on our website so she gave her donation to another organization, instead). But the whole success of our Mission -- surviving through 81 years and counting -- has been due to those old-time charitable contributions. When you actually sit down, write the check, count out the cash or fill out the credit card form, you find yourself thinking:

• Whom am I giving this to?
• have I done "due diligence" about the organization?
• how will it be used?
• whom does it benefit?
• how does it benefit them?
• is this a tithe or an offering?
• how much?
• can I afford to do this?
• can I afford not to?
• how else can I help?

By the time you get through that process, you've truly put thought into what you're doing.

The way the Lord has been providing for Gospel Mission -- and His provision for The Lord's Rain against all odds confirms it -- tells me there's something to be said for them old-time thought processes and we really don't need to go to Fundraising 2.0. People bringing in what they can, as they can, has worked since the time of the Tabernacle; as a result, we receive what we need, exactly as we need it. (Or, as Senior Pastor Barry Babcook puts it, God comes through in the 11th hour, 59th minute; a constant faith test for us.)

The spirit of prayerful consideration covers the contribution and thence the Mission itself. The people we minister to see the place as their Mission, supported by a variety of people with a variety of levels of means, from those contributing socks for the Vancouver Sock Exchange, to those handing over regular checks, to the occasional big-ticket donation. For many, it's a significant amount of skin off the nose, but it's something they're led to out of love and duty.

And so it has been this week, as an email arrived out of the blue from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation. Last year, The Foundation set up by the bakery and grocery corporation picked us to receive a $15,000 grant from a special fund set up to help charitable organizations like ours get through the economic downturn, when donations from "usual" sources could be expected to ease off. That was a one-time thing, so hearing from The Foundation that it would like to give us another $3000.00 was an unexpected and extremely welcome surprise. A letter from Wendy Rebanks, treasurer of The Foundation (one of Garfield's daughters and aunt of Mark W. Mitchell, who yesterday brought the check to the Mission personally), noted the success of The Lord's Rain both as a showers facility and a place to "escape the street and find friendly conversation".

To say we're grateful would grossly understate the case.

I mentioned the Vancouver Sock Exchange. It's about to receive another massive injection from Francis Heng's Spare Some Socks campaign -- part of his "Change Everything" initiative. Last year, he and his wife rustled up 450 pairs of socks, which took us several months to give away and led to the idea of the VSE, in which "street people" can turn in the socks they're wearing -- so long as they're still wearable -- and we wash them up and put them into "circulation" for others. Check out this video that Francis posted on his blog: http://www.changeeverything.ca/blog/francis/paul-socks-are-gold. "Paul"'s description of having to scrape the socks off his feet (because he'd worn them for so long) reminds me of the story the regional RCMP commander in Port Hardy told me about a homeless guy who'd been brought into the drunk tank there.

We also had a welcome visit from an anonymous donor who, with her son, brought in a boxload of socks and shampoo, having heard about us in a TV report about the recent cold snap in Vancouver.

Lives move forward -- recently, we posted Randall's testimony on God Tube. On Wednesday, Randall informed me he wants to go into Ministry and help others as he's been helped. Another brother, Marty, who started by coming to The Lord's Rain earlier this year and became a regular at Gospel Mission, has taken the big step of checking himself into a recovery program. It's times like these that we marvel at the works of God when people turn to Him through His Son.



Knowledge and Captivity

One of the themes we promote at Gospel Mission is that people need to know God and His Word for themselves. Otherwise, they follow what they think the Word says -- or worse, what other people have told them the Word says -- and they miss out on their chance for a turnaround and a fresh start in their lives.

The theme of "Knowledge" has been working its way into our messages for much of the year. In the Spring, we started getting people at the Mission to take turns reading passages from Jesus' words -- the best way to get to know someone is by hearing what they said. Senior Pastor Barry Babcook last night started a series of Bible study lessons on Jesus' parables -- not just the "story" parables, but the metaphors He uses.

Here's a message that followed Randall's testimony on Sat. Nov. 27, on the topic "Knowledge and Captivity".

Randall's Testimony

We encourage people to share their testimonies at Gospel Mission, and Randall Russell, one of the volunteers at the Mission and at The Lord's Rain downstairs, came forward and shared his recently. It's at the same time gut-wrenching and uplifting.

Testimonies are important: one can be skeptical and even cynical about the Bible and talk of miracles and the work of God, but you can't argue with a personal story. What's more, testimonies encourage others that they can have the same experience of salvation and transformation; and those who have already experienced that sometimes need to be reminded, themselves.

Since he gave this testimony, Randall has told me that even in the worst times, church was his refuge -- even for three hours a week -- and now he wants to go into Ministry, himself.