From The Lord's Rain: ch-ch-changes!

We are approaching a huge milestone at The Lord’s Rain: shower #10,000!

It is now eight years since I came back to Vancouver from New York, absolutely buzzing at the way God had led me on this two-week train trip, which included planting the germ of an idea to set up showers for people on the Downtown East Side. It’s obvious now, looking back at the way the project unfolded over the next seven months (it opened in April, 2008), that the idea had been around for long before I ever heard about it – long before I was born, in fact – and the Lord was just pulling the elements together, bringing it to fruition exactly in His way and in His time.

One of the intriguing things about the project – something worth remembering if the Lord puts something on your heart that appears to be too expensive or too big or beyond your personal abilities – is that the resources we needed were already there, lined-up years in advance, in some cases. It’s like the Israelites, building the tabernacle in the wilderness. God specifies some very elaborate and expensive elements for the building – gold and silver and fine linen and jewels – and one might wonder where they came from. But those resources were obtained from the Egyptians in the time leading up to their escape from Egypt: God instructs the Israelites to “ask of their neighbours gold and silver and precious stones”. He just didn’t tell them why those resources would be required later.

And so it was with The Lord’s Rain: connections made years before came together to make it happen.

Many of you probably aren’t aware of this, but Amelia and I moved to East Sooke, on Vancouver Island, about a year ago. It was a decision that was taken with a lot of prayer: in fact, we put a number of “barriers” in front of the deal, saying that if the deal was God’s will, those barriers would come down. It was kind of like the fleeces Gideon put out, so he could be doggone sure it was God who was telling him to send his outnumbered army against the Midianites.

At any rate, we left Vancouver, although I’m still on the Board of Gospel Mission Society.

That’s only one of the changes around the Mission and The Lord’s Rain in the past year, especially the arrival of Wesley Chadwick as General Director and Lead Pastor. Wesley is definitely the one the Lord had in mind for the position, to take the Mission to a new level: the excitement we had at the beginning has just grown.

The excitement of the changes is tempered somewhat by other changes, like the departure of Janet and Kim Mogensen, who were married this past May in a ceremony steeped in love and victory. Janet was Assistant Pastor for many years, responsible for Ladies’ Day at The Lord’s Rain and for the entire shower ministry since fall of 2012. Kim’s story is also one of overcoming setbacks – some of them, self-inflicted – and relying on Jesus to carry him through.

There are others who were part of the Mission for a long time, who are moving on to other things; and yet as some depart, others step up. Gary Stephenson has taken on more responsibility in the early mornings, and Joe, a longtime friend of Ken Franklin, who died almost a year ago, stepped in to volunteer at The Lord’s Rain, as well. “It’s my way of paying tribute to Ken,” he told me once, “picking up where he left off.”

Denise, whom I’ve mentioned before, told me recently she would be volunteering during Ladies’ Day, with Janet gone – another way of helping women in situations like the one she came out of.

Eight years on, The Lord’s Rain is in need of structural work, and thanks to the funds raised through the matching challenge from The R. Howard Webster Foundation – over $26,000.00 – we’ll be able to do that. Between that, and ongoing support from the 625 Powell Street Foundation, which stepped in when we had the funding crisis two and a half years ago, The Lord’s Rain will keep serving the people who really need it, in ways that go way beyond a shower and a coffee.

Most importantly, though, as we reach that important milestone, this is something you can look at and say that, in whatever form your support takes, you’re making it happen.