I marvel at the miracles God works in people when they give Him a chance! I also marvel at the way He responds to prayer in His time. Two cases in point are people I've known since the days at Rainbow Mission, where I ministered from summer of 2004 until the end of 2006.
Danilo, for example, first started coming ... actually, I can't remember when Danilo first started coming or how he became a part of the ministry, but I also can't remember when he wasn't part of the ministry, helping in the kitchen or cleaning up or whatever needed to be done. When Rainbow closed, he came with John and Amelia and me to another Mission, and then God moved us all over to Gospel Mission.
I remember that patience was not Danilo's strong suit when I first met him. Loyalty certainly was and has been: he was definitely ready to drop the gloves if anyone looked at me the wrong way or acted up in the services. But over these four or five years, I've seen him become more patient, calmer, more willing to decide that, if there's a dispute, it's really not the proverbial "hill to die on".
He's 56 years old, Nicaraguan, speaks five languages and has been through most of Europe and the Americas. Marched with the Sandinistas, although he's now disillusioned with Daniel Ortega -- and says much of the country is, too. Went through many years of high living that eventually caught up with him, and for the better part of three years was homeless. A couple of months ago, he finally found a place that is not only a consistent roof over his head, but is also outside the Downtown East Side.
Now, part of his own "ministry" is to counsel young Latinos who come to Vancouver, trying to convince them that "you don't want to end up like me".
Recently, he shared a prayer he's been saying daily for the past year or so.
God, I thank you for today. Guide my thoughts in a righteous way. Let such guidance be free of selfishness, self-pity, lack of honesty. Help me, Lord, in the name of Christ.
Lord, grant me perseverance, patience and tolerance toward people, places and things.
Lord, stimulate me to be loyal to You
Lord, grant me wisdom and intuitive ideas for a plentiful life in a spiritual place.
Bless my mother, forgive my father, help my sisters and brother and family as well as my daughter.
Above all, make me a good servant.
***
Kim is also someone who I first met at Rainbow Mission. He was one of the guys who'd show up near the end of the sermon, in time for the food. If he got there earlier, he'd sit at the back and look bored. Then, when he "migrated" over to Gospel Mission, he started moving closer to the front row. He started bring a Bible and following along. He started asking questions, and then started sharing insights he was getting. Finally, early in 2008, he came up after a service and asked if he might give the message some night. I told him, "by all means", and on the Saturday before Easter Sunday (the services I minister are on Saturday nights), Kim gave the message.
Being a cook by trade, he picked on a theme he knew well: salt. "Salt and Light" was the topic of the message, and it was very well researched and presented.
But not long after, for reasons only He knows (for now), God moved Kim in the general direction of away. He didn't come back, and while there were "sightings" of him -- usually at Union Gospel Mission -- he didn't set foot in our upper room for over a year.
Last week, I came out of the main office to start the service, and there he was. At least, it looked like him. I wasn't sure at first, because he had a new set of teeth that changed his facial features considerably. He'd been working on new trades -- in computers -- and had written up his insights from the Word. One of those, was his sermon on Salt and Light.
THE BODY
SALT the definition taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is as follows; salt is a dietary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride that is essential for animal life, but toxic to most land plants. Salt flavor is one of the basic tastes.
Everyone here has used salt at one time or another on their food to bring out / or enhance the flavor of it. Salt itself is essential for life as we know it, and all of us had carvings for salty foods like potato chips or such! That’s because there is a salt balance imbalance within are body.
Just like natural salt we need and use on food, we need spiritual salt for our soul. I feel that salt in one sense is the fruit of the spirit, which can be found in Galatians 5: 22, 23 But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance, We all need to feel love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith Meekness, and temperance directed towards us. I certainly feel better about myself if any one of these is directed towards me, never mind all of these. We all need at least one part of the fruit at any one! And if we don’t have fruit how can we enhance someone’s life just like salt is to the food? We are of no value to anyone.
Either way (salted or unsalted) we come in contact with people every day of our lives, and we impact their life one way or another!
The fruit of the spirit I believe is speaking of the Holy Spirit. And if you’re showing the fruit of the spirit, you’re showing God’s light through his spirit! The Holy Spirit is in you. The Trinity is God the creator, Jesus the redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the enabler.
When Jesus was speaking of ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. And glorify your father which is in heaven.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. And glorify your father which is in heaven.
I think that is what God spoke about when through Isaiah he said “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arose upon thee, and hid glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”
I was living in the darkness of the world with drug, alcohol, and nicotine addiction. I had no money, raiding ashtrays for butts, and had to rely on free food places just to get a meal or go hungry. However, by praying to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit (the Blessed Trinity). I overcame each one at a time, one-step at a time, and one day at a time! Now I am walking in the light, told that I am looking better, I am definitely feeling better. Having the ability provide and care for myself. People who have known me before, and look at me now, have seen the difference!
(Foundation Scriptures: Matt. 5:13-16; Gal. 5:22; Isa. 60:1-3.)
We had been praying constantly for Kim to return, but left it to God to decide the "when" and the "where". He answered -- and big-time! -- and even as there have been things that have troubled us lately, looking at the things God has been doing in His people, and knowing that He has used us in various ways to help make that happen, can only encourage us.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Moments of despair, moments of joy
I love the way God messes with my mind sometimes.
Mind you, it's usually in a good way -- letting me see moments of despair, and then slapping me on the back and saying, "see? It's all going to be OK!"
The construction going on outside Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain has been particularly trying. Some could look at it the same way certain businesspeople on Cambie Street looked at the construction of the Canada Line: a major pain in the bottom and anathema to business. Or ... consider the way the Carrall Street Greenway is going to look when it's finished. More about that in a sec'.
We've had some internal difficulties lately. People who we've seen make giant strides in their lives thanks to being touched by the Word of God have "weirded-out" on us. Others have run into serious health problems. Finances have gotten hard to come by. In the Spirit realm, one would say we're under attack.
Well, a former colleague of mine at the BC Electric Railway Company (for those of you unfamiliar with my sense of humour, that's TransLink - the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, where I work) once said, "if you're not taking flak, you're not over the target". In Biblical terms, the apostles were told to rejoice when such things happened, because they were under attack for the sake of the Gospel.
And to put it in terms that relate to us ... we're poking someone with a sharp stick and he doesn't like it. If we weren't getting through to people with the Gospel and liable to lead people to Christ, the devil would leave us alone.
(There's an inspiring story, used as an analogy for salvation and newness in Christ, about Roy "Wrong Way" Reigels, who ran the wrong way in a Rose Bowl game, leading to the safety touch which made the difference in the final score. The amazing thing about his tragically flawed end-to-end run was that no one from the opposing team tried to stop him. That's the devil for you: if he lets us run untouched, it probably means we're not a threat to him.)
And indeed we are, because through all that have come shining moments to remind us that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.
Mind you, it's usually in a good way -- letting me see moments of despair, and then slapping me on the back and saying, "see? It's all going to be OK!"
The construction going on outside Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain has been particularly trying. Some could look at it the same way certain businesspeople on Cambie Street looked at the construction of the Canada Line: a major pain in the bottom and anathema to business. Or ... consider the way the Carrall Street Greenway is going to look when it's finished. More about that in a sec'.
We've had some internal difficulties lately. People who we've seen make giant strides in their lives thanks to being touched by the Word of God have "weirded-out" on us. Others have run into serious health problems. Finances have gotten hard to come by. In the Spirit realm, one would say we're under attack.
Well, a former colleague of mine at the BC Electric Railway Company (for those of you unfamiliar with my sense of humour, that's TransLink - the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, where I work) once said, "if you're not taking flak, you're not over the target". In Biblical terms, the apostles were told to rejoice when such things happened, because they were under attack for the sake of the Gospel.
And to put it in terms that relate to us ... we're poking someone with a sharp stick and he doesn't like it. If we weren't getting through to people with the Gospel and liable to lead people to Christ, the devil would leave us alone.
(There's an inspiring story, used as an analogy for salvation and newness in Christ, about Roy "Wrong Way" Reigels, who ran the wrong way in a Rose Bowl game, leading to the safety touch which made the difference in the final score. The amazing thing about his tragically flawed end-to-end run was that no one from the opposing team tried to stop him. That's the devil for you: if he lets us run untouched, it probably means we're not a threat to him.)
And indeed we are, because through all that have come shining moments to remind us that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.
- Mario - a 40-something man who's been seeking God for some time. I met him at Rainbow Mission almost 5 years ago now. Then didn't see him much until two weeks ago, when he came to Gospel Mission. He had caught fire for God, brought a flash-disk filled with Worship songs, and talked about Scripture and how it applied to Vancouver.
- Kim - a fellow who I'd also first met at Rainbow, and who "migrated" to Gospel Mission around the same time I did. He actually preached a short sermon (which I'll post later) on "Salt and Light". And then, he stopped coming. Someone told me that somebody had said the wrong thing to him. We prayed for him, hoping he'd come back. Last week, he did -- with the message for my wife: "I'm Baaaack!" He'd been studying, learning trades, had new teeth, and a great new positive attitude.
- a woman -- a clothing designer and former drug addict -- who followed up on our list of "needs" in Operation Phoenix in The Province newspaper: eager to help with Ladies' Day and anything else we need
- one of our "community" who had come a long way in the past two years and then weirded-out on us (see above), made a personal, face-to-face apology to Pastor Barry, after almost blowing up every bridge he'd built
Much of this has come after I'd sent an email circular to a group of men and women of God, asking for prayer for the Mission and its assignment. 
God is obviously listening.
He's also showing. I had a lovely vision the other night. I was praying about the situation at the Mission, and a photo of the front of the Mission came into view. But then, I started to see the streetscape of the Carrall Street Greenway, superimposed on the photo. The rest of Carrall Street has been turned into the Greenway, so it wasn't hard to imagine. And I started thinking, "wow! Our little Mission ... on that brand-new, beautifully designed street! Thank you, Lord!"
A moment of joy, indeed.Monday, August 3, 2009
Interesting conversation ...
It seemed like an inocuous situation: John, his roommate Howard and I, at Superstore to buy groceries for the Mission. None of us had a loonie to get a shopping cart, so we had to go to Customer Service to get change. The woman at the counter was evidently not Christian: her name -- Harvinder -- suggested Sikh, and the headdress she wore was something I'm not familiar with -- cylindrical and flat on the top, almost like a chef's hat without the souffle coming out the top or the 100 pleats ("representing each of the ways of preparing eggs," or so the line on the short-lived TV series Providence explained it).
Somehow, she overheard that we were buying food for a lot of people. "How many people are you feeding?" "Usually about 120 a month," I replied. "About 40 each time."
"We're from Gospel Mission," John explained.
That, I thought, should have ended the conversation, but the lady pursued it.
"Don't you think those people get fed enough? How much does it really help, to feed them?"
"Well," I replied, "we don't just feed them food for the belly: we feed them the Gospel ..."
"... and how does the Gospel help them? They should be learning skills and getting off the drugs and moving on."
Great opener! "That's it exactly: the Gospel gives them hope they need to make that move to learn the skills. The best treatment program in the world won't do a thing for anybody if they don't have a reason to follow it." I explained (or tried to) that others may be called to provide training and treatment, but our calling was to provide the hope. No one can do it all (a lesson I learned not long after we opened The Lord's Rain), and our job has its place.
I can't remember the rest of the conversation word for word, but it was apparent this was a novel concept to the lady. It appeared that she was of the mind (if I read this correctly) that avoiding jail and avoiding an untimely, wasteful death should be enough incentive to get people to choose to be healthy and to get cleaned up. The idea of giving them Hope -- the intangible reason for getting up in the morning and turning your eyes towards something other than yourself -- must have sounded a little like telling a parent that a child has just smashed up all the furniture in the house because the parent failed to bolster his self-esteem.
But it really isn't the same thing. We, as ministers/missionaries, have a job in exposing people to hope and the people listening to it have a personal duty to receive it and respond accordingly. But if we're not doing our job, how else will they know about that Hope?
The conversation really wasn't about Hope and the Downtown East Side. It was more about someone wanting to hear more about Christ and doing so in a Socratic way. People were starting to line up behind us as she pursued the conversation. It's one I hope will continue another time, God willing.
To be on the safe side, I'll make sure I don't have a loonie next time we go to Superstore.
Somehow, she overheard that we were buying food for a lot of people. "How many people are you feeding?" "Usually about 120 a month," I replied. "About 40 each time."
"We're from Gospel Mission," John explained.
That, I thought, should have ended the conversation, but the lady pursued it.
"Don't you think those people get fed enough? How much does it really help, to feed them?"
"Well," I replied, "we don't just feed them food for the belly: we feed them the Gospel ..."
"... and how does the Gospel help them? They should be learning skills and getting off the drugs and moving on."
Great opener! "That's it exactly: the Gospel gives them hope they need to make that move to learn the skills. The best treatment program in the world won't do a thing for anybody if they don't have a reason to follow it." I explained (or tried to) that others may be called to provide training and treatment, but our calling was to provide the hope. No one can do it all (a lesson I learned not long after we opened The Lord's Rain), and our job has its place.
I can't remember the rest of the conversation word for word, but it was apparent this was a novel concept to the lady. It appeared that she was of the mind (if I read this correctly) that avoiding jail and avoiding an untimely, wasteful death should be enough incentive to get people to choose to be healthy and to get cleaned up. The idea of giving them Hope -- the intangible reason for getting up in the morning and turning your eyes towards something other than yourself -- must have sounded a little like telling a parent that a child has just smashed up all the furniture in the house because the parent failed to bolster his self-esteem.
But it really isn't the same thing. We, as ministers/missionaries, have a job in exposing people to hope and the people listening to it have a personal duty to receive it and respond accordingly. But if we're not doing our job, how else will they know about that Hope?
The conversation really wasn't about Hope and the Downtown East Side. It was more about someone wanting to hear more about Christ and doing so in a Socratic way. People were starting to line up behind us as she pursued the conversation. It's one I hope will continue another time, God willing.
To be on the safe side, I'll make sure I don't have a loonie next time we go to Superstore.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The Lord's Rain - signs of hope
We've said before that one of the side-functions of The Lord's Rain has been to provide hope to people and encouragement that, no matter what stage of life they happen to be at, there is a reason to reach out and strive for the change they need.
In the past few weeks, we've seen more and more evidence that that's happening.
EXHIBIT A is a pair of young people I think of as our "glam couple". Charlotte and Brendan started showing up last fall, and to look at them, the first thing you'd think is, "what are they doing here?" I still don't know the full answer to that, but they're a perfect example of the basic truth about the Downtown East Side: you never know who's going to slip, or how or when it can happen. They have lived in shelters for I don't know how long, battling the drugs and the demons in their lives.
If it weren't such a pejorative expression, I'd call Charlotte "high maintenance". Her requirements: two towels, face cloth, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel (yes, we have that), hair dryer (we have two of those), all requested with "please" and "thank you" and "if it's not too much trouble". The thing is, that kind of "maintenance" has kept her sane -- and The Lord's Rain has been there to do that.
There's been more: when she and Brendan broke up just before Christmas, it was here that she came to pour her heart out. When they got back together a week later, it was here that she came to bounce off walls with joy. When Cheryl Weber from "100 Huntley Street" interviewed people for a feature on The Lord's Rain and Gospel Mission, Brendan told a bit of his story -- again, an example of how you can "have it all" and suddenly lose it, thanks to the drugs.
Last week, Brendan and Charlotte came in to announce that they were finally getting a place of their own and checking into a recovery program. Does that mean that this will be the last we see of them? I hope so, although I'll miss them. But that is what this whole exercise is about: to get as many people as possible cleaned up, turned around, and outta there -- if only to make room in the safety net for new people who slip and fall.
EXHIBIT B - is Pete and Jack. My main contact with them is upstairs in Gospel Mission (although Jack paid a surprise visit to TLR last Saturday). Jack is 50-something and Pete is in his 70s, and they sit in the front row like Statler and Waldorf, the two old guys on The Muppet Show who sat in the box seats and made caustic comments about the performances. Each has become an example of the slow but definite, positive changes that we see around there.
Jack, for example, is always eager to testify. When I first met him 2-1/2 years ago, his testimony was invariably about how someone had done him wrong and he needed to forgive. Now, he testifies about telling people about Christ. A couple of weeks ago, he testified about a mission trip he'd gone on to Ucluelet, visiting people in a care home, being touched by their reaction to the group of them singing "Amazing Grace", and the sense that he, too, had something worth sharing with others.
He's made Pete one of his personal "reclamation projects". It would be easy to hang the label "career criminal" on Pete, as he's been in and out of the slammer for most of his life. He once told me -- rather proudly, in fact -- that he busted out of the BC Pen back in 1961 or thereabouts -- shinnying up a chimney (he's short and slightly built) and going over the wall. He was picked up walking along some railway tracks. But there's a "story" behind Pete, too, including (if I gather this correctly) his being raised by a grandmother who he thought was his mother (rather like Bobby Darin, actually). You can imagine the psychological effect that would have on a teenager when the truth was revealed.
When I first came in contact with Pete, he was probably the most miserable old sod you'd ever come across. He grumble and look bored with everything and if any preaching went so much as two minutes past 8pm (which is our unofficial time to stop with the preaching, pray and serve the meal) he'd start to get downright rude.
He hasn't been like that for the past year, at least. He's grown more thoughtful and introspective, opening up little by little. He sits quietly through the sermon, taking it all in, and some of the worship songs seem to have an impact. I get the sense that he's come to realize that here he is, at age 73, wondering what his life has been all about ... and starting to get the idea that there's something to this "Christ thing" that can finally give him some meaning.
(Digression: it may be time to revisit a sermon I gave a couple of years ago, called "Count It All Dung". The "stuff" we leave behind when we come to Christ is best purged from our lives, but dung has its uses, primarily as fertilizer. We take our experience, good and bad, and build our new lives on it. It may be a message that can strike home with Pete as he wrestles with this.)
Anyway, Jack rides Pete mercilessly through the services now. "Hear that, Pete? He's talking about you!" "Whaddya think, Pete? What do you want us to pray for you?" "Come on, Pete, you can pray for that!" It's almost comical, except that for the two of them, it's serious business: and so far, Pete hasn't shown any signs of being turned off by Jack's persistence.
We also had a woman come forward to receive Christ at last Saturday's service. She and her husband have been coming to the services for the past several weeks: he's a Believer, and she had fallen away (she told me later). To see the utter joy on her husband's face was a cause of joy in and of itself.
And recently, a young man has been coming in to shower-up at The Lord's Rain ... and I'm pretty sure he's involved with the drug dealing across the street from us. Nevertheless, TLR may be an entrance point for Jesus to stick His foot in the door, and who knows what long-term impact that will have? As I've said before, there's a reason why Gospel Mission is located right across from one of the worst alleys for drug activity in the city -- and why God arranged things for TLR to be placed at street level. Stay tuned.
Every so often, we have an experience that reminds us of the enormity of the job. A couple of weeks ago, I encountered a young woman who was in dire need of a washroom, so I brought her around to TLR, where she got cleaned up and got a change of clothes. But she also spent about an hour screaming profanities at the world in general -- and occasionally at Bill and me -- as she drifted in and out of reality (I'm pretty sure that her telling something to stop biting her ankles was during an "out of" moment).
As it was, the City of Vancouver's Dig Up Carrall Street To Make The Street People Think They're Going To Be Herded Out Of The Area For The Olympics Project has cut into attendance at TLR, so Bill and I were able to give this girl a lot of attention. But these are the people we need to reach, and many of the ones who've become "family" over the past couple of years started in similar shape.
To think: when I touted the idea to Amelia in the fall of '07, I thought it was "just" about providing showers to people.
(If you're interested in contributing to Gospel Mission -- or to The Lord's Rain in particular, visit www.gospelmission.net).
In the past few weeks, we've seen more and more evidence that that's happening.
EXHIBIT A is a pair of young people I think of as our "glam couple". Charlotte and Brendan started showing up last fall, and to look at them, the first thing you'd think is, "what are they doing here?" I still don't know the full answer to that, but they're a perfect example of the basic truth about the Downtown East Side: you never know who's going to slip, or how or when it can happen. They have lived in shelters for I don't know how long, battling the drugs and the demons in their lives.
If it weren't such a pejorative expression, I'd call Charlotte "high maintenance". Her requirements: two towels, face cloth, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel (yes, we have that), hair dryer (we have two of those), all requested with "please" and "thank you" and "if it's not too much trouble". The thing is, that kind of "maintenance" has kept her sane -- and The Lord's Rain has been there to do that.
There's been more: when she and Brendan broke up just before Christmas, it was here that she came to pour her heart out. When they got back together a week later, it was here that she came to bounce off walls with joy. When Cheryl Weber from "100 Huntley Street" interviewed people for a feature on The Lord's Rain and Gospel Mission, Brendan told a bit of his story -- again, an example of how you can "have it all" and suddenly lose it, thanks to the drugs.
Last week, Brendan and Charlotte came in to announce that they were finally getting a place of their own and checking into a recovery program. Does that mean that this will be the last we see of them? I hope so, although I'll miss them. But that is what this whole exercise is about: to get as many people as possible cleaned up, turned around, and outta there -- if only to make room in the safety net for new people who slip and fall.
EXHIBIT B - is Pete and Jack. My main contact with them is upstairs in Gospel Mission (although Jack paid a surprise visit to TLR last Saturday). Jack is 50-something and Pete is in his 70s, and they sit in the front row like Statler and Waldorf, the two old guys on The Muppet Show who sat in the box seats and made caustic comments about the performances. Each has become an example of the slow but definite, positive changes that we see around there.
Jack, for example, is always eager to testify. When I first met him 2-1/2 years ago, his testimony was invariably about how someone had done him wrong and he needed to forgive. Now, he testifies about telling people about Christ. A couple of weeks ago, he testified about a mission trip he'd gone on to Ucluelet, visiting people in a care home, being touched by their reaction to the group of them singing "Amazing Grace", and the sense that he, too, had something worth sharing with others.
He's made Pete one of his personal "reclamation projects". It would be easy to hang the label "career criminal" on Pete, as he's been in and out of the slammer for most of his life. He once told me -- rather proudly, in fact -- that he busted out of the BC Pen back in 1961 or thereabouts -- shinnying up a chimney (he's short and slightly built) and going over the wall. He was picked up walking along some railway tracks. But there's a "story" behind Pete, too, including (if I gather this correctly) his being raised by a grandmother who he thought was his mother (rather like Bobby Darin, actually). You can imagine the psychological effect that would have on a teenager when the truth was revealed.
When I first came in contact with Pete, he was probably the most miserable old sod you'd ever come across. He grumble and look bored with everything and if any preaching went so much as two minutes past 8pm (which is our unofficial time to stop with the preaching, pray and serve the meal) he'd start to get downright rude.
He hasn't been like that for the past year, at least. He's grown more thoughtful and introspective, opening up little by little. He sits quietly through the sermon, taking it all in, and some of the worship songs seem to have an impact. I get the sense that he's come to realize that here he is, at age 73, wondering what his life has been all about ... and starting to get the idea that there's something to this "Christ thing" that can finally give him some meaning.
(Digression: it may be time to revisit a sermon I gave a couple of years ago, called "Count It All Dung". The "stuff" we leave behind when we come to Christ is best purged from our lives, but dung has its uses, primarily as fertilizer. We take our experience, good and bad, and build our new lives on it. It may be a message that can strike home with Pete as he wrestles with this.)
Anyway, Jack rides Pete mercilessly through the services now. "Hear that, Pete? He's talking about you!" "Whaddya think, Pete? What do you want us to pray for you?" "Come on, Pete, you can pray for that!" It's almost comical, except that for the two of them, it's serious business: and so far, Pete hasn't shown any signs of being turned off by Jack's persistence.
We also had a woman come forward to receive Christ at last Saturday's service. She and her husband have been coming to the services for the past several weeks: he's a Believer, and she had fallen away (she told me later). To see the utter joy on her husband's face was a cause of joy in and of itself.
And recently, a young man has been coming in to shower-up at The Lord's Rain ... and I'm pretty sure he's involved with the drug dealing across the street from us. Nevertheless, TLR may be an entrance point for Jesus to stick His foot in the door, and who knows what long-term impact that will have? As I've said before, there's a reason why Gospel Mission is located right across from one of the worst alleys for drug activity in the city -- and why God arranged things for TLR to be placed at street level. Stay tuned.
Every so often, we have an experience that reminds us of the enormity of the job. A couple of weeks ago, I encountered a young woman who was in dire need of a washroom, so I brought her around to TLR, where she got cleaned up and got a change of clothes. But she also spent about an hour screaming profanities at the world in general -- and occasionally at Bill and me -- as she drifted in and out of reality (I'm pretty sure that her telling something to stop biting her ankles was during an "out of" moment).
As it was, the City of Vancouver's Dig Up Carrall Street To Make The Street People Think They're Going To Be Herded Out Of The Area For The Olympics Project has cut into attendance at TLR, so Bill and I were able to give this girl a lot of attention. But these are the people we need to reach, and many of the ones who've become "family" over the past couple of years started in similar shape.
To think: when I touted the idea to Amelia in the fall of '07, I thought it was "just" about providing showers to people.
(If you're interested in contributing to Gospel Mission -- or to The Lord's Rain in particular, visit www.gospelmission.net).
Monday, May 18, 2009
331 Carrall Street, Samaria
A group from my home church, Westpointe Christian Centre, just returned from a missions trip to Costa Rica, and amid the testimonies of people accepting Jesus as their personal Saviour, a great "AHA!" came through for the Downtown East Side.
The one Latina the group, Amada, said that the shantytown called El Carpio (pop. 45,000) was like Samaria, and referred to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well.
Samaria was, for a time, the capital of Israel -- back when Israel and Judea were separate countries. But over a relatively short historical period, it was besieged, conquered, sacked and eventually populated with a macedoine of nationalities: a sort of ethnic dumping ground. A lot of religions were practiced there, and the Bible tells us of plagues that befell the people, which were reversed when they got right with God again. Even though Samaritans claimed to be descendants of Abraham, recalled the captivity in Egypt and recognized Moses as the mediator of the commandments from God, Jews rejected them because of the intermarriage and their differences on whether to worship on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem.
Samaritans were outcasts.
In John 6, we read that Jesus had to go back to Galilee, and to get there, He had to go via Samaria. And not only did He travel through Samaria, He stopped to rest there -- at a spot where He'd be most likely to meet a Samaritan. When one showed up, He engaged her in conversation, "read her mail" -- as we say about prophets -- and revealed Himself to her.
In Vancouver, you'll find Samaria on Hastings Street between Cambie and Gore.
If someone from outside the area has to drive through, they usually do so with the windows up, doors locked, avoiding eye contact and praying for green lights all the way. The idea of actually sitting down to rest, say, in Pigeon Park, would be out of the question.
Like the Samaritans, the people on the DTES are outcasts, dumped by society in the neighbourhood because they're not wanted anywhere else. Witness the Heart As Big As All Outdoors interviewed a month ago on CBC's morning show, who lives in the Dunbar area and is alarmed that binners -- whom she reviled as "those people" -- are now coming into her neighbourhood. The interview was a wonderful study in bigotry. Indeed, over the weekend we heard about people who actually live in condos on the DTES, who are up in arms over the prospect that United We Can might re-locate close to their complex. Come ON, gang! This is like moving next door to an airport and complaining about the aircraft noise.
But I digress ... Among the many aspects of the DTES -- along with drug addiction, homelessness and mental illness -- is the fact that they come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and are influenced by a variety of social forces that tend to come between them and God.
The DTES is our "Samaria" for another reason. Jacob's Well is/was the lasting connection to the very beginning of Jewish history. The DTES is the historic epicentre of Vancouver: it's within the original boundaries of Granville -- later Vancouver; it's where the first Chinese immigrants settled; it's also the site of native settlement.
If being a Christian truly means to emulate the life of Jesus, isn't it our duty to wade into Samaria and sit down for a while? Instead of water -- and living water -- drugs can be the conversation-starter. A couple of weeks ago, John Sharp and I arrived early at The Lord's Rain, and before we opened up, we went for a walk, praying, watching and listening. Barely had we reached the first street corner, than a guy came up and asked if we were looking for some drugs. Had we been truly on the ball -- and emulating Jesus -- we would have come back with, "the kind of drugs we have are better than anything you've got".
Truly, DTES people want to know that they're still OK with God -- or that God's still OK with them. They are impressed when someone cares enough to bring them that message -- and back it up with something permanent like -- for example -- a facility where they can get a shower, a cup of coffee and some friendly faces and conversation to match.
The Word of God promises that this will bear fruit. Look at what happened after the Samaritan woman discoved Whom she was talking to. She dropped her water-pot, ran back into town and told everyone she could find that she had met the Messiah. They came to see what she was talking about; and they believed, not because of her witness, but because they'd seen Him for themselves.
It's during this incident, by the way, that Jesus notes that the fields are white for the harvest. So it is, too, in the DTES. Why do you think the enemy is trying to distract the people with drugs and paranoia about the Establishment?
Once again, our duty as Christians is to take the message of Christ to people who need to hear it, and also to bring people to a direct encounter of their own. That duty applies just as much to the outcasts in our own country as it does to the outcasts overseas -- moreso, in fact, because these Samaritans are in our own back yard.
The one Latina the group, Amada, said that the shantytown called El Carpio (pop. 45,000) was like Samaria, and referred to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well.
Samaria was, for a time, the capital of Israel -- back when Israel and Judea were separate countries. But over a relatively short historical period, it was besieged, conquered, sacked and eventually populated with a macedoine of nationalities: a sort of ethnic dumping ground. A lot of religions were practiced there, and the Bible tells us of plagues that befell the people, which were reversed when they got right with God again. Even though Samaritans claimed to be descendants of Abraham, recalled the captivity in Egypt and recognized Moses as the mediator of the commandments from God, Jews rejected them because of the intermarriage and their differences on whether to worship on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem.
Samaritans were outcasts.
In John 6, we read that Jesus had to go back to Galilee, and to get there, He had to go via Samaria. And not only did He travel through Samaria, He stopped to rest there -- at a spot where He'd be most likely to meet a Samaritan. When one showed up, He engaged her in conversation, "read her mail" -- as we say about prophets -- and revealed Himself to her.
In Vancouver, you'll find Samaria on Hastings Street between Cambie and Gore.
If someone from outside the area has to drive through, they usually do so with the windows up, doors locked, avoiding eye contact and praying for green lights all the way. The idea of actually sitting down to rest, say, in Pigeon Park, would be out of the question.
Like the Samaritans, the people on the DTES are outcasts, dumped by society in the neighbourhood because they're not wanted anywhere else. Witness the Heart As Big As All Outdoors interviewed a month ago on CBC's morning show, who lives in the Dunbar area and is alarmed that binners -- whom she reviled as "those people" -- are now coming into her neighbourhood. The interview was a wonderful study in bigotry. Indeed, over the weekend we heard about people who actually live in condos on the DTES, who are up in arms over the prospect that United We Can might re-locate close to their complex. Come ON, gang! This is like moving next door to an airport and complaining about the aircraft noise.
But I digress ... Among the many aspects of the DTES -- along with drug addiction, homelessness and mental illness -- is the fact that they come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and are influenced by a variety of social forces that tend to come between them and God.
The DTES is our "Samaria" for another reason. Jacob's Well is/was the lasting connection to the very beginning of Jewish history. The DTES is the historic epicentre of Vancouver: it's within the original boundaries of Granville -- later Vancouver; it's where the first Chinese immigrants settled; it's also the site of native settlement.
If being a Christian truly means to emulate the life of Jesus, isn't it our duty to wade into Samaria and sit down for a while? Instead of water -- and living water -- drugs can be the conversation-starter. A couple of weeks ago, John Sharp and I arrived early at The Lord's Rain, and before we opened up, we went for a walk, praying, watching and listening. Barely had we reached the first street corner, than a guy came up and asked if we were looking for some drugs. Had we been truly on the ball -- and emulating Jesus -- we would have come back with, "the kind of drugs we have are better than anything you've got".
Truly, DTES people want to know that they're still OK with God -- or that God's still OK with them. They are impressed when someone cares enough to bring them that message -- and back it up with something permanent like -- for example -- a facility where they can get a shower, a cup of coffee and some friendly faces and conversation to match.
The Word of God promises that this will bear fruit. Look at what happened after the Samaritan woman discoved Whom she was talking to. She dropped her water-pot, ran back into town and told everyone she could find that she had met the Messiah. They came to see what she was talking about; and they believed, not because of her witness, but because they'd seen Him for themselves.
It's during this incident, by the way, that Jesus notes that the fields are white for the harvest. So it is, too, in the DTES. Why do you think the enemy is trying to distract the people with drugs and paranoia about the Establishment?
Once again, our duty as Christians is to take the message of Christ to people who need to hear it, and also to bring people to a direct encounter of their own. That duty applies just as much to the outcasts in our own country as it does to the outcasts overseas -- moreso, in fact, because these Samaritans are in our own back yard.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
It's the drugs, stupid! (a response)
Yesterday, we posted a rant about drugs on the Downtown East Side, in which I noted that, while the US War on Drugs has been, by many accounts, unsuccessful, Canada's apparent "peace treaty" with drugs has hardly wrestled the problem into submission, either. This brought a considered response, and with the permission of the writer (who's asked to remain anonymous), I'm posting it here.
Usually I read your emails and always find some inspiring message in part or in whole . Today I found it interesting that the usual message of salvation and GODs work took on a political tone speaking to the issue of the drug problem. As I consider myself somewhat of an expert I felt compelled to respond.
As someone who has personally experienced the US federal penal system I would like to educate you a bit as I constantly see misinformation being put forward. First I would start off by saying the US policy on drugs has been a complete failure and my opinion is in accordance with many groups , politicians and even federal US magistrates. The US incarcerates more people per capita that any other country in the world for non-violent drug offenses. This leads me to my second point, the US prison system is more and more being privatized in an effort to enrich individuals that under the guise of saving the tax payers a small amount of money, have almost cut off basic services health care,dental and definitely any and all forms of programs designed to rehabilitate offenders and actually does the exact opposite by seizing all assets of people, alienating them from family and loves ones by placing undue burdens on them in respect to where they are serving their time usually 500 miles from their home.
I say usually cause that is the policy of the USBOP (United States Bureau of Prisons. I am very concerned here with the Conservative party taking steps to emulate them. We have to first of all accept someone using drugs (including alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine ) included is a consentual crime . Can we expect the Canadian government to legislate morality. isn't that defeating the purpose of exactly why GOD has put us here and given us FREE WILL . Aren't we responsible for the choices we make ? Why are we always looking for someone to blame ie the drug sellers . Isn't a simple case of supply and demand ? Would there be a supply if there was no demand?
I think our generation and maybe our society is too easy to blame others for our actions. I also find it ironic that the real problem the alcohol and cigarettes and prescription drugs get little to no mention even though the evidence supports that alcohol and tobacco alone kill more people every year than all other illegal drugs combined. So doesn't that make the provincial and federal governments the biggest traffickers of all. Not to mention the huge multi-national drug companies that fly under the radar and to the contrary boast of their multi-billion dollar fortunes. Hasn't prohibition taught us anything ?
Can't we look at modern examples in Europe and see that decriminalizing has stabilized the new youth wanting to experiment with the banned substances and moreover provide these substances in a clean safe place. The fact that they treat it as a health issue and realize that the people will steal, rob and worse to get it accept that although this is controversial, it actually saves the tax payers in the end.I think we get a mixed message here whether it is viewed as a health or criminal issue and personally would like to see the spaces in prison used for violent offenders and pedophiles.
The fact the federal government is using tax dollars to in effect to try and shut down alternative programs the safe needled injection site for example proves this theory, and would only compound the problem with the transmission of diseases, HIV AIDS to name a few seems quite ironic to me. Can we not be resigned that a percentage of people will continue to use no matter what programs or treatment options are offered. This may sound pessimistic to some , but I see it as realistic. I personally grew up in a home where alcohol destroyed mine and my siblings childhood and although the media like to glorify the DTES drug problems I find little to no mention of this huge problem.
After living in Rio De Janeiro Brasil i was shocked to see that the standard police stance there was to exterminate the problem literally, i still find that so cruel that it is almost unimaginable and it has done little to nothing to curb the problem. Even under the assumed penalty of death , the youths are not discouraged and have little to no alternative. The human being is capable of extraordinary things when faced with hunger, starvation or the difference of a their child dying if they aren't able to provide a simple medicine that we take for granted here, but there means the possibility of life or death. Do we want to follow that example I think not.
Usually a country in part can be measured on how they treat their incarcerated . I consider myself very fortunate to be born a Canadian citizen and be afforded these rights ands freedoms that my forefathers fought and died for and would consider it a national tragedy to follow any part of the the US judicial system or any example or policy for that matter. We are a sovereign nation and we shouldn't look at their many failed examples as a guideline.
In closing i would like to add that it is my opinion that the media play an intregal part in perpetuating this problem in an attempt to sell advertising space and newspapers and the facts suggest we are still a very safe place to reside in relation to other North American cities and worldwide for that matter.
Usually I read your emails and always find some inspiring message in part or in whole . Today I found it interesting that the usual message of salvation and GODs work took on a political tone speaking to the issue of the drug problem. As I consider myself somewhat of an expert I felt compelled to respond.
As someone who has personally experienced the US federal penal system I would like to educate you a bit as I constantly see misinformation being put forward. First I would start off by saying the US policy on drugs has been a complete failure and my opinion is in accordance with many groups , politicians and even federal US magistrates. The US incarcerates more people per capita that any other country in the world for non-violent drug offenses. This leads me to my second point, the US prison system is more and more being privatized in an effort to enrich individuals that under the guise of saving the tax payers a small amount of money, have almost cut off basic services health care,dental and definitely any and all forms of programs designed to rehabilitate offenders and actually does the exact opposite by seizing all assets of people, alienating them from family and loves ones by placing undue burdens on them in respect to where they are serving their time usually 500 miles from their home.
I say usually cause that is the policy of the USBOP (United States Bureau of Prisons. I am very concerned here with the Conservative party taking steps to emulate them. We have to first of all accept someone using drugs (including alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine ) included is a consentual crime . Can we expect the Canadian government to legislate morality. isn't that defeating the purpose of exactly why GOD has put us here and given us FREE WILL . Aren't we responsible for the choices we make ? Why are we always looking for someone to blame ie the drug sellers . Isn't a simple case of supply and demand ? Would there be a supply if there was no demand?
I think our generation and maybe our society is too easy to blame others for our actions. I also find it ironic that the real problem the alcohol and cigarettes and prescription drugs get little to no mention even though the evidence supports that alcohol and tobacco alone kill more people every year than all other illegal drugs combined. So doesn't that make the provincial and federal governments the biggest traffickers of all. Not to mention the huge multi-national drug companies that fly under the radar and to the contrary boast of their multi-billion dollar fortunes. Hasn't prohibition taught us anything ?
Can't we look at modern examples in Europe and see that decriminalizing has stabilized the new youth wanting to experiment with the banned substances and moreover provide these substances in a clean safe place. The fact that they treat it as a health issue and realize that the people will steal, rob and worse to get it accept that although this is controversial, it actually saves the tax payers in the end.I think we get a mixed message here whether it is viewed as a health or criminal issue and personally would like to see the spaces in prison used for violent offenders and pedophiles.
The fact the federal government is using tax dollars to in effect to try and shut down alternative programs the safe needled injection site for example proves this theory, and would only compound the problem with the transmission of diseases, HIV AIDS to name a few seems quite ironic to me. Can we not be resigned that a percentage of people will continue to use no matter what programs or treatment options are offered. This may sound pessimistic to some , but I see it as realistic. I personally grew up in a home where alcohol destroyed mine and my siblings childhood and although the media like to glorify the DTES drug problems I find little to no mention of this huge problem.
After living in Rio De Janeiro Brasil i was shocked to see that the standard police stance there was to exterminate the problem literally, i still find that so cruel that it is almost unimaginable and it has done little to nothing to curb the problem. Even under the assumed penalty of death , the youths are not discouraged and have little to no alternative. The human being is capable of extraordinary things when faced with hunger, starvation or the difference of a their child dying if they aren't able to provide a simple medicine that we take for granted here, but there means the possibility of life or death. Do we want to follow that example I think not.
Usually a country in part can be measured on how they treat their incarcerated . I consider myself very fortunate to be born a Canadian citizen and be afforded these rights ands freedoms that my forefathers fought and died for and would consider it a national tragedy to follow any part of the the US judicial system or any example or policy for that matter. We are a sovereign nation and we shouldn't look at their many failed examples as a guideline.
In closing i would like to add that it is my opinion that the media play an intregal part in perpetuating this problem in an attempt to sell advertising space and newspapers and the facts suggest we are still a very safe place to reside in relation to other North American cities and worldwide for that matter.
Monday, April 27, 2009
It's the drugs, stupid!
Every so often, I get gobsmacked with the reason why we're doing what we're doing at Gospel Mission / The Lord's Rain. It reminds me of the need in the area -- and indeed, any area savaged by drugs and poverty, and those areas are becoming more numerous all the time -- and how we're evidently in the right place and the right time.
This past Saturday morning was an utter zoo at the Lord's Rain -- and I apologize to any cheetahs, wildebeests, lowland gorillas and giant cockroaches from the Brazilian rainforests that might be reading this. It was directly after Welfare Wednesday, a day when the drug traffic takes a sudden spike. People who came into The Lord's Rain were incoherent. One man, visiting us for the first time, sat on a chair, drinking coffee and talking to himself -- or to me, it was hard to tell; equally hard to tell was the language he was speaking -- and bursting out laughing from time to time. Davona, who's become a regular (and Danilo insists is not on drugs but is "only" seriously mentally ill), spent her time talking to herself and trying on piece after piece of donated clothing; while two others, Debbie and Shelley, were dancing the Pigeon Park Gavotte -- that sort-of wavering music-less shuffle that you see many people doing on the streets in the Hastings and Carrall area -- often with a cup of coffee in one hand.
Some others, who were not on drugs -- like Charlotte and Brendan, a homeless couple in their 30s, and a pair of Quebecois men who are also regulars -- simply sat and laughed at the floor show they were getting for free. It was hard not to laugh, even though we were watching the effects that drugs have on people who, at one time or another, had been beautiful, bright people with a world of promise in front of them.
Across the street, the drug deals were going down. I had come down the night before to lock up after the Friday night service, and spent some time sitting in my car, watching the scene. Lookouts were standing oh-so-casually at each end of the alley across from Gospel Mission. They're very effective at what they do: in the past, I've seen a whole herd of buyers and sellers in the alley vanish into thin air about 30 seconds before a couple of police officers stroll past. As we left The Lord's Rain on Saturday morning, one cop was zip-strapping two of those same lookouts and waiting for his backup to arrive. We said a quiet prayer of thanks and protection for the officer.
Then came Saturday night, and the regular service at Gospel Mission. It was a good crowd, and an unusual message -- based on Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX. All these years, I'd assumed he'd been writing to a girl, but after reading an interesting theory that Shakespeare (or whoever wrote the works attributed to a certain gentleman farmer and actor from Stratford-Upon-Avon) was also on King James I's Bible translation team, it hit me between the eyes that he was writing it about Jesus. The message also spun off into a look at the implications of Jesus' assertion that He will come "as a thief in the night", and Jeremiah's description (49:9) that when a thief breaks in, he trashes the place and doesn't leave anything behind. So it will be when Jesus returns.
But the message was punctuated with outbursts from one fellow off at the side. I'd met him earlier in the year at The Lord's Rain: his name is Joseph, and he came in that morning stinking drunk and wanting to find the part in the Bible that lists the Seven Deadly Sins. There is no such reference: according to Wikipedia, the Seven Deadly Sins were listed by the 4th Century monk, Evagrius Ponticus. But what became apparent as we talked was that he knew Scripture, was incredibly intelligent, but for whatever reason was busily drinking his life away.
I usually cut people a lot of slack, but Joseph reached the end of my patience when he made a personal remark about one of the other guys there, and I warned him that if he made one more outburst, he'd be out of there without supper. He quietened down, then lay down on the pew and went to sleep.
The message ended, we served supper, and as people were lining up for seconds, I realized Joseph was still asleep. I went over to wake him, and he wouldn't budge. He was breathing, but absolutely un-wakable. John, who, two weeks before, had woken up to find his roommate dead on the kitchen floor, checked for a pulse, and that's when we saw the staples in Joseph's scalp. Someone said, "call 9-1-1", and I did. Fritz, one of the regulars, helped me roll Joseph onto his back.
The firefighters were first to arrive. "Oh, look," one of them said, "it's the chain guy!" Apparently, Joseph had been whacked in the head with a chain the day before and these same firefighters had treated him. They managed to rouse him just as the paramedics got there.
Joseph basically was OK -- except for being drunk and drugged and having a dozen staples holding his head together. The paramedics got out of him that he'd smoked rock cocaine earlier, on top of the booze. They checked his vital signs, took a blood sugar test, and packed up and left. I gave Joseph his hamburger, some cookies and a glass of Coke, and we talked.
"You need to spend more time here," I told him. "You know your Scripture, man." He laughed. I pressed the point. "I'm serious: you could be an awesome witness to others."
One of the things about Joseph is his quick laugh and a wry sense of humor. I walked with him down the stairs -- going ahead of him in case he fell. Not surprisingly, he pretended to fall. We laughed. He left in the direction of Pigeon Park, and I truly hope he comes back -- and often.
But I went back upstairs wanting to break something. Joseph was just the most recent in a long list of people that day, who were beautiful, intelligent, worth no less in God's eyes than you or I, and who had been written off by society. "Let them have their drugs -- who cares?" That's the attitude that comes off so much of the approach our society takes. But who's counted the cost here? Look at the resources deployed when we called about Joseph: three firefighters, four paramedics, two ambulances and a fire truck -- all to deal with someone who was drunk and on drugs. What if someone had had a heart attack, or there'd been a fire, or a building collapse, or a traffic accident, with those seven people and three vehicles tied up?
It's the drugs, stupid!
In Canada, we take great delight in sneering at the United States, and one of these exercises in smugness has been to declare that the War on Drugs has "failed". But what are the fruits of Canada's "peace treaty" with drugs?
If you need an answer to that rhetorical question, look at the multiple black eyes Vancouver has received over the past decade for the state of poverty in the shadow of such opulence. The further our city gets away from God, the more frequent and painful those black eyes will become.
Neither approach has been a resounding success. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." With Jesus reduced to Just Another World View (and a politically-incorrect one at that), people have tried to go ahead without God's guidance.
That's why The Lord's Rain and Gospel Mission are in the place they're supposed to be in. One reason has been for us to be a refuge for people on the street -- especially those who need an ambulance. But more than that, we've noted before that the history of Gospel Mission has involved its being established in advance of various social catastrophes that have required its services. When the church moved to 331 Carrall Street in the 1940s, who would have predicted that Pigeon Park would be the fulcrum of despair that it started becoming in the 60s. More than that, it's directly in the face of the worst alley in the city for open-air drug dealing, and establishing The Lord's Rain on the ground floor has given us an up-close-and-personal view -- and no end of people to pray over and minister to.
This past Saturday morning was an utter zoo at the Lord's Rain -- and I apologize to any cheetahs, wildebeests, lowland gorillas and giant cockroaches from the Brazilian rainforests that might be reading this. It was directly after Welfare Wednesday, a day when the drug traffic takes a sudden spike. People who came into The Lord's Rain were incoherent. One man, visiting us for the first time, sat on a chair, drinking coffee and talking to himself -- or to me, it was hard to tell; equally hard to tell was the language he was speaking -- and bursting out laughing from time to time. Davona, who's become a regular (and Danilo insists is not on drugs but is "only" seriously mentally ill), spent her time talking to herself and trying on piece after piece of donated clothing; while two others, Debbie and Shelley, were dancing the Pigeon Park Gavotte -- that sort-of wavering music-less shuffle that you see many people doing on the streets in the Hastings and Carrall area -- often with a cup of coffee in one hand.
Some others, who were not on drugs -- like Charlotte and Brendan, a homeless couple in their 30s, and a pair of Quebecois men who are also regulars -- simply sat and laughed at the floor show they were getting for free. It was hard not to laugh, even though we were watching the effects that drugs have on people who, at one time or another, had been beautiful, bright people with a world of promise in front of them.
Across the street, the drug deals were going down. I had come down the night before to lock up after the Friday night service, and spent some time sitting in my car, watching the scene. Lookouts were standing oh-so-casually at each end of the alley across from Gospel Mission. They're very effective at what they do: in the past, I've seen a whole herd of buyers and sellers in the alley vanish into thin air about 30 seconds before a couple of police officers stroll past. As we left The Lord's Rain on Saturday morning, one cop was zip-strapping two of those same lookouts and waiting for his backup to arrive. We said a quiet prayer of thanks and protection for the officer.
Then came Saturday night, and the regular service at Gospel Mission. It was a good crowd, and an unusual message -- based on Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX. All these years, I'd assumed he'd been writing to a girl, but after reading an interesting theory that Shakespeare (or whoever wrote the works attributed to a certain gentleman farmer and actor from Stratford-Upon-Avon) was also on King James I's Bible translation team, it hit me between the eyes that he was writing it about Jesus. The message also spun off into a look at the implications of Jesus' assertion that He will come "as a thief in the night", and Jeremiah's description (49:9) that when a thief breaks in, he trashes the place and doesn't leave anything behind. So it will be when Jesus returns.
But the message was punctuated with outbursts from one fellow off at the side. I'd met him earlier in the year at The Lord's Rain: his name is Joseph, and he came in that morning stinking drunk and wanting to find the part in the Bible that lists the Seven Deadly Sins. There is no such reference: according to Wikipedia, the Seven Deadly Sins were listed by the 4th Century monk, Evagrius Ponticus. But what became apparent as we talked was that he knew Scripture, was incredibly intelligent, but for whatever reason was busily drinking his life away.
I usually cut people a lot of slack, but Joseph reached the end of my patience when he made a personal remark about one of the other guys there, and I warned him that if he made one more outburst, he'd be out of there without supper. He quietened down, then lay down on the pew and went to sleep.
The message ended, we served supper, and as people were lining up for seconds, I realized Joseph was still asleep. I went over to wake him, and he wouldn't budge. He was breathing, but absolutely un-wakable. John, who, two weeks before, had woken up to find his roommate dead on the kitchen floor, checked for a pulse, and that's when we saw the staples in Joseph's scalp. Someone said, "call 9-1-1", and I did. Fritz, one of the regulars, helped me roll Joseph onto his back.
The firefighters were first to arrive. "Oh, look," one of them said, "it's the chain guy!" Apparently, Joseph had been whacked in the head with a chain the day before and these same firefighters had treated him. They managed to rouse him just as the paramedics got there.
Joseph basically was OK -- except for being drunk and drugged and having a dozen staples holding his head together. The paramedics got out of him that he'd smoked rock cocaine earlier, on top of the booze. They checked his vital signs, took a blood sugar test, and packed up and left. I gave Joseph his hamburger, some cookies and a glass of Coke, and we talked.
"You need to spend more time here," I told him. "You know your Scripture, man." He laughed. I pressed the point. "I'm serious: you could be an awesome witness to others."
One of the things about Joseph is his quick laugh and a wry sense of humor. I walked with him down the stairs -- going ahead of him in case he fell. Not surprisingly, he pretended to fall. We laughed. He left in the direction of Pigeon Park, and I truly hope he comes back -- and often.
But I went back upstairs wanting to break something. Joseph was just the most recent in a long list of people that day, who were beautiful, intelligent, worth no less in God's eyes than you or I, and who had been written off by society. "Let them have their drugs -- who cares?" That's the attitude that comes off so much of the approach our society takes. But who's counted the cost here? Look at the resources deployed when we called about Joseph: three firefighters, four paramedics, two ambulances and a fire truck -- all to deal with someone who was drunk and on drugs. What if someone had had a heart attack, or there'd been a fire, or a building collapse, or a traffic accident, with those seven people and three vehicles tied up?
It's the drugs, stupid!
In Canada, we take great delight in sneering at the United States, and one of these exercises in smugness has been to declare that the War on Drugs has "failed". But what are the fruits of Canada's "peace treaty" with drugs?
If you need an answer to that rhetorical question, look at the multiple black eyes Vancouver has received over the past decade for the state of poverty in the shadow of such opulence. The further our city gets away from God, the more frequent and painful those black eyes will become.
Neither approach has been a resounding success. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." With Jesus reduced to Just Another World View (and a politically-incorrect one at that), people have tried to go ahead without God's guidance.
That's why The Lord's Rain and Gospel Mission are in the place they're supposed to be in. One reason has been for us to be a refuge for people on the street -- especially those who need an ambulance. But more than that, we've noted before that the history of Gospel Mission has involved its being established in advance of various social catastrophes that have required its services. When the church moved to 331 Carrall Street in the 1940s, who would have predicted that Pigeon Park would be the fulcrum of despair that it started becoming in the 60s. More than that, it's directly in the face of the worst alley in the city for open-air drug dealing, and establishing The Lord's Rain on the ground floor has given us an up-close-and-personal view -- and no end of people to pray over and minister to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)