Why We Do What We Do

*** Slightly gross but too true dep't ... ***

Question: what does a TV have that a human on the Downtown East Side doesn't?
Answer: secure waste disposal.

I was about to throw a pile of styrofoam packaging into the dumpster in the alley next to Gospel Mission last week when I realized I was not alone. A man was relieving himself against the wall next to the dumpster.

I gave him some respectful distance, and when he had left, I then unlocked the dumpster and chucked the packaging in; replaced the padlock and got back in my car. As I drove down the alley, I couldn't help thinking that we were treating our garbage with more diligence than our brothers and sisters. The styrofoam got placed in a padlocked bin. This poor fellow had to go in the alley. (There are OT references to "those who pisseth against the wall", but I don't think that's what God was referring to.)

I also remembered something one of "the guys" told me: "the city is spending $12,000 to do a study, counting human waste in the alley". "What do they need a study for?" was my reply. "We know it's there: give us the $12,000 and we'll help fix it."

I looked online and couldn't find a reference to such a study, but I did find a whole bunch of other references to the problem of human waste in the alleys, going back almost 10 years. The latest study could be a myth -- like the cadborosaurus or intelligent talk radio -- but there's no question that this situation has been discussed for years, with appropriate wailing and gnashing of teeth, that "somebody" has to provide a washroom for these people.

Often, the discussion will stall (pardon me) when someone says, "TransLink should put public washrooms in its stations!" Then there'll be a long and patient explanation (usually from your agent) as to why that idea is a non-starter (and Arlene can tell you that even though New York has restrooms in 25% of the subway stations, you don't want to use those!), and then someone will say, "see? It's all about money!"

And that's where it ends. Can you say, "paralysis through analysis," boys and girls?

As part of the Pigeon Park makeover, the City installed a public restroom. That was before the Olympics. I ran into an acquaintance from the Engineering department a couple of weeks ago. "The washroom will be working soon," he told me.

And this is why we do what we do at The Lord's Rain. Now, people do have a place to relieve themselves that's clean, sanitary and lets them wash their hands afterwards. They also have a place to shower and hang out. Amelia talks about the times she's heard someone say, "I feel human again".


The difference, of course, is in the level of responsibility. City governments are responsible to taxpayers, and even though people may wring their hands over how bad something is, if they have other spending priorities, those bad things get shoved down the list. Or studied in order to create a business case with a fully-funded implementation strategy.

As a Mission, we answer to a different Commander, who has unlimited resources and for whom empirical observation is the only "study" required. He'll draw our attention to something and say, "Go. Do." And He provides. Which is how The Lord's Rain got built and is operated.

Last week, Gospel Mission held its board meeting in The Lord's Rain (the Tuesday night service was going on upstairs) when a young couple walked in the door, saying they'd been told at one of the shelters they could get a shower. "They told us this place was open from 7 till 8:30," the woman said. "AM," I pointed out gently, and they left. There was a slight double-take around the table, and Barry said, "any of you [the board] mind if we invite them back?" No objection. I raced out and caught them at the corner.

They were from the Ottawa area. "Gatineau, really," the young man said, "but no one out here knows where that is, so we just say 'Ottawa'." (I know! I know! My step-daughter lives in Ottawa!) They came in and showered and used the hair dryer and got into clean clothes. And the Board -- who come in from North Van and Surrey -- got to see first-hand what we do.

Evidently, we were supposed to be in The Lord's Rain that night for reasons other than the Board meeting. As often happens, I'm torn between hoping we'll see them again -- maybe for a service upstairs -- and hoping that we don't -- which will mean that they were just passing through the Downtown East Side. I think you know what I mean.

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The styrofoam packaging I mentioned at the beginning was from the TV. In a previous email, you may recall, I mentioned that, when we were visiting The Oasis last month, Gerry and Brandon Wall stepped up and announced that they would cover the cost of a big-screen TV, so we could set up a closed circuit hookup and allow people with disabilities to take part in the service. Last week, we went to Best Buy and picked up a 50" plasma TV. On Tuesday, Barry mounted it on the wall, and now we just need to connect it and it will be in business.



I think we're already seeing signs that it will be appreciated. Debbie, one of our quasi-regulars at The Lord's Rain, noticeably perked up when we told her what we were doing. She's bent double from scoliosis, and has only been up to the Mission a couple of times in the 3-1/2 years I've been there. But she often brings a Bible into the Lord's Rain and reads it, or asks questions or shares things she's found, and being able to take part in the service will be a great comfort for her. Jim Ritchie, a brother who's paralyzed on one side after a stroke four years ago and who uses a walker to get around, is a faithful attendee at our services, but I can tell it's getting harder and harder for him to make it up the stairs now (he's 66 years old). I think he, too, will be happy to have an alternative.

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Cheers, Waves, and thank you!

For the past year, we have tremendously blessed to receive coffee donated by Waves Coffee. Thanks to that -- and Danilo's "formula" for making it and using just the right amount of sugar and creamer (for a number of reasons, we pre-mix the coffee) -- we've developed a reputation for the best coffee on the Downtown East Side. Truly, there are few things that make friends like a good cup of coffee. However, Waves has told us that they can no longer support us. I understand there are other causes that need their help, so we pray continued blessing on Waves and are truly grateful for the help they've given us.

Is this a "setback"? Not at all: it's an opportunity for someone else to step up. Gospel Mission is a ministry built on faith, and for the past 81 years, the Lord has found nifty ways to provide all our needs: I'm looking forward to seeing how He does it this time!

The Lord's Rain, The Mission and The Family

If you're old enough to remember the 1979 World Series, you'll remember that Willie "Pops" Stargell dubbed his Pittsburgh Pirates "The Family". They wore ghastly yellow uniforms and pillbox-style caps, which someone apparently thought were evocative of old-time baseball (some turn-of-the-century teams did wear them, but let's be honest: there's a reason why they're styled the way they are today), and Wilver (as broadcaster Vin Scully would call him -- note the autograph on the old Topps baseball card) would hand out gold "Stargell Stars" for his teammates to put on their caps when they did something great.

As I recall, there were a lot of gold stars on the Pirates' caps; they were a great team.

A group really has to grow into a "family" -- common experiences, common goals, love-led tolerance of one another's faults, are all important conditions, and it's not something imposed from on-high. When a union made noises about organizing a TV station I worked at some years ago, management called an "emergency general meeting" to remind us that we were really a "family". The pep talk was greeted with mild skepticism by some and serious skepticism by the rest. On the other hand, the place where I work now has simply developed into a family. People truly care about one another, both professionally and personally: when my dad had a heart attack 3 weeks ago, pretty much everyone right up to the CEO would look in at my office and see how dad was doing and if I was OK. It's not something you can impose through some consultant's report or a mission statement from a corner office: it either happens, or it doesn't.

It happens at Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain. People who come in are not "clients" or "the homeless" -- they're "the guys" (even if they're female): they're friends ... they're family.

When Richard Johnson's "ol' lady" died suddenly this summer, he knew he was welcome just to hang out and the others would just sit with him -- even if they didn't actually say anything. Others know that The Lord's Rain is a friendly light in the morning where they can go; little by little, we get to know them and they start to open up. It takes time, patience, love ... and absolutely no expectations.

On Saturday, Amelia stepped up and asked the guys to pray for me -- relating to dad's heart attack -- saying "you guys rely on Drew -- and he relies on you, too". Which was very true. And then, wondrously, Richard Cunningham (who told me earlier this year that his dad used to play in the Negro Leagues and that he remembers his mom making biscuits for Hank Aaron) spoke up and asked for prayer for himself, too, as his mother has Alzheimer's and is in the last stages of her life -- and he's having a tough time of it. (Richard testifies often about his faith and feeling of being welcomed back to the Lord when he slips -- he's battling a crack addiction -- and talks a lot about his mother. "My mama said, 'I didn't raise no fool', and I want to make sure she's right.")

The fact that Richard felt comfortable enough to speak up at that time is another indication of the "family" we've become. It also reminded me I'm not alone.

It's become hard to separate The Lord's Rain from Gospel Mission -- the soft evangelism downstairs from the overt preaching upstairs: one way or another, people are hearing the word, seeing the light and being reminded that they are God's workmanship, fearfully and wonderfully made.

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Photo album: Another chapter in Extreme Makeover: Mission Edition. A paint job in the back of The Lord's Rain -- next to the shower stalls.

With bare drywall and splotches of filler, it wasn't exactly the nicest thing to look at. Functional, yes -- the wall holds up the ceiling very well and we've NEVER been able to look through it into Wing's Cafe next door -- but a little style would be nice.

Late last week, John -- husband of Teresa Mancia, who leads the services on Monday nights and runs The Lord's Rain during middays on Mondays and Fridays -- took brush in hand and went to work. Looks much nicer, dontcha think?

We've been praying for people to come forward to get The Lord's Rain open in the early mornings six days a week. One of our goals has been to give people a place to go once the shelters show them the door, and so far, we're only doing that twice a week. We still need to be open in the early AM on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

One of our guys, Randall, has stepped forward, saying he'd be willing to make sure the doors are open -- but now we need teams to run the place: so again, please pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send the workers we need to run The Lord's Rain on those days from 6:30 or 7am until about 9.

Actually, as you can see by the picture, Randall didn't exactly step forward so much as he hobbled. He wrenched his knee over a year ago, and has been getting around with his knee in a brace -- or sometimes not. Last week, he was helping in the kitchen (he's a cook by trade), despite doctor's orders to STAY OFF THE LEG.

Come the end of the service, he was getting ready to mop the floor, when Barry (standing) told him to sit down, put his leg up, and he'd mop the floor. So Randall did. Barry mopped. Randall got up to leave. And slipped on the wet floor. Now, doctors are talking about surgery. This means Randall will definitely need help with The Lord's Rain!

Earlier this month, I sent out a plea for financial support. I don't normally do that, but every year or so, it seems, I just need to send that gentle reminder to people. So far, there's been a good response and we're grateful for that. This Mission has been built on the many-members-one-body approach, where people bring what they can into the storehouse -- large or small -- and it all fits together. Remember: we are set up to take credit card donations now through www.gospelmission.net and you can support me in the Ride For Refuge coming up on Oct. 16.

What's a headline worth?

The media in Vancouver are all over the story of the seizure of opium buds at Vancouver International Airport. Prominent among the details is the estimated dollar-value of the drugs on the street.

Why must the media report that? (I'll get to the standard, defensive answer that you get from a newsroom shortly.) All that does is let people know that it's possible to make that amount of money dealing drugs, and increase the desirability of that occupation. "Hmm ..." one could say, "if I needed to make a quick twenty grand, that's the way to do it." The fact that the stuff was seized -- i.e. that police at least intercepted the cargo -- only increases the challenge to "do it right next time".

Newsrooms will defend their action by saying that "that's what the police told us in their news release", but does no one in the newsroom run the information that goes out through the "public interest" filter?

I remember, when I was starting out in broadcast journalism, the local RCMP seized a stash of marijuana. Big deal in 1981, but doesn't even merit a second glance on the cops' charge sheet now. Wanting to be cool and get an angle I thought would interest people, I asked what the street value was. "Oh, we don't give that information out," the police officer said. I asked my boss if I should call a friend of mine who was involved with drugs. He said -- to my surprise -- "you don't want to promote that -- it might give someone else the idea."

It made sense.

Now, we fast-forward almost 30 years to see the police giving out the dollar figure (maybe they get a charge out of telling the public how much "business" they've been able to shut down) and the media dutifully parrotting it. (And I know the media can be selective, as I've found in my own dealings with them as a public information officer, with the number of times certain extenuating details are ignored -- and others are misreported.)

Worse, just over a year ago, there was a high-profile trial of a drug gang member, and the daily fishwraps showed a front-page photo of the accused's brother -- not exactly an angel, in his own right -- arriving in court, looking like something off the cover of GQ. A stunning (unidentified) young woman was at his side.

And it's clear, watching from Gospel Mission, which is right in the teeth of the worst alley in Vancouver, that a lot of young men are buying into that image. Good-looking, clean-cut young men, wearing hoodies, talking on cell phones and not really doing much -- although they do tend to vanish just ahead of the police, rather like salmon when an orca comes through.

Aren't we supposed to be discouraging young people from going into lives of crime -- in particular, dealing drugs and muscling into gangs? Don't we shake our heads in disbelief and disgust at the scene on the Downtown East Side, which is the fruit of that labour? Why, then, do the media insist on glamorizing the industry by reporting on "value" of a seizure and material wealth acquired by dealers.

Don't reporters understand the impact? It may be a grabbing headline one day: but it could lead someone to a life-changing -- and life-destroying decision.

The real picture of the DTES

A couple of weeks ago at Westpointe, I shared the story of Davona, the young woman who'd been a "fixture" for a while at The Lord's Rain but who recently had a baby: a confirmation that, even as we're surrounded by the death and despair on the Downtown East Side, God still wants LIFE to show forth and win out. Pastor Jon Boyd remarked afterwards that you hardly ever hear about good news out of the area -- the media and the activists who command attention know that bad news sells and good news is no news.

I may be a little late to the party with this one, but I discovered a TV series over the weeend that is the most realistic portrayal of the DTES I've seen in the six-plus years I've been ministering in the area. Actually, my mother-in-law in Toronto had been talking it up for some time: "The Beat", airing on OLN Saturdays at 10PM and Sundays at 9pm (Eastern), or online at http://www.oln.ca/details.php?id=99.

It's a reality show, focusing on Vancouver Police patrolling the Downtown East Side, dealing with the drug addicts and dealers, the prostitutes and the others generally labelled "street people". And rather than serving up the usual doom-and-despair that the popmedia give us about the DTES, I actually got a pretty good feeling from watching it. It has a very positive tone, showing police as compassionate individuals who truly care about the people they encounter on the DTES.

Talk about against-the-grain thinking!

I was reminded of the son of a friend of mine who's been on the VPD force for just about a year now, and whose hope has been to be assigned to the DTES.

The popmedia portrayal -- egged on by those "activists" -- is generally that cops are violent psychopaths who abuse poor, helpless vulnerable people. Of course, that's the image that gets the headline and the 40-second video clip. (Funny how scenes of police stopping to chat with a street person, helping them if they're lying on the street, or just keeping drug dealers off-balance, never seem to get "caught on tape".)

The episodes I caught last night went against-the-grain in another way: giving voice to the utter disdain the police have for Vancouver's "safe injection site". Many of you already know how I feel about it. It's a human experiment that has failed miserably, as evidenced by the fact that the situation of drugs, crime, homelessness and poverty has grown worse since InSite opened. A stat that came out from the police in last night's show was that, in 2001, the needle-exchange program dealt out about 180,000 needles; by 2009, that figure had ballooned to 3-million. Yet, as one of the cops said, getting anyone in the mainstream media to report a "contrarian" viewpoint is nearly impossible.

But it's like the little kid in "The Emperor's New Clothes": everyone's so blinded by the flash and glare of the myth that they can't see the truth. I've often said that Jesus is not about "harm reduction": He's about harm elimination. The solution involves getting people off drugs, rather than making it "healthier" for them, and you start by instilling the Hope of Christ in their lives. Things like InSite and needle exchanges make our jobs a lot tougher. But with God, nothing is impossible, and that's the good news.

(We note that the last two mayors who were ardent supporters of InSite only lasted one term, and they and the previous mayor -- who helped initiate it -- were all fragged by their own parties. Perhaps God is sending a political message?)

For all its grittiness and cinéma vérité, "The Beat" gives a good-news portrayal, showing up-close-and-personal what we deal with, without getting mired in the doom-and-despair thing. Well worth watching, and you might be moved, as I was, to fire off a letter of appreciation to OLN and to Galafilm, the producers.

Pickton and the coals of fire

If you want to stir up some heated discussion around The Lord's Rain, bring up the case of Robert "Willie" Pickton. I was out of town when the latest development came up -- the Supreme Court of Canada, upholding his convictions on six counts of murder and the Crown opted to stay the charges on 20 other counts -- so I haven't heard what's being said this time by the people who come in.

Certainly, the media coverage has created great opportunities for newspaper columnists to do the Righteous Outrage thing. They're great at that. One went absolutely over the top in expressing his fervent emotions about the heinousness of his crimes and -- rather fatuously, I thought -- called on Pickton to "man up" and tell what happened to the others. Another darkly hinted that "important people" might get tarnished if there were a public inquiry.

By way of a recap, Pickton was charged after literally dozens of women went missing from the Downtown East Side over a period of several years. The movements of the victims, many of whom were prostitutes and drug addicts, were eventually traced to a pig farm owned by Pickton and his brother in Port Coquitlam -- just east of Vancouver. Police eventually gathered the evidence that led them to Pickton. He was the only one charged. The details of the deaths that came out at trial can best be summed up with one word: horrific.

Some say that it's a relief that, without proceeding with charges in the other 20 cases (he's also suspected in about 20 missing-women cases on top of these 26) or holding a public inquiry into the case, we won't have to hear about the details all over again. Others say the families of the other 20 are being denied "closure" -- whatever that is -- because their loved ones' day in court won't happen. There is an underlying assumption that without a conviction, there will never be justice for the families of the victims.

As I say, Pickton has often been a subject of conversation around The Lord's Rain. Some of the people who come in knew the victims, and the recurring theme isn't so much the allegations of police inaction on the initial reports of missing people, but they do wonder how Pickton could have acted alone.

Shannon, whom I've mentioned before as the first woman I've known on the DTES who actually admitted to having been a prostitute, knew some of the victims and remarked recently how tremendously blessed she felt that she hadn't been one of them, herself. She went on to talk about what she'd like to do to him. Her talk was along the lines of "I'm not in favor of the death penalty, but ...", and I found it hard to disagree.

Then Jeff broke into the conversation. "Forgive him," he said.

Jeff is the sort of person who can provide exactly the word one needs to keep things in perspective, and this was one of those times. According to the word of God, that's exactly what this situation calls for: something to break the legalistic logjam and get away from the hand-wringing that the legal system has let people down. Jesus tells us flat-out that we have to forgive those who have wronged us -- even if that wrong is torturing and murdering someone we love. Bless those who curse you, He says; pray for those who despitefully use you. Proverbs 25:21-22 (echoed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:20) says that in so doing, we heap coals of fire on that person's head. Keep that in mind -- we'll come back to that shortly.

If we forgive someone, Jesus says, we'll be forgiven by God for the things we've done wrong. The act goes much deeper. Even though our fleshly desire is to gain revenge on that person, if we suppress that desire and follow God's will by forgiving, that releases God to work that will over the whole situation. We release the person from the burden of our hating them and release ourselves from that same burden.

OK, so the legal system has failed the families of those allegedly killed by Robert "Willie" Pickton. Another aspect of forgiveness is that you don't have to wait for a court of law to decide beyond a shadow of a doubt. Even if you only suspect someone wronged you, forgiving them still lets God get to work, either proving guilt or exposing the person who was really responsible. If the families of those victims were to declare that they forgive Pickton -- unconditionally and without reservation -- they might be surprised at what follows.

As for the "coals of fire" reference, I believe that has a number of meanings. You could say that the coals of fire represent the burning feeling of guilt and shame that comes when someone has taken the high road and forgiven someone else -- leading, presumably, to the one who's been forgiven reciprocating by doing whatever it is that God wants of them. But fire is often used to connote the Holy Spirit, so once again, forgiving someone touches them with the anointing they need. In the long run, justice and closure -- real justice and closure -- follow as the night the day.

Too often, our society mistakes "revenge" for "justice". To God, justice comes when His will is done. The world's approach has run out of avenues for the people affected by the Pickton case. Maybe it's time to look at God's approach.

What would Jesus doodle?

In John 8, it’s recorded that the scribes and Pharisees hauled a woman in front of Jesus, telling Him that she’d been caught in the act of adultery and that, according to the law Moses gave, she should be stoned to death. The Scripture tells us that rather than answer them straightway, Jesus stooped down and started writing or drawing something in the dirt. Eventually, He stands up and says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”. And one by one, they’re all convicted and slink away.

Then He tells the girl, “go and sin no more”.

But aside from two of the more famous lines in the Bible, this account contains one of the great puzzlements in Scripture, and often I’ve heard people musing on it. “I wonder,” they say, “what Jesus was writing in the dirt? Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to look over Jesus’ shoulder and see what He was drawing?”

I’d thought of that, myself: one of those angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin posers that occupy our time every once in a while and then we move on to other things.

Then, just over a week ago, I got gobsmacked with the answer: it doesn’t matter.

John himself writes that Jesus did so many things in His time on earth, that there isn’t enough ink and paper in the world to write them all down. So evidently, when John wrote his Gospel, it was more or less a highlight reel of Jesus’ ministry. What he put in was enough for us to believe, so “that believing [we] might have life through His name” (John 20:31), and what he left out was not important enough.

So what Jesus wrote or drew wasn’t important. What was important was the fact that He was stooped down, drawing in the dirt.

Jesus lowered Himself below the level of the adulteress and got His hands dirty.

The “good” people stood off – a stone’s throw away, literally – and couldn’t even bring themselves to threaten her up-close-and-personal. Jesus dirtied His hands. What’s more, He made Himself vulnerable. In the story of Gideon in the Book of Judges, we read that God instructed Gideon to send home those soldiers who went down on their knees to drink and made themselves vulnerable to attack.

That’s more or less the essence of ministry on the Downtown East Side. We need to lower ourselves so that we’re not higher than the people we serve*, and not worry about whether we’re vulnerable. We need to be prepared to get our hands dirty. And there’s one more thing we can learn from this passage.

Was Jesus being rude or cavalier in not responding immediately to the Pharisees? No: He was doing something the other three Gospels tell us He told us to do; wait for the Holy Spirit.

See, there were other things Jesus could have done -- things the world might have expected any man with an ounce of compassion to do, given the same situation.

• He could have stood valiantly between her and the accusers and shielded her from the stoning. He could even have dared them to take Him out first. Somebody might have done that, too; heaven knows there were enough people ready to stone him, too. But even if He had done that and everyone had left without throwing anything, that wouldn’t have accomplished God’s purpose.
• He could have called them on the fact that the man involved had not been arrested and pointed out that Moses’ law was gender-blind. But that would only have convicted them to find the guy and then they’d be right back where they’d started – namely, discussing whether they both should be stoned -- and wouldn’t have accomplished God’s purpose.
• He could have shown the world’s version of compassion – sympathy – and lectured the accusers on the hard life the woman probably had and how they had to cut her a break. But considering that God is no respecter of persons, that wouldn’t have accomplished God’s purpose.
• He could also have gotten “legalistic” on them and reminded them that Roman law prohibited them from killing anybody – something the chief priests told Pilate when they wanted him to crucify Jesus – and that could have defused the situation right there. But that wouldn’t have accomplished God’s purpose, either.

Instead, He waited for the words the Holy Spirit would give Him – just as He told us to do when called on to defend our faith. Then, He spoke the word of God over the situation and His purpose was accomplished, namely:

• The accusers were convicted to examine their own hearts
• The woman got a new chance on life – with the proviso to “sin no more”

It’s interesting that John’s is the one Gospel that does not record that instruction to us, but he shows Jesus actually setting the example. And that’s an important example for any ministry – especially places like the Downtown East Side.

See, when we’re faced with issues like drugs and crime, poverty and prostitution, homelessness and the other ills of urban poor areas, the human, worldly response is to Do Something. And when that doesn’t work, then we want to Do Something Else. And that leads to such dangerous concepts as safe injection sites, and other concepts that are billed as helping people but rather enable them to continue along their slow death, rather than bringing real healing.

Don’t just DO something – stand there!

We need to remember that when the world is yelling all around us, challenging anyone to come up with a solution; we need to go quiet, drop down to the level of the people we’re helping and spend some time on our knees doodling in the dirt, waiting for the word of God to come to us.

It will always be right, and right on time.

Always.



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*In The Passion of the Christ, the scene shows the woman being flung onto the ground at Jesus’ feet and staying there. That’s a more dramatic interpretation, certainly, but according to John, she remained standing in the midst of the crowd with Jesus beside her, even after He’d bent down and after all her accusers had slunk away.

Disciples more than dollars - no: really!

"The harvest truly is plenteous, but we don't have enough money and our work falls through the cracks of any government programs."
-- Jesus, upon looking at the multitudes with compassion.
-- Not.

Actually, in Matthew 9:37, Jesus says the problem is the lack of labourers, and the resurfacing of Cherie yesterday at The Lord's Rain hammered that home for me again. Cherie is a woman whom I mentioned back in March in a blog posting, and she's sadly typical of one of the challenges we face on the downtown east side.

For all the optimism of that post, Cherie still appears to be lurching through her life from day to day, from fix to fix, from "customer" to "customer" -- you get the idea. She had that "hard" look on her face, that cracked briefly with a smile, but got paved-over when we refused to put more sugar in her coffee (I'd say 90% of the people at the Mission actually do respond to and respect the boundaries we set -- and these boundaries are purely economical -- but there are some who pout more than somewhat).

Anyway, you think you've found a chink in someone's armor, a way to crack through and reach them with true, unconditional love; but once they step back out onto the street -- into the world, with its constant temptations and its reminders of how they've fallen before -- without the support of others ministering that same kind of love to them, they slip again.

Often, I believe it's not the "fall" that does the damage to a person who's begun to find their way to the Lord: it's the guilt trip that comes from believing that they're just as rotten as they'd thought they were, they're really not worthy of any kind of forgiveness or new life, and that they'll never be able to make it back now.

All of which is The Big Lie and is easily countered by Grace. Just as love never fails, Grace trumps everything. But even if you get that message through to them, they need other people around to encourage them and build them up, especially when temptation looks like it's getting a foothold again. When I see Cherie -- or some of the others, even those that I've known for years -- slip, my first thought is that I wish I'd been close to hand to try to talk to them, encourage them and otherwise Be There for them.

Then I realize that there's only so much of "me" to go around. I can only speak for myself, but I'm pretty sure that, if you ask Barry or anyone else ministering in Christ on the Downtown East Side, you'll hear a similar reaction. After all, we have jobs and families -- don't forget that the Apostle Paul had a job and the Apostle Peter was married. Other laborers are needed to pick up the slack, to water the seed we've sown and to sow new seed themselves; to be the "fresh legs off the bench".

Or even -- the right legs: there's no guarantee that, even if I had been there with Cherie or whomever, I could have said anything more or different than what I'd said already. Sometimes, people need to hear a variation on the message, in order for it to sink in deeper. Case in point: when our late sister Candy gave her testimony about how Jesus saved her from drug addiction, it got through to some people who'd been hearing me preach for over two years. The testimony of another sister, Charisse, also struck home where the words of others had just bounced off.

Having more labourers also proves to people in the area that ministry in Christ is not just being done by a handful of sin-busters out to save the world with Bible in hand. Knowing there are multiple people who care and are motivated by the same thing can have a major impact by itself.

All of this is by way of encouraging people to consider forming teams to operate The Lord's Rain on early Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. This would give people in the area more opportunity to stay off the street during those hours -- especially those in shelters, who get booted out a few hours before other programs open. When The Lord's Rain is available, they get invaluable exposure to what Pastor Barry calls "Jesus with the skin on" -- love, experienced through serving one another. You might even want to pitch it to your churches and see if others are interested.

It doesn't take much: the best team size would be four -- two is the minimum; the early-morning hours (6:30 or 7 until 9) would work well for those with jobs downtown. I believe you'll discover gifts that you didn't even know you had.

It's all about building relationships, really. That, as much preaching the Word, helps instill the hope they need. Indeed, I can't think of a time when Jesus quoted Scripture at people -- save for the times when He used it to bring up the religious leaders on their own hypocrisy. Instead, the Gospels tell us that Jesus reached people through fellowship: eating with them, walking with them, sitting beside a well, standing them a round of drinks at a wedding.

It's through relationships that love starts to grow; and it's through love that hope takes root; and it's through hope that people start to experience true transformation in their lives.