God does not give up (originally posted Feb 19/08)

Last night, the Lord took me to a piece of Scripture, proving the point of yesterday's entry: that He does not give up on people, no matter what they've done.

He always leaves the door open for us to come back to Him. In Judges 2, we read how the Israelites have disobeyed God, specifically by failing to drive out the nations that were living in the Promised Land. God is so grieved by this, He sends not a prophet, but an angel to tell them to smarten up. But after the death of Joshua, the Israelites fall away again, and God then raises up judges to keep watch over them

... And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. (Judges 2:18)

Matt. 8:16 ... and He ... healed all that were sick .... Acts 5:16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

Don't you love Bible journeys? They remind you of the goodness of God and His glory and His desire for all of us to have every good thing. His intention is for people to be healed, no matter what they've done in the past, nor really what the state of their particular walk with Him might be at the time. (That's how He healed my back after 26 years, and it was a miracle that truly "got my attention" -- reflecting on Kenneth Copeland's remark that God doesn't do miracles to make you believe, He does miracles to get your attention -- I was still having my struggle with believing Him and His promise and whether I was worthy, and He settled the matter.)

This all reflects back to yesterday's post, built around the quote from Mayor Sam, in which he says that, for the same reason that getting out of his wheelchair is "not going to happen", drug addicts can never be clean. O h yes, they can -- because even though The World (or at least, the Mayor of Vancouver) has written these people off, God is just getting started. The door is always open. We just have to push.

2 Chr. 7:14 If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

The Emperor's New Clothes - And The Mayor's True Colors (originally posted Feb 18/08)

If you dig back to one of the very first entries on this blog, you'll find a little mini-rant about the (in)effectiveness of Vancouver's "safe" injection site (dubbed "InSite" in deference to the play on words and of course, the 21st Century penchant for words with capital letters in the middle).

Put succinctly, THEY DON'T WORK -- unless, of course, their purpose is to let drug addicts die, and decrease the surplus population. The InSite supporters, in a lovely bit of Orwellianism, have defined their own success: no one has actually overdosed and/or died in the facility itself. To my mind -- having hung with some people this morning who were smoking crack outside the showers facility -- the measure of success of any program to deal with drug addicts is whether they get off the drugs, not whether they don't die on the facility property.

But there are some areas where you can set your own "industry standard" after the fact. Not long after I posted that entry, I said something similar in an interview on OMNI 10 TV. So far, I have not awakened to find a horse's head in my bed, courtesy InSite (perhaps another part of the anatomy would be more appropriate). One must admit ... it's a little like the kid in The Emperor's New Clothes ... everyone has been conditioned to believe that InSite is the answer to the drug problem -- harm reduction, in other words, ignoring the Hippocratic oath to "do no harm", not "do less harm than something else might" -- so anyone who says that InSite is NOT the answer is immediately suspected of standing in the way of a perfectly good ... well ... theory.

The latest development in this saga comes from Dan Rather. He Who Took Over Walter's Chair was in Vancouver recently, doing a documentary on the DTES, and InSite in particular. According to the Vancouver Sun, Mayor Sam Sullivan -- billed as "the first quadriplegic mayor of a major world city" -- is interviewed. According to Glenn Bohn's article in the Sun ... "I have talked to many people with drug addictions, and they all want to be healthy," says the mayor, who has confirmed that, before he was mayor, he bought heroin for a female prostitute and bought crack for a man and allowed the user to smoke the crack in Sullivan's van.

"They all want to be clean," the mayor says. "I tell you: I do not want to be a quadriplegic. I would do anything to stand up, but that's not gonna happen. That's not my life. So, I need help managing my disability, just like those people with drug addictions need help managing their disability." (Italics are mine.)

Excuse me? Mayor Sam, suggesting it's just as likely for someone to recover from drug addiction as it is for him to get up out of his wheelchair? Well, he's right ... but not in the way he thinks. The translation of the above statement? Drug addicts can forget about ever recovering. Drug addicts: THE MAYOR OF VANCOUVER HAS WRITTEN YOU OFF! He's given up on them. No sense trying to heal them of their addiction: just help them "manage" it.

Help them "manage" going through life as zombies, because they made a wrong turn somewhere.

Help them "manage" being the detritus of society, because no one wants to get down and dirty and tackle the real problem. Help them "manage" being shifted from lousy hotel to shelter to the streets to some other community where they won't be a liability to a world class city on the international stage. But recover? Get over the addiction? Not as far as Sam's concerned.

AND GOD SAID, "I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP ON YOU! MY SON DID NOT GIVE UP ON YOU, AND WILL NOT GIVE UP ON YOU AS LONG AS THERE IS A HEAVEN AND EARTH AND THE SUN AND THE STARS! MY SON TOOK THE LASHES SO THAT YOU COULD BE HEALED! "

And what is Sam saying? "Ehh ... Jesus was wasting His time ..."

?

God can heal addictions ... and does heal addictions ... and has healed addictions. The trick is to shut up the people who are being the instruments of Satan, parrotting the line that the addicts can't be healed, and to get enough people to tell them that they can be healed and they deserve to be healed and God wants them healed. That was true 2000 years ago and it's true today.

This brings us to the irony of Mayor Sam's statement, likening their addiction to his affliction. What happened at the Beautiful Gate when Peter and John met the lame man? Peter said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" And what happened then? So indeed: Mayor Sam's disability is just as heal-able as drug addiction. All he needs to do is reach up and expect to receive something. Hmm ...

The Showers Saga - 11: Gunfight at Pigeon Park (originally posted Feb 16/08)

The CKNW "Breaking News" alert came in on my BlackBerry at 9:25 Friday night: "A man has been shot and killed across from Pigeon Park in the Downtown East Side. Vancouver Police say the man was shot while sitting in his van."

It's Murder #6 of 2008 for the City of Vancouver alone. That's a murder a week, if you're scoring at home. If you include the homicides in the rest of Metro Vancouver and go back over the past 12 months, rather than just since Jan. 1, people are offing one another at an alarming rate in this region. There is no consolation in Bugsy Siegel's famous remark, "we only kill each other": one of the more shocking massacres included two innocent bystanders, either caught in the overall hail of bullets or taken out -- along with the four "targets" -- because they were witnesses. It's no consolation, either, to say, "well, one fewer drug dealer out there". The victim was "known to police", but they "know" a lot of people out there, and because the drug trade is so lucrative, they will get to "know" a lot more.

The "hit" took place as Barry and Brodie were working on the plumbing for The Lord's Rain. They'd just finished running the 1" pipe from the outside (evidently, they finally found the right spot after jackhammering through the century-old concrete), and were back inside when they heard the sirens. At first, they thought it had been an accident, then went outside to see yellow tape all over the place, the area crawling with rozzers, and Brodie's van -- with his tools -- caught inside. Work was suspended for the evening.

Further sign of God's Hand on the project for blessing: Brodie and Barry had already finished the outside work when the shooting happened. Brodie was not at his own van -- which was parked right behind the van the victim was sitting in (see above) -- getting tools when it happened. Shaughnessy, South Granville, The Drive, any Vietnamese restaurant after 3 am ... why shouldn't our little parish -- the DTES -- have a franchise in the MML (Murder & Mayhem League)?

All the more reason why we need The Lord's Rain to remind the people who live there that they are not forgotten and deserted because of the perception of violence.

We're still there, guys. God is still there.

The Showers Saga 10 - It's Groundhog Day! (originally posted Feb 5/08)

Sadly, there are no Biblical references to groundhogs, so really no way to make a lame tie-in between the latest work party and the fact that it happened on Feb. 2.

(There are Biblical refs to badgers -- as in the kind of skins required in the building of Moses' tabernacle -- but that's as close as it gets. But as we know ... WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING BADGERS!)

But I digress ... The Oasis gang returned this past Saturday: a much smaller work party than the week before, and, supplemented with Murray Scott, they got the fourth shower stall set up, the showers dry-fitted and the plumbing roughed-in.

Gerry Wall stayed home this time, but Brandon came, and told us how his dad decided to cancel last Sunday's sermon because 15 guys from the work party got up to testify about what working on the showers -- and being on the Downtown East Side -- meant to them. This past Sunday, it was Murray's turn to give the announcements and receive the offering, and he gave testimony. This is obviously about more than providing showers for street people. And yet that whole concept brings hope to the area. People at the Mission are asking, When will it be open? Still don't have an answer yet, but people can see that something is happening and it's going to be a good thing for them.

The really good thing, of course, is that people coming into The Lord's Rain will feel something besides hot water and clean skin: the love of Christ. That's the motivating factor behind all of this. It's not the "do-gooder" mentality that burns brightly on high and then disintegrates when it gets closer to the earth; it's something that keeps burning through the worst circumstances and spreads as others catch the same vision. Whether the others catching the vision are those working on the project or those benefitting from it, the underlying theme -- the love of Christ -- is the fundamental factor.

The police like the idea, by the way: I spoke with the Inspector in charge of neighbourhood policing in that zone -- Insp. Cam Murdock, VPD -- and he thinks it's a great idea. He's given some good insights into security and means of preventing the place from turning into a "shooting gallery". One method is to install lighting of a particular color that makes it impossible to see one's veins. (There's a Petro-Canada station near my place, where the restrooms have some kind of funky black-light action: I assume that's what it's for.)

Unfortunately, when I asked what kind of lighting would be best, he suggested I call InSite, the "safe injection site" (or, more truthfully, the human rejection site) on the Downtown East Side. I opined that they probably wouldn't like me too much, since I made some rather pointed comments about the operation in a TV interview last month. Simply put, the comment was: there are still people shooting up in alleys and wandering around like zombies on the streets because of drugs; don't tell me the operation is "working" because no one has OD'd or died on the premises. Rather like the little kid saying, "The emperor has no clothes!"

Anyway, Cam agreed they probably didn't like the truth, and said he'd look into it. I don't know why InSite would know what kind of lighting would prevent a place from becoming a shooting gallery: InSite is a shooting gallery. It may carry the cachet of a medically supervised safe injection location, but it passes the "duck test" for a shooting gallery -- walks like, quacks like, therefore it is. (Cvacio, ergo sum, is probably how Descartes would have put it. If he'd been a duck. But that's probably a canard.) THANK YOU! I'LL BE HERE ALL WEEK!

OK ... enough of this ... more work to come ... more photos coming on this site as well.

The Showers Saga - 9 (originally posted Jan 27/08)

331-327 Carrall Street will never look the same.

As Pastor Barry says, "we like to change our approach every 80 years or so", and so on Saturday (the 26th), a swarm of constructive locusts descended on our new location. Kathleen and James had begun the operation the Saturday prior, ripping out the pony wall back near the toilet area and disconnecting the old hot water tank. Yesterday, the gang from The Oasis arrived from Duncan around 8:45 and went to work. See, wouldn't we just have to be associated with a church, where the Senior Pastor (Gerry Wall) is a carpenter and the population of males is made up of young men eager to learn trades?

In building the addition for the church at the Cowichan River Bible Camp back in '02 (my contribution: barking one log for a column on the new entranceway), Gerry got these young men turned on to marketable skills, like carpentry, electrical, plumbing, etc. He also got the others turned on to such crazy concepts as working as a team, following instructions and GETTING THE JOB DONE. Add to them Tim and Gord from Coast Mountain, Murray from Westpointe (as in Murray Scott Construction), Kathleen and Carolin with their cooking, Janet and Amelia with the cookies and coffee, and showers from Andrew Sheret, and you now have a space that actually looks like a space!

Global TV was there, as well ... The reporter, Jennifer Palma, is very sharp and asked some very good questions ... got some good clips in of Gerry and Brandon Wall ... evidently she has a Catholic upbringing, because she kept referring to the people who go to Gospel Mission as "the parishioners" ... why not?

We also had a rather serendipitous encounter with the crew from "ListenUp", a TV series aimed at non-believers. They were doing something else on the DTES and Brandon recognized host Lorna Dueck. Since I'd printed up a bunch of fact sheets about The Lord's Rain, I gave her one, and she's passing it on to her producers for a future segment.

The Apostle Paul's writings about many members of the one Body of Christ also apply to any human endeavour: people of various anointings come together to give the Word of God substance.

It's been obvious from the start -- check back through the previous installments in The Shower Saga -- that this project has the Hand of God firmly on it for blessing, and as we so many people with so many varied gifts working to make it happen.

One of the things that delighted one during the work blitz was the lack of competitiveness. We had some highly skilled people on the scene, and I'd say at least four could each have taken the lead and tried to run things. Yet they all submitted to one another. A lot of the time, Brandon took the lead ... and the others listened, stepping up now and again when they felt they could contribute.

I felt a little useless and in the way ... but only a little. At that point, my main duty was to talk to any reporters who came along. That was perfectly fine: that's What I Do. I have a hard time hammering anything straight, and if I'd attempted something with the electrical, most of BC would be operating by candle-light now! So I do what I do ... and the others do what they do.

A new God-send in this project is Bill from Hillcrest Plumbing and Heating. Our friends at Andrew Sheret had offered to work with our plumbers, and when we had a problem getting a senior plumber to pull the permit we need, I contacted Brian, the president of Sheret; one of his managers quickly rounded up Bill, and Bill came down to the Mission on Saturday to look the project over and give advice.

And so we press on. We'll have to set up another work party to build that last stall ... then comes the plumbing and the permits (not necessarily in that order) ... hook up the water heater ... and let the people bathe!

The Showers Saga - 8 (originally posted Jan 8/08)

Wow ... 9 days since the last post! Now, THAT's restraint! Just back from the CBC, and a radio interview with Rick Cluff on "Early Edition". Praise the Lord for the air time, for a nice, laid-back interview, and for the courage to point out, when Rick implied that I was a "Bright Light" -- which is the name of that Monday 6:50 AM segment, on People Who Make A Difference -- that the real "bright light" is Christ, motivating those of us who work on the DTES. Also for remembering to mention Andrew Sheret and Pastor Barry and The Oasis etc. etc. Let's pray for a flood (shower) of donations from people who heard this.

The Vancouver Courier ran a very good feature in its Jan. 11 issue; Cheryl Rossi even checked through this blog to get some background I didn't provide her (like, that there was prophecy involved).

(Text): A Downtown Eastside mission that aims to immerse visitors in love and hope will so
on be providing "the Lord's Rain" to the needy.
When Drew Snider started ministry work at a Downtown Eastside mission in 2004, he noticed how dirty its visitors were. When he moved to the Gospel (not Union) Mission last year, he saw visitors flock to its laundry tubs to clean up. Some washed their matted hair with hand soap and dried their locks with paper towels.
Their predicament weighed on him.
In September, a guest speaker--whom he referred to as a prophet, at his church, Westpointe Christian Centre, informed him God would send him on a journey and that he would gain new ideas about ministering.
Shortly after, while visiting an old friend in New York, Snider, who's usually in the news for his role as spokesperson for TransLink, visited that city's second oldest mission, saw its shower program and was inspired to set something similar up in Vancouver.
The Gospel Mission, also known as the Carrall Street Church, has run from the second floor of a two-storey walkup on Carrall Street next to Pigeon Park since the 1940s, and has operated since the '20s.
The Apostolic Church of Pentecost of Canada funds the mission, which serves dinner to visitors four nights a week after a period of prayer, worship music and a sermon. "There are missions in the area that serve food primarily," Snider said. "Our main function is as a church... so a lot of what we do is feed the soul."
When Gospel Mission's senior pastor, Barry Babcook, told Snider in November that the Anti-Poverty Committee was moving out of a ground floor space in the same building, Snider told Babcook about his shower idea.
Babcook talked to the landlord, the son of the man the mission first rented from 60 years ago, who agreed to give them until Nov. 22 to devise a plan and come up with the money to back it.
Two days before the deadline, the Oasis Church in Duncan, which Snider once attended, made a large one-time donation to the project and pledged monthly contributions.
A man who attends his West Point Grey church pledged an even larger upfront donation and promised more to come.
The mission will establish four portable shower stalls so it doesn't have to alter the historic building. The facility, dubbed The Lord's Rain, will be in the back with a sitting room in the front.
The mission plans to open the showers to the general public from 7 to 8:30 a.m. three days a week with three volunteers on site.
The facility will be co-ed with a female volunteer in attendance.
Visitors can take a shower and stay for a cup of coffee.
Andrew Sheret Ltd. has agreed to donate four showers. Two plumbers who were "saved" off the street will install them. The mission hopes to have the showers running in February.
It's seeking donations for operations. Snider said 30 donations of $50 a month would suffice.
For information, visit www.gospelmission.net or call 604-737-7337.

We also going to be featured on "The Standard" on OMNI 10, Tuesday (Jan. 15) night at 9. That's in the broader context of What To Do About The Downtown East Side, and it gave me a bit of a chance to do my "Emperor Has No Clothes" rant about "safe" injection sites. Now, we'll wait for other media to get with this.

The Showers Saga - 7

A comment to the previous post from Catalonia, Spain, indicates people are starting to read this. Well, some are, anyway. So I'd like to draw your attention to a series of posts, most of which are now stored under "older posts" linked at the bottom of the first page. The series is titled "The Showers Project" (new working title for the actual project: "The Lord's Rain"), and relates to a project we've undertaken at Gospel (not Union Gospel) Mission here in Vancouver. Rather than re-post all of those, I'd just like to invite you to dig in and read them over.