Michael

We lost a good friend recently at Gospel Mission. Michael Thompson is referred to as the "oldest member" at Gospel Mission -- had been coming, if I heard Barry right -- for over 30 years. Considering he was barely into his 50s, that means he'd been on the Downtown East Side since he was a teenager. That is, sadly, par for the course with a lot of people there: there may be a few transients in the area, but many of them have spent the better part of their lives surrounded by the drugs and the violence.

Michael was just there. I believe he loved the Lord, although as I write this, I hear the echo of a Pentecostal minister who, when I wanted to share with him about Rusty Campbell, who was murdered in spring of 2007, and referred to him as "drunk as a skunk most of the time,", declared, "then he couldn't have loved the Lord!" You really can't debate that one. But as for Michael, the poems he wrote and are shared on the Gospel Mission website leave no doubt.

When I knew him, he was going through serious issues as the drugs continued to ring up their toll on his life. Many others were closer to Michael -- Amelia, for instance, refers to him as "a gentle soul" -- and gave freely of their time and love and encouragement. Michael wanted to be free of the demons, and for sure, there was one Wednesday evening earlier this year, after Bible study, when Barry started casting the demons out and Michael wound up flat on his back, mumbling in tongues.

But the physical toll continued to build. He wound up spending many weeks in hospital, unable to recognize anyone, and with his clothes hidden away, lest he decide to "check himself out". Barry and Janet went up to visit him often, praying over him mostly; God moved on Michael's life, by getting him into an assisted-living facility, and in September, Michael was well enough to come to Bible study a couple of times. His voice was reduced to a mumble and he needed a walker and physical help to get up and down the stairs, but he was lucid and able to recognize most of us.

Last week, we learned that he was dead. In fact, he'd been dead for a month, but the facility apparently didn't have contact information for any of us. His family on Vancouver Island, which had lost track of him over the years, didn't know, either, until they contacted Barry and Barry directed them to the facility. Michael had had a seizure at the end of October, and died a few days later.

It's like that on the Downtown East Side. For whatever reason, people lose track of their lives, and life loses track of them. It's no one's fault -- and God knows everyone of us has reason to beat themselves up for not Being There at the end. But we do know Who was there at the end, and even now, I'm hearing Him telling me that it was the prayer and the ministry that people gave Michael over the years that kept reinforcing the message that Jesus came for him, just as He came for others; ensuring that Michael kept his eyes on the Lord, even as he struggled for his footing in the endless battle with the enemy.

Michael's niece sent the following letter to Barry:

Hello Pastor Barry
Once again let me express my gratitude for being there for my Uncle when we could not. I remember him on many occasions talking about the Mission and look forward to meeting with you.
The poems are wonderful and do indeed allow me to look inside that part of him. I will pass this web site on to the family so they too can see these and download them.
Do you have the originals or were they on the computer?
Anything you can share with us is very much appreciated. You did mention that you had some pictures as well so maybe we can arrange to have copies of those. When Uncle Mike comes to us and we have a celebration for him I will let you know so maybe you will want to write something about him that I can share with the family. I was unsure of what I would do with my father's ashes and I will now wait for Uncle Mike and spread them together. Maybe this is what was to be.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours Truly
Sheila Thompson

Sheila has asked for some recollections of Michael, and I'll share them here on the blog as they come in.

The Showers Saga - 13: Don't Take Your Eyes Off The Pillar (original post: Feb. 25/08)

I had to listen to the voice mail from Barry four times before I finally understood what he'd said.

He was calling on his cell phone from SkyTrain, which is two strikes against any phone call, and I could have sworn he'd said "the shower ministry got broken into". Four times of listening to it didn't change it. That's exactly what he said.

Truth to tell ... it wasn't broken into. Someone walked in through the door that I thought I'd locked, after showing an out of town guest around the project on Sunday afternoon. They walked out with a bunch of tools, a bag of brass fittings and two sets of shower fixtures. Evidently, I didn't lock the door when I thought I had.

So now we have to replace the tools that got ripped off and buy more fittings. Not the end of the world, no one got hurt. This would happen the day after I'd preached a sermon on getting to know one's place in the Lord, and went off on a tangent about Mayor Sam and the fact that, by his words, he's "written off" the people on the Downtown East Side, but God has not written them off. Now, I find myself in the midst of a test of how much I believe that, because on the one hand, yes, I'm angry with myself for not locking that blasted door, but I am REALLY DISAPPOINTED in whoever ripped us off! Doesn't he (or she) realize the showers are for him (or her)? Doesn't he (or she) realize this is an expression of the love of Christ for him (or her)?

Of course not, Drew: they're too strung out on drugs to know right from wrong. That's why you and the others are doing this. The change in people will come from within and will take time. If the change had already happened, the showers project wouldn't be necessary.

The Lord never said it would be easy. But He did say He'd be with us, every step of the way.

It is all the more reason for us to press ahead with the showers project: a graphic reminder of whom we are called to serve and the battle we're fighting; a reminder of the importance of showing these people the love of Christ in the face of an "official" society that's written them off.

They need to see that God has not written them off, even though a significant sector of those in authority has bought into the insane theory that giving them a "safe place to shoot up" is the best solution. "Go ahead and kill yourselves! We don't care! (Just don't die at InSite!)"

So we begin by forgiving. The Lord has been showing me whom to forgive: the thief, of course; the people who got him on drugs to begin with; those who buy into the insane philosophy behind InSite; and our society, which has, little by little, grown to condone drug use as it's turned away from those silly absolutes called Right And Wrong.

(One could take a timeline and plot the general out-of-control spiral of our society and pinpoint that the spot where it was kick-started was the spot where the Lord's Prayer was banned from public schools. Of course, that's pure coincidence, right?) Now, it's time to remember how God has brought us through it so far. It's like the Israelites in the wilderness, being reminded (Deuteronomy) how God got them out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, provided manna and quails and water from a rock.

So here goes:

• God placed the project on Barry's and my hearts separately and independently
• the project is connected to not one, but two prophecies: Gerry's over Barry, that Gospel Mission/Carrall St Church would expand and reach out to more people; Lee Grady's over me, that God would provide more effective tools to reach the people on the DTES
• Greg the landlord gave us every break imaginable so we could put the project together
• crucial funding that we needed -- and which confirmed the hand of the Lord is on this project for blessing -- came in exactly when we needed it
• the showers have been donated (by Andrew Sheret)
• The Oasis (Gerry's church) sent the work crew to do the job -- brilliant work by carpenters
• two plumbers have stepped up to the plate, both enthusiastic and with "can do" attitudes that pulled us through the early part, when we needed to hear the project could be done
• people with diverse gifts have emerged to contribute in whatever ways they can: Murray and Tim with their building and planning skills; Kathleen with the towels; Diane with a contribution through her company, IKEA; Gord supplying the soap
• God even protected Barry and Brodie when the mob hit happened across the street
• the media have grasped the vision
• the police are onside
• there's a positive buzz on the street among the people

And we give Him the glory for bringing us this far, and for taking us all the way -- wherever that road leads. We just have to keep our eyes on that pillar of fire, leading us through this wilderness.

We need to remember the miracles -- the ways in which God is touching the people at the Mission: people who are hearing from Him, praying for others, giving words of wisdom and/or knowledge ... even just moving closer to the front ... one man came up after the Sunday service, and showed me his Bible, that he's had people at the churches he goes to sign for him ... so proud of it! I'd seen him before, but he'd never come up to talk before ...

That's what's important at times like this: to re-focus on God, how great He is, how much He wants us to succeed ... and blow off the enemy's feeble attempts to beat us.

We must be on the right track, or Satan wouldn't be throwing so many rocks under the wheels. If you're not taking flak, you're not over the target.

Pastor Barry said it best: "they may think they're killing our faith, but they never will".

Amen.

Back to work.

The Showers Saga - 12: more media coverage (original date: Feb. 22/08)

This entry is hereby turned over to my old mate, Al Siebring, who writes a column for NoApologies.ca, reads the newscasts on the NoApologies radio show, and penned (or processed, since I don't think anyone can read his handwriting) this one for the Cowichan Valley Citizen.

I have a .pdf of the article, but by the time it gets posted here, it would be illegible, so here's the text:

A Duncan church group is making a difference in one of Canada’s poorest neighbourhoods. The Oasis Church – the folks who meet out at the Cowichan River Bible Camp every Sunday – have been helping a mission in Vancouver “clean up” the neighbourhood. Quite literally. The story is an example of how networking works. Or maybe it’s about how God uses what some people would call “serendipity.” One of the key figures in this story is an old friend of mine, Drew Snider. Drew and I go back almost 25 years; we worked together at the old CKDA Radio in Victoria back in the 80’s, and then went to work for competing radio stations in Regina, Saskatchewan for a time. Our careers and personal lives have kept crossing paths.

When I moved back to the Valley almost 10 years ago, we reconnected. I found a changed man; someone who had “found God”, was very passionate about his faith, and was attending Pastor Gerry Wall’s Oasis Church. Today, Drew lives on the mainland. His day-job is as a spokesman for TransLink, but his passion is his work as an “evangelist”; he works with the street people on the downtown east side. Specifically, he’s with an organization called the Carrall Street Church – it’s also called the Gospel Mission (as opposed to the better-known “Union Mission”.) The church has been around since the 1920’s, and has operated out of the second floor of a two-storey walk-up on Carrall Street – next to Pigeon Park – since the end of WWII.

In the almost four years since Drew started volunteering there, he noticed that the street people who would show up for dinner were filthy. Not only that, but they were keenly aware of their filthiness. Often, he says, they would head to the laundry tubs in the back of the building, wash themselves with hand soap, and try to dry off with paper towels. That set him to thinking about meeting not just the spiritual, but also some more of the physical needs of that clientele. And then – late last year – one of the tenants on the ground floor of the building moved out. In an amazing confluence of events – I’m sure Drew would tell you this was “the hand of the Lord” – the vacancy happened at around the same time that he had planned to go to New York City to see an old friend.

While he was in the Big Apple, he stopped in to visit “the Bowery Mission”, the third-oldest downtown street mission in the USA. What he saw there inspired him – when he got back to Vancouver – to approach the landlord on Carrall Street about renting the soon-to-be-vacant space on the ground floor. He wanted the spot for a project that has since been labelled “the Lord’s Rain”. The Bowery Mission, you see, has a “showers” program for street people. A place where these folks can come in off the street and get cleaned up – if not in the sense of getting away from the drugs, at least “cleaned up” in a physical sense.

But there was the small matter of finding the money to rent the extra space. And finding the plumbing supplies. And tracking down the expertise to plumb a bunch of showers into the ground floor of a 70-year old building. Once again, enter the power of networking. Or was it “the hand of the Lord”?

About 15 years ago, when he was working at CFAX Radio, Drew emceed the 100th anniversary dinner for Andrew Sheret, the Island-based plumbing company. So he called them. CEO Brian Findlay remembered him, and when Drew explained “the Lord’s Rain” to him, he instantly agreed to donate all the plumbing supplies to the project, along with some of the expertise to get the installation done. And in a final bit of serendipity that’s just too coincidental to be “just coincidence”, Pastor Gerry Wall’s Oasis Church had decided at around the same time late last year – before Drew had even gone to New York – to make a major donation to the Carrall Street Church.

The money? Well, let’s just say the “extra rent” for the space to be occupied by the showers is looked after, at least for the short term. And Pastor Wall and a number of volunteers from the Oasis have been over to Vancouver a number of times on recent weekends, helping to get the shower stalls built.

This is truly an amazing project. And the way the various threads have come together brings to mind an old quote from Benjamin Franklin: “The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of man.”

The “hand of the Lord”, indeed.

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.