The East Side
There was a particular incident on our Urban Mission Adventure weekend that I will never forget. On one of our Urban Plunges I headed out with two others and we didn’t have to go far before we bumped into Chance, Lena and Mike. They were hanging around outside the front door of a porno theatre. When we walked past them I asked how they were doing and Lena, without hesitating replied, “Pretty shitty.” This caught my attention and I stopped. No one ever says that where I come from. If you asked someone how they are doing in my Christian high school or at Willingdon Church (my home church) or on CBC’s campus, they will say almost without fail and with equally as little hesitation, “Good.” Lena was being honest. She was just about to be called in to ‘perform’ inside the building and she was hungry. “Pretty shitty,” hardly does that justice.
We offered to go and get her some food because she had told us that she couldn’t leave to come with us and while we were at it we extended the same offer to Chance and Mike who were also hungry. Chance walked with us to Subway and then McDonalds regaling us with tales of knife fights and dirty cops but then finally asking us why we were out walking around on the East Side of Vancouver. We told him that we were a group from Columbia Bible College on an Urban Mission Adventure. He thought that was pretty cool.
When we returned we had food for the three of them but now there was a fourth. Her name was Carrie and she was then feeling the effects of Heroin. Despite this we got to know Carrie who had just come out as the performer previous to Lena and we were able to care for a few of her needs. We gave her a sweater to keep her warm and told her that she was beautiful. We brought her to the basement of the Ivanhoe where we got her some food and ate with her for a while before she took off back to the streets. She gave the three of us big hugs and even before she had gone we were crying. We held each other and cried in each other’s arms until, emotionally exhausted, we went to bed.
The honesty and openness of people on the streets about their needs and situation was so refreshing. Lena’s words were a huge challenge to me to never again answer someone’s, “How are you Stewart?” with a quick and misleading, “Good,” just to get them off my back. The reality of their every day life situation was truly sobering. Meeting two beautiful women entrapped in sex trade work gives you an entirely new perspective on the word prostitution. Especially after Julie had come to us and shared the story of the immoral woman and how Jesus had treated her in the presence of the Pharisees. When Carrie left us I could not help thinking that we had not even been able to forgive her sins as Jesus had done and yet we were sending her right back out onto the street with a little more food, one warmer layer, some kind words and hopefully the knowledge that someone loves her. It was a powerful experience because for all that we had done, it felt like we had done nothing.
If I was to have the opportunity to walk through this scenario again I would have talked to Chance and Carrie more about Jesus Christ. I know that our actions spoke deeply of the love of Jesus, but I wish that I had even spoken his name. We let them know we were Christians but we didn’t speak of Christ, instead I think we tried to be Christ to them when in reality they were Christ to us. Maybe we did what was better by living out Christ through our actions, but something inside of me struggles to say that that was good enough. We all agreed to pray for the four people that we were able to interact with, in fact we prayed for them together the next evening. I still pray for them, that the Holy Spirit would begin working in their lives and that our interaction with them would draw them towards Christ and the amazing love that he has for them.
I have also come to value the blessing of the body of Christ. I think that homeless people sometimes give a better representation of what the body of Christ looks like than we do. They take care of each other, watch each other’s backs, fellowship together, generally act pleasantly to one another and know each other and each other’s needs very well. That night it was very good to be with two of my sisters in Christ and know that you could be strengthening one another through prayer if you weren’t directly involved in conversation. It was our uncommon and unusual acting out of faith that assured me of the presence of the Holy Spirit in us and for our protection.
I think that is really important for a church to be in fellowship and communion with one another, sharing each other’s burdens and knowing one another’s needs so that we can better know how we can care for each other and pray for one another. In big churches this is much harder and is generally achieved on a smaller community scale like bible study groups or something. I think, however, that in any body of believers, especially in the city where fast paced life trains us to cover over our hurts and pains and keep going, it is extremely important to support one another in this way. If we are not caring for each other properly or effectively, than what kind of audacity would drive us to think that we can go out and help others first? I had a look at the Hare Krishna idea of community and I believe that they have a few pointers that we could emulate. They have feasts where their whole congregation shows up to party together and have a good time in each other’s presence. Their building is always open for fellowship and worship which encourages people to actually use the place to meet regularly. I think that we need to remember what community looks like and start to function as a body, not merely a few limbs scattered about with no real focus.
SDVR
PS. If interested see article at: http://www.columbiabc.edu/?action=d7_article_display&Join_ID=144890&template=stories_articles.htm7
We offered to go and get her some food because she had told us that she couldn’t leave to come with us and while we were at it we extended the same offer to Chance and Mike who were also hungry. Chance walked with us to Subway and then McDonalds regaling us with tales of knife fights and dirty cops but then finally asking us why we were out walking around on the East Side of Vancouver. We told him that we were a group from Columbia Bible College on an Urban Mission Adventure. He thought that was pretty cool.
When we returned we had food for the three of them but now there was a fourth. Her name was Carrie and she was then feeling the effects of Heroin. Despite this we got to know Carrie who had just come out as the performer previous to Lena and we were able to care for a few of her needs. We gave her a sweater to keep her warm and told her that she was beautiful. We brought her to the basement of the Ivanhoe where we got her some food and ate with her for a while before she took off back to the streets. She gave the three of us big hugs and even before she had gone we were crying. We held each other and cried in each other’s arms until, emotionally exhausted, we went to bed.
The honesty and openness of people on the streets about their needs and situation was so refreshing. Lena’s words were a huge challenge to me to never again answer someone’s, “How are you Stewart?” with a quick and misleading, “Good,” just to get them off my back. The reality of their every day life situation was truly sobering. Meeting two beautiful women entrapped in sex trade work gives you an entirely new perspective on the word prostitution. Especially after Julie had come to us and shared the story of the immoral woman and how Jesus had treated her in the presence of the Pharisees. When Carrie left us I could not help thinking that we had not even been able to forgive her sins as Jesus had done and yet we were sending her right back out onto the street with a little more food, one warmer layer, some kind words and hopefully the knowledge that someone loves her. It was a powerful experience because for all that we had done, it felt like we had done nothing.
If I was to have the opportunity to walk through this scenario again I would have talked to Chance and Carrie more about Jesus Christ. I know that our actions spoke deeply of the love of Jesus, but I wish that I had even spoken his name. We let them know we were Christians but we didn’t speak of Christ, instead I think we tried to be Christ to them when in reality they were Christ to us. Maybe we did what was better by living out Christ through our actions, but something inside of me struggles to say that that was good enough. We all agreed to pray for the four people that we were able to interact with, in fact we prayed for them together the next evening. I still pray for them, that the Holy Spirit would begin working in their lives and that our interaction with them would draw them towards Christ and the amazing love that he has for them.
I have also come to value the blessing of the body of Christ. I think that homeless people sometimes give a better representation of what the body of Christ looks like than we do. They take care of each other, watch each other’s backs, fellowship together, generally act pleasantly to one another and know each other and each other’s needs very well. That night it was very good to be with two of my sisters in Christ and know that you could be strengthening one another through prayer if you weren’t directly involved in conversation. It was our uncommon and unusual acting out of faith that assured me of the presence of the Holy Spirit in us and for our protection.
I think that is really important for a church to be in fellowship and communion with one another, sharing each other’s burdens and knowing one another’s needs so that we can better know how we can care for each other and pray for one another. In big churches this is much harder and is generally achieved on a smaller community scale like bible study groups or something. I think, however, that in any body of believers, especially in the city where fast paced life trains us to cover over our hurts and pains and keep going, it is extremely important to support one another in this way. If we are not caring for each other properly or effectively, than what kind of audacity would drive us to think that we can go out and help others first? I had a look at the Hare Krishna idea of community and I believe that they have a few pointers that we could emulate. They have feasts where their whole congregation shows up to party together and have a good time in each other’s presence. Their building is always open for fellowship and worship which encourages people to actually use the place to meet regularly. I think that we need to remember what community looks like and start to function as a body, not merely a few limbs scattered about with no real focus.
SDVR
PS. If interested see article at: http://www.columbiabc.edu/?action=d7_article_display&Join_ID=144890&template=stories_articles.htm7
posted by Stewart at
11:35 AM
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