A couple weeks ago it was spring break for us WWU students and I was one of many students of the INN who went on a mission trip for the week. My location of choice: Vancouver, B.C. 32 of us piled into two 15 passenger and two mini vans and drove the hour-and-a-half-or-so north, crossed the border (after having our criminal records checked by the Canadian border patrol), and settled as guests to the green carpet classroom floors of Glad Tidings Church. Over the course of the week we spent a lot of time on E. Hastings (one of the main streets that basically is the hub of homelessness, drugs, prostitution, and violence in Vancouver) and worked with four different organizations and met lots of unique, interesting people from all over the world and all walks of life. I'll give you a play by play:
SUNDAY: We went to worship with the members of Glad Tidings. This church is HUGE! Some members of the congregation did a passion play of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. It was different to see the Crucifixion on Easter and not the empty tomb. However, when the worship team, adult choir, kids choir, and blue-haired children's choir director stood up on the stage and started to praise, sing, jump, dance, and bust-a-move in the aisles, I was pretty convinced they all remembered the new life in Christ we celebrate on Easter.
After church we explored V-Town as much as possible. Mostly everything was closed, which made it extremely difficult to find coffee that was Canadian and not Starbucks, but it was still great. We walked for a while, drove a lot, avoided puddles at the bottom of a slide in Stanley Park, watched an amazing sunset over the ocean, gazed upon the Canadian mountain range (which is almost as pretty as our's in Washington), and got tangled in the mess of one-ways and funky intersections.
MONDAY: Canadians do something kinda cool on the Monday following Easter - they take yet another day of holiday. Nothing is open, kids don't have school, people really just hang out with family and friends and sleep off their Easter bunny sugar highs. So, because none of the organizations we were working with throughout the week were "open", we chose to do random acts of kindness for the day. A few of us went to one of the Salvation Army houses and served a couple special Easter meals while the rest of us stayed behind at the church. There we made lots of peanut butter sandwiches and brewed coffee a local roaster donated to us, and colored signs that read "There is Hope in the World" and "Free High 5's". Then we walked down town and loved on people - IT WAS GREAT!
TUESDAY: Our first day of "real work". We drove south for a while and went to A ROCHA, this really cool Christian conservation site where they grow food seasonally and live in community. At the site there were these really fuzzy looking cows that kind of wounded like Andrew when he wakes up in the morning (this made me giggle for a good 10 minutes or so), and lots of chickens and lots of love that goes into each task throughout the day. All the people who live at the A ROCHA site are there because they feel the calling both spiritually, personally, and theologically to live simply in sustainability. It was such an inspiring place. Another thing we noticed about being at A ROCHA was the fact that we could SEE the results of our work at the end of the day, which was not necessarily true for the other tasks we took on as we hopped around Vancouver.
WEDNESDAY: First thing in the morning Andrew, Lindsay, Jesse, Dave Wheeler, and myself went to one of the Salvation Army shelters to lead chapel. Andrew gave a message on meekness (check out the Beatitudes in Matthew 5) and Dave and I led music together. When we opened the floor up for prayer requests, one of the gentlemen who was going through the process of becoming independent and healthy again raised his hand and began to pray. He prayed for the staff of the shelter, for his friends who were brave enough to enter the front doors of the Salvation Army and those who were still wandering from one street corner to the next. He prayed for himself and his recovery process. He prayed for thanksgiving for Jesus. He prayed for us. It was inspiring.
We also spent our first day out at Urban promise on Wednesday. We did a brief training in the morning, walked around the neighborhood taking in the type of environment the kids we would be working with were coming from, and then split off into teams to meet the kids. There are four Urban Promise camps in Vancouver: Camp Joy, Camp Hope, Camp Grace, and Camp Peace. All the camps are hosted by churches and the kids who come to them are from all over the world. Some are foster children, others are from single-parent or low-income homes, others are refuges from Sudan. And they were amazing. Our first encounter with the kids at Camp Joy was on the playground where we played tag and climbed jungle gyms. As we were leaving for the day Corbin looked at me and said "don't you just feel better?" And I did. I needed to be with kids. I think we all needed to be with kids.
THURSDAY: The day started off with a little bit of servant projects at Glad Tidings. We hauled a lot of junk, cleaned out a lot of man-made nests where people were living underneath the church's foundation and in the parking garage, loaded a trailer, and played in snow. It was freezing and our hearts were broken by what we were finding in the nests underneath the church (needles, porn, the smell of booze and urine), but we were in high spirits. We embraced the snow and the work, joking and singing snow songs, ".... walking in a winter wonderland...."
That afternoon it was back to our Urban Promise sites. The kids were once again wonderful and rejuvenating for us. It was in those moments of playing and doing homework with the kids that I think we began to realize why the kids were so good for us. Those kids WERE AND ARE HOPE. They have potential to be greater than the worlds and lives they have been born into. They are smart, funny, unique, charismatic, and good.
Thursday evening was a very special night for me and four others on my team. We had the opportunity to walk the streets of Vancouver with a ministry called Agape. Before we left for the streets we loaded backpacks with candy, gloves, and socks. We did this task in a room with walls covered in pictures of women, each with a name and a birthday on it - there was not one empty spot on the walls. In red coats with backpacks slung over our shoulders, we walked with the people of Agape walk down the streets of Vancouver passing out baggies of candy to prostitutes and praying for and with them as they walk. My heart was overwhelmed as I saw women selling themselves on the corners, stumbling around high on drugs and booze, all the while running towards the red coats yelling, "Hey, candy people! Candy people! Can I have some candy tonight! Do you have a rosary? I lost mine, could you pray for my sons? Could you pray that I'll get the job I interviewed for today so I don't have to pull tricks anymore?" If I could write about each woman we met, I would. If I could tell you about all the faces of brokenness I glanced upon and the eyes I looked into that night, I would. But the truth is I cannot. There are to many; each one unique, special, and BEAUTIFUL. One woman we met asked if she could sing for us, and she sang an old native prayer song for us. Another cried to Gretchen and I, telling us she was afraid and confused. Some of the women were so gentle and gracious, timid and meek. The street corner is no place for them. But, that is where they are, and that is where we went to meet them.
FRIDAY: Our last official day of the trip. We woke up and headed to Urban Promise sites for early release programs and office work. Some of us played games with kids while others painted posters, made lesson plans, planned arts and crafts, and soaked up encouragement from the Urban Promise interns. Later that evening we went to a restaurant on E. Hastings where we shared a final meal together, took Photography 101 from Fred, ate ridiculously hot peppers (OK, maybe that was only Corbin and Joel), drank special iced coffee, and just existed together. The day ended with a 7-Eleven run for Canadian Slurpees and a beautiful rendition of "Hey Jude" on the street corner.
SATURDAY: We woke up, we packed up, we cleaned the church, loaded in the vans, and headed to the border. By 1 o'clock we were back in Bellingham, tired and unsure of what to do with all we had seen and all that we had been blessed to be a part of.
So much more happened over the time we spent in Vancouver. I wish I could tell you about playing cards with a precious little girl at Camp Joy, about the conversation I had with Nicole as we gave her candy with Agape, about the poems a man named Andreas recited for us as he told us about the years he spent living on the corner of E. Hastings, and about climbing a ridiculous playground structure after school with the kids. I wish I could tell you about the looks on the pre-schooler's faces when they saw Megan and I prancing in the snow, about Jacob and I solemnly realizing what happened in the Salvation Army detox-center we were cleaning out, about the homemade chai tea we drank at A ROCHA, about finding random local Vancouver coffee houses, fun shaped pancakes and evening worship together. I wish I could tell you about the conversations I had with my teammates, about listening to the boys make beautiful music with the guitar and piano. And more than anything, I wish I could express to you what it was like to watch our walls come crashing down to reveal a world not of judgement, fear, and darkness, but a world of hope, acceptance, and love.
On tuesday night Jim talked about what it might look like for the Kingdom of God to come. It's coming. I saw it in Vancouver.
