A Weekend in Review

This past Memorial Day weekend I and my sister had the privilege of taking 5 incredible young people up to Vancouver, B.C. for a weekend of urban mission work.

So what did we do? In one and a half words: a lot.

Friday, 23 May 2008:
The drive from Monroe, WA to Vancouver, BC was beautiful as always and due to $4.00/gal gas prices, devoid of traffic. In fact, we waited a mere 15 minute at the border compared to 30+ last year. Who said high gas prices is always a bad thing?

The actual act of crossing the border was easy. It makes you feel like anyone could do it; given they have the proper documentation of course.

We arrived at our host church, Hope Reformed Church, in good time and there were chips, salsa, and YWAM staff awaiting our arrival.

Saturday, 24 May 2008:
The day started off with . . . breakfast, what else, but after breakfast we participated in a community clean-up in the neighborhood around the YWAM offices. The clean-up was put on by local residences and we were privileged to be able to help YWAM and their neighbors clean-up some trash. It never ceases to amaze me the reaction people have when we say we came up from the States to pick up trash in Vancouver. “Why would you do that?” they’d ask.

After the clean-up we started our downtown plunge. The downtown plunge consists of two parts: the downtown eastside and downtown proper.

Downtown eastside happens first. It’s the poorest postal code in all of Canada. Needless to say, there is a lot of need in downtown eastside. If you’re homeless, you likely live in downtown eastside. If you’re a drug addict, you likely hangout in downtown eastside. If you are a prostitute or are looking for a prostitute, you likely go to downtown eastside.

We empted our pockets of cash, cell phones, cameras, and any other worldly possession you can fit into a pocket and headed into the heart of downtown eastside. Our goal was to gain a better understanding on what if feels like to be homeless, helpless, impoverish. Also a part of downtown eastside is Chinatown. Another goal was to gain a better understanding on the fact that other cultures do exist outside our own. Be that Chinese or homelessness.

A crucial and enjoyable part of the first half of downtown plunge is sitting down and having lunch with someone who may not have a lunch. Each team (that is, a group of about 3 or 4) has sack lunches for themselves and an extra lunch to share with someone else. The goal is to actually sit down and have lunch with someone. Gaining an opportunity to hear their story and maybe share yours.

This can be a difficult task. How do you choose just one person to have lunch with? There are so many who could use a lunch. Also, it’s difficult to actually sit down with the person and eat with them rather than just give them the lunch and walk away. The team I was a part of had difficulty with this one. We met a lady who asked us for some change and we said we didn’t have any, but we had a lunch if she was interested. She said she’d love a lunch. So, we asked her if she had 10 minutes or so to sit down and eat with us. She had her arms full of bed sheets and what not and said that she had to go and meet her husband, who she was not living with currently, and drop this stuff off. So, not really wanting to tell her she couldn’t have lunch unless she sat down with us to eat it, we gave her the lunch and she was on her way.

We then sat down on the corner to eat our lunches and not 5 minutes later she came back with her arms empty. We asked her how the lunch was and she said she had given it to her husband. She asked us if we had another one. We didn’t really have an extra one, but I offered her mine and asked, again, if she like to take 10 minutes and sit down with us. She said she couldn’t, but would like the other lunch. We gave it to her and she told us to not get into drugs because “this is where you’ll end up.” She told us she was Catholic and I told her there’s nothing wrong with that. Then she walked off.

We learned a lot about the lady even though we didn’t actually sit down with her, but it would have been nice to hear more. The other team that was wandering about had a little more success in that department and learned that the lady they shared their lunch with lived with the Hells Angels and Chuck Norris, smoked crack with the little Korean lady who was out in the park collecting recyclables, was the smartest person in the world and in order to cope, had to do drugs, and had the spirit of her dead twin living inside of her. Despite all of this, the team said she was a really nice lady, and I believe them. It’s easy for us to judge others based on their appearances thinking that if they’re homeless or into drugs, they can’t possibly be nice people. When, in reality, appearance has nothing to do with it. It only takes a conversation with someone for you to find this out.

The second half of downtown plunge takes place in downtown Vancouver proper; where all the ritzy hotels and boutiques are located. This area of downtown is a mere 2 blocks from downtown eastside; it’s quite a contrast.

One of the activities which we participated in this was to sit outside a store front for 15 minutes; as if we were looking for spare change. We were to gauge the reaction we got while we sat there. I can tell you people’s eyes gazed over us a bunch. People would walk up to the corner to cross the street. Their eyes would wander about behind them, look down and notice us, and then they’d look back across the street. It was as if we were just a part of the scenery.

Dinner was Ethiopian food. If you’ve never had Ethiopian food, you need to have Ethiopian food. Basically, it’s a giant pancake type thing covered with different kinds of meat, veggies, and lintels and you eat it with your hands! It’s a fantastic experience.

After dinner, we went back to downtown eastside to participate in Street Church. Street Church is basically a feeding program with a little chapel service thrown in. Our team was responsible for helping serve food and put on the chapel service. We did a fantastic job if I do say so myself. The atmosphere of Street Church is really like nothing else. People line up for food; some sit down to listen to the service, but mostly people just get back in line for more food. There’s usually a heckler present, and in past experiences he was a swearing heckler. Needless to say, this can be an intimidating audience to put on a chapel service for, but the kids who did it did a wonderful job.

Sunday, 25 May 2008:
After the church service at our host church (that is 1 hour and 15 minutes of service and 45 minutes of coffee and cookies), we made our way out to Surry, B.C. to a Union Gospel Mission low income housing complex to do some yard work. The weather was hot (85° F, 29° C) and there was a lot of grass, but there were no complaints. We raked, we mowed, we swept, we sweat, and we blessed people. We had residents coming out of their homes asking us what it was we were doing and why we were doing it. One man even went out to the store, at his own expense, and bought us bottled juice and chocolate bars.

Dinner was Indian food. If you’ve never had Indian food, you need to have Indian food. Basically if you get nothing else, get the Nan. Nan is the best bread you will ever put into your mouth. Some would argue that communion bread would fulfill this role, I’d disagree; as far as taste is concerned, Nan wins all the way.

After dinner, with Indian food sitting heavy in our stomachs, a difficult topic sat heavy on our hearts. It was time to learn about the sex industry that, unfortunately, Vancouver is well known for. This subject flared tempers and numbed our senses as we sat and thought of all the people trapped in this industry; whether they provide services or consume them.

The goal of the evening was to pray. Pray for the industry, pray for those trapped in the industry, pray for those who are trapped into thinking they need the industry to be happy. However, we didn’t just pray within the walls of the YWAM base or our host church, but rather we went out to where prostitution was known to happen during the time that it did happen and we walked the blocks and prayed.

Another part of the prayer walk is a random act of kindness. Each team is given a rose to give to someone they see while they are praying as a symbol of God’s love for them. It may be difficult to see the impact a rose can have on a person, but if you are on the corner selling yourself, someone coming up to you and telling you you’re loved is not easily forgotten.

The team I was a part of tried to give our rose out several times. The girls we saw on the corners were no longer there when we came back to attempt to give them the rose. A little disheartening, especially since we knew why they were no longer at the corner. Then, toward the end of the evening, there was a girl standing on the corner next to our car. Two girls on the team went over to her to give her the rose and, without looking up at them, she said, “Don’t give it to me.” See, YWAM sends out tons of teams to do this outreach and so, some of the girls know what the rose is for and why strange teenagers are approaching them.

We walked around the block and prayed for her. Obviously, something was lying heavy on her heart if she knew what we were doing and didn’t want any part of it. We place the rose on a random car windshield after being unsuccessful with giving the rose to a person and made our way back to our car. We waited there for the other team to get back from their prayer walk. As the other team arrived, the girl who had rejected the rose earlier came out of the alley that our car was parked next to with a man. The girl walked through our group and the man had to unlock his bicycle which was stored next to our car before he could go his own way.

I can’t imagine either of these people being able to walk away without thinking about what they had just done. The girl knew who we were and what we were doing and what we were hoping she wouldn’t do, and she had just done it; now she had to face us again. The man knew we knew what he had just done, and had to sit and unlock his bike amongst us. This is where the Holy Spirit pulls on hearts and we just let Him do it; absolutely no judgment. In this situation, it would have been so easy to cast judgment on these people, but in order to show compassion one has to refrain. Christ cast no judgment on the woman caught in adultery, but rather forgave her of her sins.

We returned to our host church where there were brownies, cookies, hot chocolate, and YWAM staff awaiting us. Our hearts were still heavy, especially after what we had just spent 45 minutes witnessing and praying for. We were able to share the feelings we were having and reconcile those with how God feels about the situation. Then we spent more time in prayer; 15 solid minutes of silence broken only by the occasional plea to God for justice and reconciliation.

Monday, 26 May 2006:
Our final day in Vancouver was spent first worshiping with the YWAM staff. We sang some songs then we were each given a name of God and asked to meditate on it. It’s humbling to think of God being so big He needs that many names just to help explain a fraction of who He is. We were then given the meaning behind our own names and asked to pray that we would be able to live up to the name God has given us.

After worship we went and ate Pho, a Vietnamese beef and noodle soup. If you’ve never had Pho, you need to have Pho. It’s probably the best soup you’ll ever let run down your chin.

With yet another full stomach, we parted ways with Vancouver. The car ride home was quiet as everyone reflected on what God had taught them over the weekend. Actually, that’s not true. It was quiet, but everyone was sleeping since the weekend was so action packed. (You didn’t see me mention sleeping once in the post.) Needless to say, God did teach us a lot over the weekend, and I’m guessing everyone is reflecting on it right now, or they’re still asleep.

Note: All pictures are stolen from the internet. Please be advised.

Baseball and Swashbucklers: A Demonstration of Perfect Love

A brisk walk in the park brought about a humbling thought. My capacity to love others is squarely dependent on how much I allow God to love others through me.

I was walking the asphalt loop that circumnavigates the two baseball fields in the park not 2 blocks from my house when I caught eye of a father and his two sons. The father could not have been older than mid-thirties and his two sons could not have been older than 6 and 4 respectively. The father had his baseball glove with him and consequently so did the 6 year old; they were playing catch. The 4 year old was not one to be out occupied, so he had with him a plastic, red-handled pirate sword with which he was playing. He was perfectly content with swinging the sword at the air and making lunges into non-existent, fellow swashbucklers while his father and his older brother engaged in a game of catch.

The game of catch was going as well as you’d expect with an adult and a 6 year old. The father having to short arm all his throws to keep the velocity down and the 6 year old, while displaying quite an affluent arm, wildly hurled the ball in either direction of his father; it looked like a good time. The 4 year old looked like he was having a good time as well. He was stabbing everything he could get his little eyes on. Then he caught eye of his dad. In his little mind, dad was wearing a fancy three-point hat with a big feather, an eye patch, and he had a parrot perched on his shoulder; there’s no room in this town for both someone who looks like this and someone with a red-handled pirate sword. He proceeded to go after dad; he took a swing.

Now, dad had a choice to make. He was currently engaging his 6 year old son in a game of catch, but that engagement was about to be usurped by a young 4 year old swashbuckler with a red-handled sword. If he chose to ignore his 4 year old, he might not take much notice, but he might be hurt. If he chose to ignore his game of catch with his 6 year old, he might not notice too much either, but he also might be a little hurt. The father was demonstrating perfectly that we as humans cannot be in two places at once.

Now, I am 100% positive the father loved both of his sons equally. However, he could not demonstrate that love, at this time, to both of them in the way that he wished. That is, he could not both sword fight with his 4 year old and play catch with his 6 year old at the same time. His capacity to love his sons was limited. This is not to say he did not love both of his sons at this point, but rather he was limited.

God is not limited; this is the humbling thought that came to me while this all was unfolding in front of me. I am limited, but God is not. God can love everybody, God can demonstrate love for everybody all at once, and I cannot. Therefore, In order to demonstrate love to people in greatest capacity, I need to rely on God. My love is limited, God’s is infinite.

The 4 year old took a swing at dad and dad was able to maneuver in such a way in which he avoided the fatal blow to his knee caps. Not one to give up easily, the 4 year old chased after dad, but dad’s legs were a bit too long for the pursuit to be successful. The 4 year old gave it his best, but the fence was a much easier opponent, so he pursued after it. The father was able to go back to his game of catch with his 6 year old and he looked un-phased by the pause in action.

If one generally wants to love others as Christ loved us, one has to trust while he or she is occupied with one person, love is being demonstrated to others without one’s direct help. One question that constantly comes to my mind is how I can spend my time with people here in America when there are people who need God’s love demonstrated to them in so many other places. Cyclones and earthquakes are destroying families and devastating lives in other parts of the world; wouldn’t my help be better off there? But the second I say that I have to say that people here in America need God’s love demonstrated to them. Alcoholism and divorce are destroying families and devastating lives here; my help is needed here as well. The only way I can live with myself knowing that I cannot be love to everyone at once is a faith that God is demonstrating His love to all people everywhere.

The father made the decision to engage his younger son knowing that he could still impact his older son. He realized that despite not directly being with his older son, his older son would still know love. Despite my inability to love everyone all at once, people will still have the opportunity to know love. God’s love demonstrated through me can have a direct impact on those around me or an indirect impact on anyone anywhere in the world. God is pretty big when it comes to love.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us . . .”
- 1 John 4:16-17

Jumping into Pride. Watch for Lions.

Something I find interesting about our human condition are the things in which we take pride. There are things in which we should legitimately be proud and things in which we should take no pride at all. It’s great to be proud of a child scoring a goal in his or her first soccer game, or getting an A on a term paper, but it’s not great to be proud of causing a rift between yourself and a friend, or being stubborn about some issue you should probably bend on.

It’s refreshing, almost inspiring, to see pride expressed in a correct situation. I was sitting in on my sister’s graduation ceremony and there were a few ROTC graduates that were being honored. The graduate would march up on stage in full uniform to be recognized. Accompanying them were the graduate’s parents. What was interesting was that it was the parents’ responsibility to apply the badges for lieutenant on the ROTC graduates uniform. The graduate would stand completely at attention while his or her parents would apply the badges. Then, the graduate would be allowed to be at ease and huge and thank his or her parents. What was touching to see and think about was how proud the graduate’s parents were. You could see it in their faces. When they gave their child a hug, they were all smiles. When they pinned on the lieutenant stripes, they were all smiles. It was a really beautiful thing.

However, on the opposite side, seeing pride expressed in situations in which it is completely inappropriate is rather difficult to sit through. When you experience someone who is arrogant or who is constantly bragging about accomplishments, you just want to punch them in the neck.

Something God is changing in my life right now is my appreciation for being around people. I used to find the company of others rather unnecessary. I was fine on my own. In fact, some people’s presence just flat out annoyed me. It was not too long ago I was sharing a room with someone I had just met for a meeting we were both attending. He was a nice guy, but he just got on my nerves in not too much time. I really just wanted to be myself and he was always around. But now, I find I can tolerate, wait, actually appreciate more and more the presence of others. This may seem like a non issue for some of you, but for me this is huge. God is really doing a work here.

What’s interesting about the whole situation is that I have this sort of pride about my independence. I’m rather proud of my Marlboro Man mentality. It seems macho, it seems American, it seems it’s my personality, but the more I search into what God wants for human life, the more I find people are involved. God cares about people; therefore, I have to care about people since I care about God. So, the more I care about God, the more I’m starting to care about people.

Now what’s difficult about this whole thing is the pride thing. I’m very proud of my independence remember. So, if I start caring more about people, it’s going to start showing. And if it starts showing, people are going to ask me, “What’s going on?” Then comes the hard part; the breaking of the pride to say, “I care.”

This all may seem a bit trivial to some of you, but you have to understand, all our lives we’re told our personalities are from God. This is true to a point, but they also are under the influence of sin, so there are going to be aspects of them that are not so hot. This little fact is often neglected. Thus, a development of an attachment to our personalities; a pride of sort in who you are. Now you can see how difficult it can be to weed out these nasty aspects of your personality. They’ve been apart of me for so long; I’ve grown some what attached.

It’s interesting isn’t it, how we can take pride in the silliest things?

Community: Some Thoughts

*Precursor: This is a compiling of my thoughts over the last few weeks. It's kind of cohesive in that they all revolve around the idea of community, but really there is no flow to them. What I'm looking for here is feedback on these thoughts. Do they appear accurate, obtainable, etc?
End Precursor*

It’s Saturday. The weather outside is 65 plus degrees Fahrenheit. There was a time in our American, human history where this meant the threat of a baseball going through one’s window was on an orange alert; the probability was rather high. Now, with a beautiful Saturday afternoon in our midst, the only sound we’ll hear knocking against our windows are misguided flies thinking they’ve found open passages to the insides of our houses. We like to place the blame of this newly acknowledged phenomenon squarely on the invention of video games; some of us go as far as to place it on the invention of the television. I feel this blame is undeserved; the root of the problem is much deeper.

Recently I’ve given a lot of thought to the idea of community. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what it means exactly, what purpose it serves, what, if any, benefits it has, and, consequently, what, if any, downsides it has. In the past I’ve conducted experiments on myself to see if I could expand or narrow my idea of what the “Christian Community” looks like. I attended services and seminars hosted by Christians whom with on everything I don’t necessarily agree. I’ve proposed another of those experiments to try shed more light onto that same question. However, I’m uncertain I’ll be able to answer that question by the end of that experiment either.

Coming up in a couple of months I’ll be leaving the secure soil of the United States to join a ship operated by Operation Mobilization for two years to be a resource to local churches all around the world. I’ll be joining a very unique community of people from all around the world with one commonality; a love for Jesus and a love for people. With this experience I’m sure I’ll gain much more insight into the question of community. I look forward to this learning experience very much. But, again, I don’t think I’ll have the question solved after the two years are up.

The reason, I think, that we don’t see kids out in the neighborhoods playing baseball or whatever with each other, the reason we don’t see families barbequing with each other, the reason we don’t see people generally hanging out with each other is because of this issue of community. I believe we’ve lost the sense of what it is and we are struggling to find out what it is again.

As a kid growing up on a cul-de-sac in Monroe, WA, I was rarely bored. The only times I was bored, I can think, was when I was by myself. To solve this problem, I’d just call up my friend Triston who lived down the street and we’d do something together. We’d ride bikes, we’d climb trees, we’d play out in the soccer field separating our houses, whatever; we’d find something to do. If Triston wasn’t available, I’d just go outside and there would be some kids from the neighborhood doing something.

See, I think we need community in our lives; we admit it every day. Every time we say we are bored or we think we need something to do is our admission to missing community. When a kid says he or she is bored, it is not that they have nothing to do; it is that they don’t have anyone to do anything with, or rather, they don’t want to do anything with the people that are around them. They’re both rejecting the community they are in and admitting to missing community all together.

Now, obviously I don’t have any research to prove this hypothesis, but I think it makes sense at least. I can see it in my own life as well. Whenever I feel bored, I’m always wishing I had someone to do something with. I usually chalk it up to being lonely, desiring to have a partner in which to share things. But the reality is, even if I had someone like that, I’d still feel bored. I’m not really a part of any community. I go to a church (ironically called Monroe Community Chapel), but I’m never really around these people outside Sunday morning. I got to work, but I’m never really around these people outside a professional atmosphere. I live in a neighborhood, but I never really see my neighbors. I know people, I have friends, but I have to make appointments to see them and go out of my way to visit them. So, whenever I’m bored, I’m always wishing I lived closer to my friends or I had relationships with people I go to church with or work with in which I could just drop by and hang out. But that isn’t how we operate.

As is apparent by now, I’m just relaying thoughts at this point. I don’t really have a conclusion to draw to. My goal in the next couple of years is to gain more and more insight into what community really means and what it really looks like. I have ideas, but I need to see if they play out in reality. I find I have an innate gift of being able to come up with great theories, but their connection to reality is hit or miss. So, we’ll see what comes out of this thinking experiment. If there are any thoughts on the subject out there, feel free to share them here or with me in person; I’ll be willing to listen.