Time flies It really doesn't feel like a full year has passed since I arrived here in Vancouver. I'm truly thankful for how faithful God has been in caring for me and our team as we've been transitioning and learning in this new season.
Commemorating the year, I sat reflecting on what has happened, and what has changed. I've gone from someone scared of trying new things with risk of failure to... someone less scared. I'm learning about Indigenous history and culture through genuine relationships with First Nations people. I've had the opportunity to take part in a site assessment and the groundwork for church-planting in Saskatoon. I've begun to figure out how to meaningfully support grassroots political activists and see it as part of God's work. The people I would consider friends in the neighbourhood are not my age, race, or class.
In our neighbourhood, things have been changing more dramatically. Bill, who just about a month ago, routinely left the house when we gathered for morning prayer, led us for an entire month for our morning prayer meetings in a contextually Native way, incorporating the medicine wheel, smudging, and the four directions. He began a pre-service prayer for our church. He has exhorted our church congregation to have more faith in the power of healing.
Young organizer friends like Beverly and King-mong rallied a group of Chinese seniors to challenge Beedie Living on the development of a high-rise market condo in the heart of Chinatown - and won.
Three of our youth were baptized, and are growing in faith. Robert and I are set to host a "Prayer of the People" service at church - instead of a sermon, we use the time to pray as a body every other week. It was all his idea to pray in lament for the injustice he sees in our neighbourhood regarding income and housing justice. More on that for next month.
Grant and Erica, whom I met last October, are now deeply connected into our Strathcona Vineyard church and are constantly sharing with the rest of the congregation stories of how God is intervening and providing. Erica has been outspoken in public about the personal impact gentrification and the housing crisis has had on her.
The Strathcona Artisan Market has been culminating and neighbours are being empowered to create their own business for a day (and hopefully for more!) like Lance, who is currently sealing his homemade popsicles as I'm writing this to sell at the market.
But the year has not been without its disappointments either. It's still often a struggle to figure out how to disciple people who are older than me, or don't subscribe to the same understanding of spiritual formation. I still find this relationally-intensive incarnational ministry difficult day-in, day-out. The temptation to strive for middle-class comforts is real.
Vancouver suffered 922 overdose deaths in 2016. So far, 368 more have died. Though Chinatown activists were successful in convincing City Hall to deny the rezoning application, Beedie Living has gone ahead to propose a shorter tower with no social housing. Homelessness continues to rise, while solutions are far and few. Close family members of our friends have passed away unexpectedly.
Our hopes for what the Strathcona Residents Association could be, in terms of advocacy power for low-income, ethnic minority groups in our neighbourhood, have been seriously not met. Some of our experiments like with the Alpha + Youth Alpha course and a youth-led service were underwhelming too, for the amount of effort that went in.
I've come to realize our spiritual gardening is quite helpful as an analogy to the internship. A whole lot of work goes in to prepare the soil, to plant, and to care for the plants, and it's a long time before any fruit is seen for the labour put in, if any. A year in, I'm thankful God gives me glimpses of the fruit slowly growing.
Admittedly, it has been a painfully growthful (and let's be honest, resistive) year. This 23-year old recent grad raised in relatively middle-class bubbles is still going through "transplant shock" as we say when gardening. In a lot of ways, this neighbourhood isn't in any better shape than a year ago. But we're seeing a handful of people we're in relationship with transforming in their respective relationships with Jesus and in leadership capacity.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
As a Servant Partners discipline, we pray together every morning minus Sabbath and Sunday, and we've seen prayer become a way we grow as a community and include our neighbours, as well as a way we see prayers answered regularly.
We always appreciate your prayerful support, and would encourage you to pray together, as we've seen how much of a positive impact it has had on our community.
Please pray for: - Lance. His sister passed away last month and he is still currently processing (or avoiding processing) the tragedy. His mother, in a nursing home, also broke her foot. Please pray for healing, emotionally and physically, for Lance and his family.
- The Strathcona Artisan Market! On Saturday August 12, we're having a market with local artists who have made handmade goods, artworks, and food, as well as musicians. This has been in the works since last October, as we've gathered research about barriers to income generation and what would work best for our neighbourhood. I've been on the planning team practicing my potential gift of governments and we have less than one week until the day! Please pray for lots of people to come and for extended opportunities for entrepreneurship for our vendors - many of whom this is their first time selling their work.
- Robert and I. As I mentioned, we're going to host a Prayers of the People - please pray for attentive ears for how God would like our congregation to pray in lament for injustice.
- Strathcona Vineyard Camping Retreat. Every year, we go camping as a congregation. From August 25-27, we'll be up at Alice Lake Provincial Park. For us as youth leaders, we would particularly like prayer for bonding time with our youth and for it to be a conducive space for meaningful dialogue on faith.
- Me. As India gets closer and closer, I'm more and more nervous. I would consider myself a comfort-seeker, and by no means does the slums of Kolkata sound comfortable. Being away from home for two months also seems daunting - the longest I've been overseas is five weeks. Please pray for God's continual work to bring me peace and genuine excitement for this upcoming season.
I'm thankful daily for your support and partnership.
Peace be with you, Steve |