Hope in the Shadows

As I am reflecting on the ways that I have seen God's name proclaimed around me and the work of his mission going out into all the world, I have to look locally and around me before I look into far-off countries. I am involved in lots of ministry work here at my church in Coquitlam, but something that I am particularly passionate about is a ministry I have been volunteering with since I was in the ninth grade, Potters Place Mission on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.
Now, before I pour my heart and tell you about all the wonderful things that God is doing down there, I must first explain the dire situation and need which makes God's work so miraculous. The Downtown Eastside is akin to LA's Skid Row, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver and known as Vancouver's "poorest postal code". Hastings St, where Potters Place is located on is the main hub for the homeless community, particularly First Nations, in this area. The DTES is the biggest cesspool of poverty, homelessness, crime, violence, drug use, prostitution, and the sex trade. Bus drivers are scared to drive down there, cops always travel in pairs and no citizen travels in their right mind there at night. The most tragic part of this whole story is that just a few blocks over, business men and students sit in well-lit coffee shops surfing the web on their Mac laptops, voluntarily ignorant of the brokenness just a minute's walk away. Everyone in the Lower Mainland knows this problem exists and many of them are sympathizers, but few take action.
There are countless ministries involved in the DTES including Union Gospel Mission, Jacob's Well, Salvation Army, Covenant House, First United Church, Potters Place and many more, all proclaiming God's hope, love and salvation for these desperate and broken people.

Despite all the work of these organizations, the problem of homelessness and poverty is not going away any time soon. The sexual slavery and substance-addicted minds cannot seem to shake the bondage, release themselves from the mental shackles that hold them to the streets. There is a popular believe that these homeless people are there by choice, it was their own faults they chose to be a bum, become addicted and waste their life away. This, in fact, is rarely the case. I have talked to many a person as they walk through the streets and come into Potters Place and their stories are shockingly similar. They all have dreams, plans, families and children that were stripped away from them from a divorce, losing a job, bankruptcy, eviction and hard emotional and mental times. The drugs and alcohol that hold them on the streets are absolutely lethal and all that is on the addict's mind is getting their next fix. Unfortunately, the welfare money that they receive for rent, food, etc is wasted on getting wasted essentially. The majority of these people are unable to hold down a job, whether they have no ID, qualifications, medical and mental limitations and countless other hindrances which traps them in this low-life cycle.
The devil has a field day in this community, using lies, substances, greed, pride, darkness and slavery to keep these people from discovering the truth and true freedom in Christ. Fortunate for the DTES community, God had other plans! All the work that the various ministries are tirelessly doing is planting seeds of hope, joy, freedom and life in Christ that countless individuals are reaching out and accepting. 
Potters Place Mission founded by a Korean woman named Deborah is a mission, a church, rather than a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. I usually volunteer on Tuesday nights where there is half an hour of worship to God, half an hour of preaching the gospel and then a time of serving the people a well-rounded meal as well as sitting down with them and listening to their stories, but I understand that Potters also has Bible studies during the week and a type of Bible school, educating those who wish to learn about God and the Bible.
I remember the first time I ever went to Potters. I was terrified out of my mind. I came on the arm of my trusted youth pastor, Jon Morrison and at only fourteen years of age and half an hour from my comfortable neighbourhood, I had no idea how to interact with smelly, creepy, drugged up homeless people. I sat there stiff as a board during the service not looking at anyone, serving the food with a faint smile and then busying myself with the clean-up so that I wouldn't have to talk to anyone. After a few weeks, Jon noticed my clever pattern of avoiding contact with homeless people, so he pulled me along to talk to this one man and then after a few minutes he ditched me so that I would be forced to talk to this man by myself!! I wish I could remember his name, but we talked for so long, he told me all about his family, his cocaine addiction and then he gave me a Bible verse in 2 Timothy I think it was, but I cannot remember exactly. This interaction with him broke through my social barrier, and every time after that I tried to talk to as many people as I could! Most times all I would say was "Hi" and they would pour out their life story for me. Sometimes  I would pray with them, one lady I even led to Christ. There were many nights when we had too many volunteers and I would be able to go out and do prayer walks in the neighbourhood, just talking to the locals, telling them about the hope we had, praying over the alleys and the ladies shooting up behind dumpsters, asking God to heal this broken community.
I stopped going to Potters during grade twelve and then this past year I was away on Vancouver Island doing the Kaléo Program, but since I've been back, I've regained this passion for spreading God's amazing salvation to a community filled with darkness. The past few weeks have been incredible. I've invited so many of my friends to come out and start serving. Many of them had not even considered the prospect of volunteering on the DTES, although it seems like a world away, it was only a half-hour drive. I've seen them change in their thinking as their eyes are opened to the great brokenness but great potential that God has to use us to change lives simply by extending out our open hands. I've met a transvestite couple called Jennifer & Jamie, an old man called Raymond with two sons Eli and Jonathan, an El Salvadorian named Lionel that I've been able to connect with in Spanish, Chris who loves horseback riding and is separated from her two boys and Germaine all the way from Nova Scotia.
As I come back, week after week, my heart drops when I don't see those familiar faces, wondering where they are that night, are they alive, are they drinking away their paycheck, have they gotten off the streets to see their family? Although there are many disappointments and heartbreaks, God has been showing me again and again about his faithfulness. We had a former homeless man last night called Grant who was preaching and leading worship. There are countless volunteers and workers at Potters who are former or currently homeless, but have been changed by God's work in their lives and want to give back to their community.
There is hope for the Downtown Eastside. Although the future seems bleak and uncertain, God who began a good work in this community will carry it on to completion until the day that he returns! He is using me as a humble servant to spread his kingdom and he is using those whose lives were broken and helpless to now spread his love and salvation to every homeless, drug dealer, mentally ill, prostitute and sex-trafficked victim and even to every police officer, lawyer, medical response worker and counselor. God is doing more in our day that we realize & so don't lose time, but get in on the opportunity that he is providing you to restore the broken and bring glory to the shamed. To God be the glory!
"It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit', says the Lord Almighty." -Zechariah 4:6