The Parade of the Lost Souls

"Honor the Dead!" That was the theme of tonight's event. First, we gathered at my house and carved pumpkins. For most of us, it was our first time having a go at the messy vegetables. But, after much sawing and scraping we produced rather sorry-looking Jack-O-Lanterns. 

Then, finally, the clock struck 6:30pm and we made our way to Commercial Drive 

(the main road we live off of). 

It was time for the Parade of the Lost Souls, an annual event that honors the dead. According to Wikipedia, it's an evening where: 

"Performers, artists and willing spirits come together to honour the dead, wake the living and celebrate the brilliant cycle of life. Skeletal Brides, blessed witches, ghastly ghouls, and prancing pixies mingle side by side." 

We joined crowds of people dressed in bizarre costumes who walked up and down the closed off street. 

There were flame jugglers, choirs that sang eerie-sounding songs in latin, and a plethora of strange dances and performances. 

Of course, an event such as this speaks volumes about the general vibe of the neighborhood. Many of the people who were yelling: "Honor the dead" or were hanging from tree branches, were people I recognized from supermarkets or from coffee shops. It was definitely their chance to act as strange as they liked because for once, everyone else would join them. 

Luckily, it was a clear night (no rain), so we ventured out of our warm and cozy home a number of times. Each time, we encountered different performances (like an opera singer singing a dismal and bone-chilling song) and saw more costumes (like Jesus on stilts). But in the end, when I finally went to sleep, I decided that it was a lot less creepy than some other things I've seen here in this neighborhood. That is, having the wackos all gather together, meant that the rest of the area was weirdos free!  :)

The end of gardening

Since fall has arrived and with it colder, rainier weather, our weekly time in the community garden is coming to an end. The community garden is an empty housing lot that was converted into a garden about a year ago. It took months and months and countless truck loads of compost to establish the beautiful patch of green near our house. Many residents of the area grow vegetables there, as well as people from a local church and us, Nieu Communities. Most of the produce that comes from the land is then used for the churches homeless ministry (sometimes, we've been able to take some veggies home as well).

Usually, before we begin gardening, we'd eat lunch together. We called it: "Simple Meal" as everyone would bring whatever "treasures" they happened to have in the fridge and share them. The neighbor lady would usually bring over a bottle of homemade wine at that point and we'd feast and worship together. 

As a community, Nieu Communities will now shift our group ministry to other things. There's an abundance of need and opportunities for volunteers here, and being able to join something as a group is fantastic! I can't say that I will miss the weeding or the bugs, but spending time caring for God's creation was a wonderful experience. 

A Rocha and the Roadtrippers

It's now the beginning of October and we have just had our second set of Road trippers. These are people from all over who come to check out Nieu Communities for a week. Their schedule resembles a condensed form of the weeks we spent in orientation. I really enjoy having these groups come for they add a great new twist to our community. 

Here, we are sitting at my house eating dinner together. 

One of the places we take them to, is an area called A Rocha. It is one of many locations world-wide that believes in showing God's love for creation. 

This includes environmental action through community-based conservation projects, scientific research, and education. It's a fascinating place, and after spending 

most of the morning in a discussion about God's Kingdom, we joined the staff and helped harvest vegetables (those are speckled beans I'm harvesting). Most of the food gets sold locally or donated to ministries. 

Coming from an urban background, I tend to be skeptical about people's ideas on "living close to one's food (as in growing your own)", "eating organically", and many other environmental beliefs. There's plenty of it I don't understand, so it was helpful to spend some time with the people at A Rocha and listen to what they had to say. 

Me, a homeless woman

It's hard to believe that this beautiful city, full of high-rises, cafes, and parks is home to the most desolate neighborhood in all of Canada known as the downtown Eastside. In a 10 block radius, addiction runs wild, prostitution flourishes, and homelessness is a given. It was there in the middle of that madness that I became "one of them." For 24 hours, I wandered the streets, ate from soup kitchens, and earned a few bucks panhandling. 

It happened to be that it was "Welfare Wednesday" - the day everyone receives their checks from the government. On a normal day, you will see people smoking crack and dealing drugs, but on welfare wednesdays, there is a whole new level of added frenzy. People finally have money and they have only one thing on their minds. Drugs! One girl we talked to, who had recently become a dealer, had a guy come up during our conversation, and ask to buy some crack. To my great surprise, she sold him some for 2 bucks! I never knew it was THAT cheap.

 

My partner and I wandered the streets, often stumbling across people shooting up heroine, but it wasn't until night rolled in that we could really sense the misery of the place. After our dinner at a mission (one of those where you sit through a sermon to get your food) we continued to walk the streets praying for people we saw. Finally at 1 am, we were given shelter for the night (well, for 4 hours that is) and crashed on the floor amidst grime and mice (yikes!).

The next morning (at 5 am), we dragged ourselves outside and spent the next few hours trying to find shelter from from the rain. After being shoed away from doorstep to doorstep, we finally found a place to sit- it happened to be the police station, how ironic. Breakfast wasn't being served until 9:30 am, so it was a LONG morning. At least, by that time we truly looked homeless!

The hardest experience for me, was panhandling (begging). I never expected people to show me so much mercy! The sign I held (which cleverly covered my painted fingernails) said: "Please Help", and help they did! Within 20 minutes, I had earned over five dollars, had a person try to find a shelter for me, and even had a guy give me his lunch (gulp). People were literally dumping their change in to my cup and all I could do was keep my I-am-so-helpless mask on. Perhaps it was the dirt I had rolled in before, or the fact that I am young and they thought there was still hope for me, but people just kept giving (little did they know I was planning a trip to Starbucks with their donations). When the guy gave me his lunch, I HAD to get out of there. I left Gastown and fled back to Hastings (downtown eastside). It was almost comforting to be amongst the crazies again.

So that was my wild experience as a homeless woman. I learned so much by mingling amongst "them" and felt God chipping a little bit of my prejudices away. Thanks for reading!

July 28 Sunshine Coast

Funny how quickly time flies by! I have already been serving in Vancouver for two months now. My days are packed with bible studies, coaching, group meals, work projects (serving local community-houses by helping them garden and clean), meeting various ministries, and of course becoming an well-oiled community that intentionally seeks to reach people in our neighborhood. 

This past weekend, we took a ferry to Sunshine Coast. (There are so many islands around here, we never go to the same place twice!) We called it our "Listening Retreat" which concludes our first section of Nieu Communities. The goal was to get away from the city and take the time to process what God has been saying to us.

 

I think all of us would love the chance to spend a few days journaling, worshiping, and just being with God, right? I found it extremely helpful to be out of the city and to have nothing but God-time on my agenda. 

(This is me with Gray)

Of course, there were a few funny incidents we encountered. For one, the place was a zen-buddhist retreat center, so we were joined by all kinds of laughing buddhas in every room. My room offered the memoirs of Ghandi for evening reading. 

On Saturday afternoon, I wanted to use the kayak the center had, so I suckered Anjali and Emmanuel into taking the canoe out with me. Unfortunately, the canoe tipped within the first two minutes of their (first) canoeing experience (quite the funny sight!), 

so Emmanuel was left alone to row the canoe. It was a beautiful feeling sliding through the water in my kayak and I was immensely thankful we got to come here. 

When we got back to Vancouver, we immediately went in to party mode. It was Anjali's 34th birthday and the guests were coming in two hours. We hustled through preparing all the food and then the guests came. I wanted to mention this last event, since it was a great example of friends, neighbors, Christians, and non-Christians being welcomed in to our community. 

Our neighbors, Ron and Leslia, are atheists but are always eager to join in any event Nieu Communities hosts. Ron even wears the Nieu Communities baseball cap we gave him. 

Now, I am beginning the "Submerge" phase. I have chosen a ministry and will report more about that later. Cheers!

Just some thoughts 7-18-08

As part of our weekly schedule, we spend a number of meals together. This week, we had both wednesday and thursday dinners at our house. Anjali, my housemate, made an amazing Indian Curry (it takes like four hours to make!) yesterday. While 12 of us were seated outside at our table, enjoying our dinner, our fourth housemate decided to come by and visit. Mind you, he is an illegal squatter who has taken up residence on our roof. Yeah, it's a raccoon! It's a little disturbing to see him climb down the back stairs, as he seems to be rather use to humans. 

On wednesday this week, we met with a ministry called "Genesis Vancouver". It is a ministry to women with small babies who are transitioning out of drug abuse and sex-trade. The leader of the house is an elderly lady who laughed and smiled more times in the few hours we spent with her, than I've seen anyone do in a long time! The joy that seeps through her is quite fascinating, considering the ungreatfull people she works with!

Since we are currently in the "listening" phase of our time at Nieu Communities, we are spending a lot of time, visiting and hearing about ministries here in Vancouver. The goal of this first "posture" is for us to be able to listen to where God is leading us this year (in regards to ministry), and also to set a rythem in place for life! 

Anyway, more to come. P.S. The little kid (his name is Grey) is one of the four children on the team. Here, he decided dinner didn't look as good as the dirt....

Gleaning Trip

After a five hour drive to the Okanagen Valley, we arrived at a plum orchard where we were to set up our tents for the next seven days. Our goal this week was to assist the Okanagen Gleaners in preparing vegetables for their food-aid program. 

We didn't know which particular type of veggie we'd be chopping this week. Luckily, it turned out to be Bell 

Peppers (last year they chopped onions!). Every morning, we got up, ate breakfast, threw on our aprons and assembled at the "chopping block". There, most of us would cut out the mushy parts of the peppers and took out the seeds. Others, would scoop frozen broccoli on to trays, and yet others would pick stems out of bags of dehydrated brussels sprouts. 

All the prepared peppers would get sent through chopping machines and join the frozen broccoli for hours in the dehydration oven. 

The dehydrated vegetables are bagged later on in the year as a veggie soup (about 70 servings per bag!) and sent all over the world from Moldova to Latvia. Many bags are used in orphanages or in shelters. 

It was crazy being on the production side of food-aid. The idea of "Gleaning" comes from the fact that all the veggies they use are donated from local farmers (because they are too ripe, odd shaped, or the farmers just had too many). Basically, they pick up what was left after a harvest. 

Our group joined an other ministry we partner with, called Jacob's Well (they work in the downtown eastside of Vancouver). Together, we worked our way through thousands of kilos of Peppers. 

Afternoons, when the heat hit (it was 38- 40 C), we would retreat to the local city for wine tasting, swimming in the lake, or thrift store shopping (I scored a dress for a buck! It has strange similarities with a what is known as a "Moo-moo"). The heat was pretty brutal, especially when you were on cooking duty. 

On thursday, we had a wind storm hit. It was so severe that we lost all power for the remaining days we were there. I got pretty good at navigating my way to the toilet, but I didn't even bother to try out the showers. The funny thing is, that day, I remember praying that the wind would continue to pick up, as I had decided to go for a run. Well, my prayer was answered and I was thrust along in the wind (luckily it blew against my back), being pelted by apples, sand, and twigs. I don't think I've ever run that fast to get home!

When the wind finally died down, and we had a chance to survey the damage, we heard from the local farmers that they had lost most of their cherry harvest! How SAD! For us that meant we could go and glean in the orchards, picking up the fallen cherries. There were so many that we could afford to be picky about which ones we wanted! (I'm a little sick of cherries now though.)

I felt like Ruth, in the fields, picking up what was left behind. 

On our drive home, we stopped for lunch and found a store called "Free Store". Huh? Yep, everything in the store was free. So odd. 

I was happy to get back (it's amazing how long dirt can stick to your skin). As I am currently in the "listening phase" of Nieu Communities, it was a great way to hear about Jacob's Well and the Gleaners. God is softening my heart for the marginalized. I'm not sure what that means yet, but I am re-assessing my stance on a lot of issues. I will explain a little more in detail later.

-Heidi

P.S. Anjali, my housemate and I decided to play a prank on some of the people at the camp. Pranks kinda just go along with camping, so we stole a couple of pillows (nothing too exciting). Later on that evening, a large group of us were making up stories and one of the guys was telling us how the wind likes to carry tents away. When we said good night, we walked back to where I tent was, but it was gone! All that was left were our two mats! It was quite the surprise! We did find it later on, after waking most of the group with our laughing. It was set up at the opposite end of the camp. (In my mind I was just hoping I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night, since I had memorized the path to the bathroom, and I didn't have a flashlight). Quite the clever joke on us!