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!

Tue, 6-23-08 End of Orientation

It's here. The end of my orientation! One of our final events included visiting Grandville Island, a unique cluster of art shops, cafes, and farmers markets. 

On thursday, we drove to a college campus and did a ropes course together. This being a typical team-building event, turned out to be a lot more challenging than I expected! The ropes were strung from tree to tree at least 10m off the ground (about 30 feet!). Ok, so that isn't super high, but when you're standing on something that resembles dental floss, it seems a lot higher. 

As the grand finale, we spent friday on yet an other retreat. This time, we piled into a car, and I drove us to a monastery about 2 hours away. Our objective was to take the full day to reflect in complete solitude on what we were learning these last three weeks. We each had our own room, including a hard couch and a little cross on the wall (just like in the movies!), and were left to enjoy the silence. (I did spot a few monks playing cards in the afternoon).

Now the first stage of Nieu Communities begins. But, until I understand it better, I won't try to explain it to you yet.  Cheers!

Sun, 6-15-08, Car-free-festival

Need a haircut? Need a massage, a spiritual reading, your fortune told, some portuguese style chicken? Or perhaps, you have the urge to learn belly-dancing, to join in on the merry making of a mardi gras band, to express your inner roller-derby girl, or just the need to save baby kittens or whales, then this is the perfect festival for you! I spent the day walking the crowded streets of Commercial Drive to the beat of drums and live Jazz music, enjoying the Car-Free-Vancouver-Day-Festival. 

Anything you can possibly imagine exist on the streets today (even free coffee samples everywhere)! 

The house on the left is my house.

Saturday, June 14th

The sun finally came out today! After a week of so-so weather, it's beginning to feel like summer. Of course, Commercial drive is crawling with people eating ice cream and buying fresh fruits and veggies (EVERYTHING here is organic, vegan, international, or locally grown). 

Yesterday was spent working in the community garden. One of the ministries here, is centered around this garden as a way to connect with the neighborhood and homeless. Our job was to weed.... 

Later that night, I had dinner with my roommates Anjali and Emmanuel. We've been learning a lot about our cultural differences and expectations. The biggest issue so far, was establishing a list of what foods were considered "community foods" (that is, shared by all of us). In the end, we ended up deciding that only condiments were to be shared because none of us eat the same foods!

Last night then, during dinner, I was introduced to the way they both eat chicken legs... Though I was a little timid, I was schooled in how to eat the meat, cartledge, and the bone. Gulp. Never eaten a bone before. 

Oh, one more thing, these are a few pictures of my bathroom. I found a bucket of yellow paint and decided to paint the bathroom yesterday. Cheers!

Oh, it does rain!

I heard that Vancouver was rainy, but until today, I didn't really know just HOW rainy it is. Yikes. We spent the day getting to know the city by walking for hours and hours through the pouring rain. Though it wasn't too cold, by the time dinner rolled around, we were chilled to the bone! Nothing like heavy rain to explore the city with (we took pictures in Stanley park).

As I have mentioned before, right now we are going through our orientation weeks. That means that we spend a good chunk, every day, learning about and exploring our new host country. Yesterday (sunday), I got to check out a local church and was surprised to find a fiddle-player as one of the worship leaders. It added quite a unique sound! 

My new housemate and team member Anjali, invited one of her non-Christian friends to join us for church. Afterwards, we sat out on our steps, watching people, and discussing her first experience of church. It was the perfect way to end the day. 

By the way, this is my team with the Staff members.