I had to leave my expectations and pre-formed opinions at the door when I boarded the bus heading for the downtown eastside (DTES) of Vancouver. The Church and Mission class here at Columbia filed onto the bus not knowing what our weekend would hold, but I can guarantee that we all walked off that bus as changed students four days later.
I walked into the weekend viewing this as a missions trip, thinking that I had something to offer the people of the DTES, but this view was turned on its head within the first hour of arriving there. We walked off the bus and were greeted by Trista, a pastor of The River Church who went on to take away every preconceived thought and view of what we thought the weekend would be like. She gave us an idea of what the DTES looked like and gave us a new truth to hold onto for the weekend. We were told that what we were going to do in terms of missional work this weekend really wouldn’t make a huge difference in the long run, but that this weekend would be more of an eye opening and personal “inreach” rather then outreach.
Throughout the course of the weekend I found this statement to ring truer and truer. The people of the downtown eastside do not need more charity, or people handing them food and clothing, or even people evangelizing to them. They need people to listen to them; people to talk with and people so show them Gods love rather then tell them about it.
After hearing from and interacting with multiple people who live and work in the downtown east side with the purpose of reaching out to the marginalized people, one thing started to become more and more clear to me. I kept coming back to the truth that these people, the homeless, the drug dealers, the prostitutes, the people we look down on, these people seem to grasp the understanding of love, honesty, truth and community better than I do. We tend to hide our sins behind our wealth and sometimes fake smiles, while the people of the DTES wear their sin on their sleeves. Opening up and being real with our problems and struggles to one another is another important thing I learned. There is truly beauty in the broken things of life. God works through circumstances that we view as pain and suffering and we can know that God's hand is in every situation every step of the way.
If I look at how I perceived the downtown eastside a few weeks ago and how I view it now, it is a complete 180 turn. I learned that I need to throw judgment aside. I got a first hand view of what living life down there is like and was told by some people experiencing that life what it is truthfully like. Now, instead of viewing the DTES as a cold, painful and suffering place I see it as a place of love, community and hope. God is working in Vancouver and I can only pray that His good and faithful servants continue working down there showing His love.
Briar is a first year Intercultural Studies student at Columbia Bible College. To learn more about how you can be a part of inner city ministry, visit www.columbiabc.edu/interculturalstudies.
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