LEAVE YOUR EXPECTATIONS AT THE DOOR

By Briar Van Driel

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.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT COLUMBIA: An Intercultural Studies Perspective

Recently, we held a video contest asking our students to complete the sentence, "What I love about Columbia is..." We received some great submissions including this one from Stefanie who is in the midst of her 3rd year Intercultural Studies internship.

To see the rest of our video contest submissions check out our Youtube channel. To learn more about Intercultural Studies at Columbia, visit www.columbiabc.edu/interculturalstudies.

MOVING OUTSIDE THE MONOCULTURE GHETTO

by Andrea de Vries

Imagine a program where every single student that has applied, been accepted, and is attending would rather be somewhere else.

The first instinct is to assume that it’s a lousy program, and that the students must not have done very much research prior to their choice. And yet, we have just such a program here at Columbia – a major full of students that live in constant tension between here and there, between school and their desire to be somewhere else.

 

Matt with some local childern

The Intercultural Studies (ICS) program at Columbia Bible College attracts visionary, passionate people. They are risk takers and adventurers. I spent a lunch hour milling about in the dining hall, asking ICS students what they thought about the word evangelism and where they would be if not for the program here at Columbia. Each one of them responded similarly; they knew with certainty that they would not be in North America and when pressed for a specific answer, there came stories of Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, you name it – they’ve dream it.

Bryan Born, the ICS program director, responded in the same way when asked where he would be if not for Columbia. “My heart is still in Botswana. I love southern Africa. I love the people, working with churches there was such a blast. My feeling now, as I’ve been getting somewhat older, is that I’m somewhat inclined to work with unreached people groups. I’ve had the experience of working with people who are already evangelized and I think it would be an adventure.”

Danielle on her Intercultural Studies
internship in west Africa

"...intercultural studies is just learning to build relationships with other people"

Of course, Bryan will be at Columbia for quite a long time if his students have anything to say about it. Each ICS student I talked to spoke adamantly about their love for Bryan – one student even announced that Bryan is the reason he is at the school. Bryan pours hours into the ICS program to prepare students for their third-year cross-cultural field placements. Currently, students have interned, or are planning to intern, in Brazil, Nepal, Mozambique, Morocco, Mongolia, Portugal, South Africa, Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Ireland, Mexico and Haiti. Clearly, the world’s the limit when it comes to choosing a field placement! During the field placement, students have the opportunity to integrate experiential and theoretical learning. When students return for their final year they spend time debriefing and answering life application questions. 

Despite the wide variance in culture and location, Born never ceases to be amazed at the continuity of experience that students have during their year overseas. Bryan recalled one story specifically, “A student from Mongolia said something and I thought ‘that sounds just like something I wrote when I was in Botswana.’ I checked my journal from Botswana, and there it was, almost word for word – how impacted we are when we get out from our culture and how I’ve never experienced God like this – that I need God right now…"

These cross-cultural experiences are difficult for ICS students to explain to the rest of us. And yet, ICS students add a dynamic to the Columbia community that would instantly be felt and missed were it to be absent. Their social-justice, vision-focused mindset beckons all of us to take ourselves and our religion seriously. What is it that we believe? Is it worth traveling a continent, a language and a culture away in order to share? And if it is worth that much, what are we doing to instill it in ourselves?

Bryan Born recognizes that Columbia’s students have an important lifestyle decision before them, and he prays that we will all take the time to seriously evaluate our perspectives. “Missions in that sense is a relationship with God, and intercultural studies is just learning to build relationships with other people. Our world is becoming more multicultural and we have a choice - are we going to choose to retreat into our monoculture ghettos? Do we know everything? Or has God already been working in that other culture and do we have something to learn from them?”

Andrea de Vries is a graduate from Columbia Bible College's Outdoor Leadership program. She lives in Squamish, BC with her husband Alle Jan.

For more information about Intercultural Studies at Columbia visit www.columbiabc.edu/interculturalstudies