Timotheose - A son in the Faith

Downtown Eastside is where Servants Vancouver is located. Here is an interesting overview of the area and as I don't have a camera it does give a few pictures of the dilapidated buildings that make up the core.

As I've said, each member of the house, unless they are in intensive training for mission overseas is actively engaged in relationship building on the streets throughout the day. There are multiple drop-in centers and soup lines and other gathering places that we visit seeking to 'connect' with the people of the area. Friendships are nurtured and or build over coffee or having food at any of the many low-cost soup or community kitchens.

It's amazing how many people in the area are broken by their addictions and their lifestyles. Often you will see addicts in full psychosis, arms flailing doing what is known as the Hastings Shuffle which not all of you have witnessed but if you REALLY interested here and here are a few examples caught on film (beware the faint of heart). Drug sales occur out in the open and walking by the corner of Hastings and Main you will be greeted with calls for "Meth, Crack, Certaline, smoke". The funny thing is the main Vancouver Police station is located just up the block from the place. Every once in a while the police will show up in force and the dealers and users will move on to the alleys and down the street but for the most part it is an accepted part of the landscape.

I've met two people that I know or knew in passing in Victoria. Both seem to be doing well and one is even working at First United on the night shift which has opened its doors and its sanctuary, and its hallways at the insistence of the cities mayor after the Dec. 19th 2008 death of a homeless women named Tracey. She died in a fire that got out control that she herself set to stay warm during an exceptionally cold night on the streets.

Continue to pray for the lost and the broken ...

Maranatha