One down, three to go.

Well folks. I made it. First "Urban Mission Adventure" at CBC under my direction...and it all happened...smoothly...for the most part. I'm alive; so are the 47 other people I took with me. And ultimately, I think that God taught us all a little something, or a big something, depending on who you talk to. And for all of that, I am truly thankful.

The students spent each day differently, depending on which team they were on and what their schedule consisted of; some cleaned for Gloria at Living Waters, some worked with Dodson Rooms or MCC "More than a Roof Housing", cleaning and hanging out with the tenants, and others walked the streets around East Hastings, chatting it up with people who were busy shooting heroin or smoking crack at the same time.

I love it.

I love UMA because it changes our students' perspectives. It makes them question what they have always believed. It causes them to freak out a little, or get really angry - it makes them feel emotions about things that they may have never thought about before: poverty, addiction, sex trade, the upcoming Olympics and the plans of shipping the homeless elsewhere in order to keep up appearances, safety injection sites, methadone clinics, the response that we have as Christians, the responsibilities that we have as Christians. And ultimately, it breaks down those walls of fear that separates us from each other.

I also struggle with UMA because we "drop in" on the downtown east side, and then drop out again just three days later. But, until we can send students to be there full-time, I hope and pray that our presence there is a blessing, never a hindrance or curse to those that are there full-time.

May the lessons that are learnt this weekend motivate our students to action. They can no longer claim ignorance about the fact of poverty and pain that exists just outside our doors. And they can no longer claim that Canada is "pure" or free of these things.

Did you know that the V6A postal code - downtown east Vancouver - has the same percentage of HIV/AIDS infected people as Botswana? That V6A postal code has the highest percentage of HIV/AIDS infection in all of North America. It is one hour from my door to theirs. If that doesn't motivate me to be a part of positive change, I don't know what else will.

And so...one down, three to go. One quarter of the first year students now get it. Now know what is going on downtown. Now I get to share it with the rest. Another 50 are coming with me again November 1-4. That's one month away. But for today, I rest, and share some pictures with you.


This is Emily. She is a senior student at CBC and agreed to come along this weekend as my "assistant"...and she was a God-send. I appreciated all her help - there was no way I could have had it all go as smoothly as it did without her. Thanks Emily!

Emily and I had our own fun "urban adventures" - not being "City Girls" ourselves, we had some interesting excursions, and learnt to see the city in a new way. Part of our daily routine included heading to Safeway to pick up "extras" - jam, cheese slices, water - anything that we ran short on throughout the weekend. So our first big adventure involved our trip to Safeway. When we arrived, we saw this sign:

It peeked our curiosity. We don't even know how to pronounce it...is it a "Moo-vator" or a "Mauve-ator"? For those of you who are not city slickers, you would appreciate our curiosity and excitement when we learnt that it is this:

An escalator without stairs! Who knew? (Evidently, as I shared this with students throughout the weekend, quite a few people know this.)

Then, Emily and I, after figuring out how to use the water dispenser to fill the giant water jugs, were being laughed at by our friendly Safeway cashier, whose name (I kid you not) was Igor. So we took a sheepish picture of Igor:

Upon returning to the Ivanhoe Hotel (or hostel, really) where we housed our team for the weekend, Emily and I had some time to go wander a bit. We found ourselves in Chinatown, one of my all-time favorite places in Vancouver.

I was born in the Year of the Rooster. Guess there could be worse.

Then we came across the most beautiful park, in the middle of Chinatown, Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park. We turned a corner and found this path, which made me feel like I was in the middle of some storybook:

And then we turned another corner, and realized that it was even better:

One of the highlights of this trip for me was on this same day. Emily and I were walking to Chinatown, and first passed through a section of Main St., right near the Ivanhoe, and realized that they were demolishing, from inside out, a building on the street.

Wondering what it had been, as I was very familiar with the various buildings on this strip, I stepped back and looked at the sign, and was in shock. I had walked past this very building every UMA trip for the last 7 years, and every time, asked God to bring it down. And now, here I was standing in front of this "Adult" movie theater...a place that I had despised for what it produced, and represented, and allowed within its walls...a place of shame and perversion...now just a hollow shell of a building. And I marvelled. And then realized that I shouldn't have been so surprised. God heard me...and I'm sure the many others that uttered the same prayer under their breath as they walked past it. Now, I have yet to see what it will become.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I'm looking forward (wearily) to the next three. And hoping that the rat that ate a hole in my bag won't be there when I return.