Canada

If everything goes according to plan, this will be my last night in Canada for a while.

The past 30 days, doing the Halifax Urban Partnership with InterVarsity have been some of the most life-giving days. I have thought about so much that I find it difficult to pick and choose what to share with you.

SO.

I thought I would just let you know what a typical day would be like for us, if there could be such a thing as a typical day. One thing I learned on the HUP is how to be more flexible.

But. If you could walk in my shoes for a day...

Breakfast is ready!

I wake up to the sound of the leader perhaps, or a friend, waking the girls up. It is a windowless room in a church basement and we are sleeping on air mattresses. We learn we have to move our stuff out of there because the room will be used for church activities that morning. So we get up, some quicker than others.

Then we walk down the hallway to the small gym of the church adjacent to the kitchen. There the table for 17 is set up and hot baked oatmeal is served to us. We drink a lot of coffee and tea.

It might be our group's turn to wash dishes. We turn the radio on and clean the kitchen and sing along... "I knew you were trouble when you walked in...."

Soon it is time for Bible study. We are studying passages from the book of Luke this month, and we are doing manuscript study-- we read the passage and ask any and all questions we have about it, then try to answer those questions and find out what Jesus is trying to say.  Today the passage is challenging. It ends with Jesus saying "You cannot serve God and wealth." We wonder if we have been serving wealth. We make connections with the book we are reading together, Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski. We make connections with the things we have been seeing on the streets of Halifax and in our lives.

After Bible study, we usually prepare and then eat lunch together. Today there is a lunch guest. It is a woman who works at the methadone clinic. She explains to us what methadone is and how the clinic helps drug addicts have a normal life. We listen intently as we eat our soup and bread. After asking her some questions and listening to her response, lunch is over and we split into groups to go to different places for the afternoon. Some people are helping to plant a community garden in a low-income neighbourhood. Others are hanging out and helping to plan a variety show at a rescue mission. As for my group, we walk across the Commons and downtown to a church basement where there is a daily drop-in program.

Safety is an important thing at the drop-in

 There is a nun who helps quite a bit with the drop-in and she believes that the guests should be given beauty, choice, and safety. That is why the space is bright and there are flowers on the tables, why there is a bulky male volunteer at the door and why there are a number of different sandwiches, not to mention clothes at the boutique. Beauty, choice, and safety are things that the folks at the drop-in may rarely receive. As we plan a boutique fashion show, we sit among the guests and strike up conversation. Many are mentally ill. All have been at better places in their lives. For many people, this may be the only social interaction they have in the day. It may be the only time in the day they receive a smile, eye contact. It may be the only time they are served by someone else. As Mother Teresa said,

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love.

I feel very blessed to help cure loneliness for some of the friends I have made there.

We walk back to the church in which we stay, the three of us ladies who went to the drop-in, and we talk about the things we saw that afternoon. Arriving back at the church, we talk to other groups and see where they have been in there day and what they have learned. We may read a bit of Under the Overpass. Some of us may help prepare supper. 

We have another guest for supper. This time, it is a woman who is a former inmate and who has since begun a ministry to prisoners. She brings with her a friend, a friend who has been victimized and who has experienced God's grace in restorative justice. By the end of the evening-- we are at the table long after we have finished eating, listening to these women's story-- these ladies have become friends. 

After cleaning up the kitchen, always with much joy and laughter, the night ends with small group. We say a liturgical prayer together, and we discuss what we have learned that day. 

So that's it. Each day had many things to think about and many things to learn. Each day had more than enough laughter, love, but also new awareness of dark things in this city. 

At the end of the month, I can say this.

God cares about the poor, the marginalized, the downtrodden. As humans, we want to avoid uncomfortable, painful things. Jesus never did this. If we want to truly follow Jesus we need to be willing to love people with all of their pain, hunger, and neediness, without worrying what this will do to our social standing.

 For the last will be first, and the first last.

Peace and love, Canada.