News Blog

The word that came to me in the circle was also overwelming but especially in terms of the challenges that fill the community around the Place of Hope. With gangs, prostitution, drugs, alchoholism and much more, the problems just seem too big. They are overwhelming. And when I face an overwelming challenge like that, the temptation is always to throw up my hands and say, "It's too big, it can't be solved so what is the point of even trying. We'll never get anywhere anyways."

To see the ministry that is taking place here at WICM against overwelming problems like that is really amazing. How these people -- in fulfillment of the vision given to Margaret Mullin -- managed to build a place where people could come and live and turn around lives that seem impossible to turn around is an amazing story. The funds were raised, the permissions and property were obtained. The local gang didn't want it built and did everything to threaten and strike fear in the heart of the people involved in the project but they still built it. The overwhelming was overcome.

And then the people came. It seemed impossible for them to turn their lives around when they were in such a mess. But they did. Not all of them, of course. Some have dropped out. Some have had to be told to leave but there are these wonderful success stories. The overwhelming was overcome.

Yes, I think there is a message for me in that somewhere -- when I feel like I'm up against something overwhelming.

We had a huge day, filled with a lot of emotion as we heard stories by people who are at Place of Hope. We were also overwhelmed by the stories of the people on The Blanket of Remembrance.

Our first day at WICM was very full and meaningful and I am quite sure that I will be processing it for some time. I have shared some thoughts on the early part of the day and am too weary now to reflect on all of the rest of it. But I did just want to say that I will long remember watching and listening as Vivian Ketchum stood by this monument to survivors of the Residential Schools (erected just a couple of months ago outside what will soon be an absolutely stunning human rights museum) and tell her utterly devastating story of what her time in the Cecile Jeffery Residential School (run by the Presbyterian Church in Canada) cost her.

Her testimony is so much more powerful because she is able to speak it now as a healed and healthy woman who has dealt with her loss and anger and betrayal. She has also done amazing things to help bring the church towards healing from what it was involved in by helping it understand what it did and still does sometimes. She is a wonderful illustration of the power of grace and forgiveness. She has been a gift to us and to the church.

Margaret says that the biggest enemy that they face is what she called anomie. It is that sense that the people have here that as bad as their life is right now, there is zero potential of it getting any better. When they fall  into this sense of anomie they see absolutely no reason to try and do anything to get out of it and so easy get caught up in addiction, gang activity, illegality and worse. If you cannot break that spirit of anomie with a new spirit of hope, you will never get anyway.

This, more than anything, makes me realize that the kind of ministry that they are doing here is worlds away from the problems we are trying to help people with in Cambridge. Yes people struggle there and we do have a ministry in helping them, but this is in a whole different league. We are not in Cambridge anymore. Our issue isn't anomie, of course, because most can have hope for their own life. Our issue is apathy -- the temptation to withdraw into the conclusion that there is nothing we can do to change anything so why bother trying.

It is amazing to see what they really have accomplished in the lives of people here. Margaret clearly has an amazing vision and annointing from God to accomplish what are clearly miracles in people's lives when you look at it. What a privilige to be part of it for this little while.

After our long opening discussion we saw another look at how they do church here when it was suddenly decided that, despite no preplanning having been done (due to anticipated bad weather that hasn't really materialized) that they would go ahead an hold the church picnic in a park anyways. So some of our people were sent off the the grocery store get everything needed. So glad to have a Shirely Love and Theresa Miller here who can plan a menu for 60 at the drop of a hat! Others will be soon busy loading chairs and tables and taking people to the park.

We'd never plan a major event in the life of our congregation like that, would we? But somehow God's spirit in is clearly at work in the frantic preparations. We don't do church like this but.. we're not in Cambridge anymore and I somehow have no doubt that it's all going to be something quite amazing and unexpected.

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There is something about actually being on your way to where you are going that makes you think more concretely about what you are going to do when you get there. I must admit that, though I have been looking forward to this trip, I haven't necessarily given much thought to what we are really going there to do. I have heard a great deal about the Winnipeg Inner City Mission over the years, seen a number of pictures and a few videos. I have also heard Margaret Mullin speak passionately on a number of occasions about her ministery and what it means to her. But I expect that it will be really different to see the ministry in action. At St. Andrew's I am involved on a near weekly basis in interacting with people who are looking for assistance in terms of food, clothing or a shared meal, but I don't really expect that WICM will be like anything I am familiar with.

We have now stopped over in Thunder Bay and are continuing on to Winnipeg with a near empty plane. We are all spread out in the cabin with everyone claiming a window seat of their own. While we waited to take off again we got to visit the cockpit and talk with the pilots. Where does that happen anymore? The clouds outside the window are looking particularly beautiful.

We have a real good team. They are light hearted and fun loving. I know they are going to make the time very pleasurable. But they are also engaged and committed. Joanne is sitting accross the aisle from me reading Thomas King's book, The Inconvenient Indian. She is obviously very interested in understanding the challenges faced by the people we will be working among. Alexis and Gabrielle will be great together. The stewardess just assumed that they were sisters. We are going to be very tired when we land and have a big day tomorrow. I'll probably talk to you all then.

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Anytime I take a major trip, I spend time thinking about what I ought to take with me, how to pack and worrying about what I might forget. This trip will be no different. But packing for a mission trip is surely a little different. On a trip like this, yes, I will need to remember things like my toothbrush and razor, but what else might be essential? What else should I be sure not to forget? And what might be best left behind?

Prejudice. I have lived all my life as a middle-class white Canadian. You cannot come out of that context without absorbing -- often without even being aware of it -- certain prejudicial attitudes towards poor people and First Nations People. I will not list the prejudices that are common enough because I don't think it is necessary. But even if I consciously reject such attitudes, that does not mean that they do not affect me. They cannot help but be present in my unconscious mind. So I must do my best to treat the people that I meet, not at members of some particular group but as individuals who are loved and valued by God no matter what their background, creed or status.

Judgement. It is so easy to judge people who have a different life and a different background from me. Happily, as a Christian, I believe that there is only one Judge whose rulings matter and it is not up to me to anticipate or impose such rulings.

Solutions. Are there solutions to the problems being faced by the people in the inner city of Winnipeg? Absolutely! But real solutions that make a lasting difference will not come from outside of the community. The best solutions always begin within the community where the challenges are best understood. Coming from the outside we can nurture and encourage such solutions and sometimes even clear away roadblocks that stand in the way of them, but it is rarely helpful to come in and just impose solutions.

An open mind. Of course, if I leave prejudice, judgement and solutions behind, there will be all kinds of room in my luggage to bring a mind open and ready to learn. Really, it is not much worth going on this kind of trip if you don't bring one of those.

Hope. To be the bearer of the hope that we have in God is different than coming in with solutions and judgement. Hope is universal and has its foundations in the very nature of God.

Trust -- that is, trust in God (also known as faith). In such a journey, things will not always go right and they will often go quite contrary to what you have planned. When you trust in God that the trip is in God's hands, you do not need to worry and you be assured that God will make things work out even better than what you could have planned.

Oh yeah, and bug spray -- I hear that mosquitoes are bad in Winnipeg. 

So what do you think? What else do I need to bring? What would be best left behind?