Inner-city experiences seek to transform lives
VANCOUVER, BC—When Union Gospel Mission hosted walking tours of the Downtown Eastside this fall, guided by someone who calls this poverty-stricken community home, the response was far more than anyone expected. And not just in the large number of people who showed up.
"After the very first tour, I suddenly heard this eruption of clapping," says UGM spokesperson Keela Keeping. "I saw these middle-aged, well-dressed people just really appreciating their tour guide. You really saw some emotion on people's faces."
The hope is these tours will open the eyes of people of faith to the realities of inner-city life, so that they will come to love their neighbours as Christ loves them—and act accordingly.
"We want to help people understand it's a lot more complex than 'there's a druggie' or 'there's a prostitute.' These things don't define people," says Keeping. "Many are trying to get help, trying to get out."
This is the first year that UGM has sponsored the tours as part of Vancouver's Homelessness Action Week. Based on the good response, Keeping is "pretty confident" they will do it again next year.
Urban Excursions, on the other hand, offers people a much more intensive, week-long immersion into the lives of downtown Toronto's poor and homeless citizens.
"Until you leave the safety of your own home or church or routine, you'll never know these people exist. Or you're afraid of them. Or you don't understand them," says co-director Alan Waugh. "Well, let's walk a mile in their shoes."
"It's a very emotional week," says co-director Em Johnson. "We want people to be genuinely engaged, not because God commanded it, but so you can actually look at a stranger and immediately see what Christ would find beautiful about them."
People from all over the world have taken these tours. Johnson hopes they will use their experiences to breathe new life into their families and churches back home. And those most likely to do that are the youth.
"It's probably because youth are still trying to figure out who they are," she says. "They have less walls to break down, and they still have this passion that life should look like community."
Lindsay Smith agrees. She runs Under the Radar, a summer program of Siloam Mission in Winnipeg's core area. It caters to youth 14 years and older, who spend four days and three nights living there serving their neighbours.
"Teenagers," Smith says, "ask really difficult questions: 'Why are people homeless? Why can't we just give them homes? I hear my parents always talk about how our taxes help them, but it doesn't seem to be helping. And what is the Church supposed to be doing?'"
Because of their age, they need their parents' permission to take part. Smith never promises them their kids will be perfectly safe.
"I ask them, 'What is riskier, perhaps witnessing someone overdose, or staying home and never knowing?'" she says. "It's hard, but many decide the risk of ignorance is far greater than the short-term risk that they're going to put their kids through."
In fact, many of these same parents soon become donors and volunteers. "One dad is a lawyer," says Smith. "His daughter came home and told him of her experience, and he said, 'I want to be a part of that, and what I have to offer is legal services.'"
"It's love that motivates us to do what we do," says Waugh. "Unfortunately, it's hard to communicate that to a lot of churches, because they're based in fear. And if the church is about fear and control, they'll put that fire out pretty quick."
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
