Linwood House Ministries

The New Great Room - February 2009

We have been privileged to have our women’s space in the downtown Eastside for over two years now. You have heard many of the stories of the Great Room and it has truly been a sacred space of love, grace and friendship. We knew that our time there would be limited as it is located in a condemned building, and with the gentrification happening in the dtes it would only be a matter of time before the Great Room would need a new home.

We have been praying for a new space and being very intentional in keeping alert to any and all possibilities. Our dream was that we would find a new space that we could work on while still in our old space, having the best of both worlds - a new place to pour into and prepare without the pressure of time to leave our current space.

We are thrilled and so grateful to share with you that we have found a new space. It is located at the corner of Powell and Princess Streets, and seems to have been created with us and our needs in mind. It is on street level; it is a huge, bare space, a blank canvas ready to be transformed into something inspiring and beautiful and sacred. And it is in the perfect neighborhood mere blocks away from some of our most cherished partnerships, Union Gospel Mission and the Salvation Army’s Grace Mansion. We are so excited by the thought of all we can do together to build into the lives of our friends in the community.

There is a lot of work to be done to prepare this space for our eventual move, but God has been rising up people who have caught the vision and want to be part of this project. On February 12th we met with Wesley Wollin, an architect we connected with through Tsawwassen Alliance Church. He is also a teacher at BCIT, and so on that evening he and 21 of his students met us at the new location and began to put our dreams and visions onto paper. They broke up into small groups and started drawing potential plans for the space. The air was thick with creativity as these students sought to understand the lives of our friends and the community, and design a space that would meet those needs. At the end of the evening we had a much clearer picture of what was possible, and we were thrilled! The next step will be to combine the best elements of all the plans and come up with something that will lead us into the next steps.

Our time line is unclear at the moment, but we are hoping that our new space will be ready later this year, possibly sometime in the fall. In the meantime our current space will remain open and continue to be a place of gathering and connection for women from the dtes and all communities.

One of the cornerstones of our mission is found in Isaiah 61:4

“They’ll rebuild the old ruin,
Raise a new city of the wreckage.
They’ll start over on the ruined cities,
Take the rubble left behind and make it new.
You’ll hire outsiders to herd your flocks
And foreigners to work your fields,
But you’ll have the title, ‘Priests of God.’”

We are excited because we believe and know that our friends of the dtes will have a very significant role to play in the creation of the new Great Room. From sharing their dreams and ideas, to clearing out the physical space, to painting and decorating, to spreading the word, they truly will be the ones to “rebuild the old ruin, to make it new”. What a privilege it is for us to join together with them in seeing God’s heart for this community come to be.

There is much work to be done, and we want to invite you to join with us in any way you can. For more information about this project and how you might be able to participate, please contact us at [email protected].

More photos here

One Year and Counting

Yes, we are one year away from the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In a completely unrelated matter, the following article appeared in this morning's Globe and Mail. This is exactly what many of us familiar with the Downtown Eastside were afraid would happen.

Downtown Eastside crackdown misguided, groups say
Police increase tickets, street checks
FRANCES BULA
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
February 12, 2009 at 5:47 AM EST

VANCOUVER — If Doug Everitt lived anywhere besides the Downtown Eastside, he doubts he'd be getting the kinds of tickets from police he does.

The 50-year-old construction worker has had five in the past few months, some for riding his bike without a helmet, some for jaywalking on the streets near the residential hotel where he's been living.

"I just feel like I get targeted because it's something they can hold over my head so they can get me off the street when they need to, like the Olympics," said Mr. Everitt, who has had his struggles with drugs and is now on methadone. "And it's gotten a lot more aggressive lately."

What he's noticing is the effects of the Vancouver Police Department's new 2009 business plan, which set new targets for ticketing and street checks in the Downtown Eastside to maintain public order.

The article goes on to quote lawyer (and blogger) David Eby who points out the obvious. "This doesn't solve any of the underlying issues." (Read the complete article here.)

I don't spend anywhere near as much time in the DTES as Sue and Jen do, but when I am down there, there's a strange feeling that comes over me. Others have said it as well. "This is where I feel closest to God," or "This is where I see Jesus." Yup, me too. Of course, that only makes sense, given Jesus' own words.

Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'"
Matthew 25:40 (The Message)

Of course, as Jesus himself quickly points out, the inverse is also true:

"He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.'"
Matthew 25:45

Maybe we need to rewrite that last verse to set it in the context of Vancouver in 2009...

"He will answer them, 'I'm telling you the solemn truth: Whenever you criminalized the poverty of the otherwise overlooked or ignored, whenever you hassled them and tried to remove them from the sight of others in order to avoid your own embarrassment and shame, that was me-you did it to me.'"

Fortunately churches in the Lower Mainland are united in their opposition and outrage at this obvious mistreatment of our society's most marginalized, so I'm sure the problem will be cleared up in a few days.

~ Mike Todd
(Reposted from Waving or Drowning)