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Everyone in Vancouver has a story to tell as they reflect on the 2010 Winter Olympics, and Linwood House Ministries is no exception.
Our vantage point from the Great Room in the Downtown Eastside between Tent Village and Robson Street was unique. The area of the city that most people avoid was our home for three weeks. This space was a hub for radical hostesses, residents, visitors, volunteers and entertainers.
Here a daily ritual took place. Each morning as the radical hostesses and volunteers arrived at the door of The Great Room there would be an intentional pause. Each person would check Self at the door and commit to think of the needs of others first. This was not always easy. Thus, our second step was to go the candle table, pause again, and whisper a simple prayer:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Help me, help me, help me.
The radical hostesses lit a candle to represent the spirit of giving: giving to others, giving to each other, and giving to their community and world. We asked God to help us. We practiced this every day of the Olympics. Day by day, the message sunk into our hearts and a spirit of love and community invaded the place and the community of the Downtown Eastside.
We pause now to say thank you to the many people who helped us learn this very powerful lesson of giving. Because you gave so generously we were able to give generously to others.
You contributed in many ways :
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your generous giving and ongoing support as we continue to journey with the radical hostesses into the hope of their story. You are all champions in our minds and hearts.
(Click on Elizabeth's image below to see more photos of our Radical Hostesses on Mount Seymour!)
I believe in the power that comes
From a world brought together as one
I believe together we'll fly
I believe in the power of you and I.
(I Believe, written by Stephan Moccio and Alan Frew)Jesus asked, 'Do you finally believe?'
(John 16:31, New Living Translation)
After two and a half weeks full of joy, excitement, hard work, struggle, challenge, unity, healing, and every other imaginable emotion and human experience, the race had been run. The finish line was crossed. Arms were raised in victory, celebrating the perseverance of the human spirit. It is in us to rise above adversity. We can't help it. Even if it is just merely a sliver of hope, a whisper of something more, there is something in us all that drives us to keep going. The stories of triumph over adversity were really the highlight of the Olympic games, perhaps they always are. Who will ever forget Joannie Rochette skating through her grief to honour her mother and the journey of their relationship. Who was not inspired by the courage of the Georgian Olympic team to go forward despite the debilitating loss of their team mate, not honored to stand with them in their sorrow? They are champions of the human spirit, with or without a medal to affirm it.
These images, these stories are metaphors for life and the power of coming together to push through and be victorious over the challenges and trials of life. In every way, our radical hostesses are true champions. During the Olympics they too ran the race, pushed past the pulls of addiction and health concerns and relationship issues to serve, love and care for others. They opened themselves up to being part of a team, a circle of women finding purpose and hope in and through each other. They took the risk to participate and be open to being healed and transformed by the experience itself.
We could not end this time together without honouring the true champions that each and every one of them are. On Sunday morning, we had a wonderful time together as we shared what it was to have "finished the race". Each women took their place on our makeshift podium and was presented with a gold medal for being part of the radical hostess team. We had the privilege of speaking into each women words of life, affirmation and reflecting back the things that we were believing in for her. Peace. Sobriety. Healing. A voice to the younger generations. An ambassador of goodwill for the community of the downtown Eastside. A healing bridge in her family. A voice for change in her culture.
I believe. We believe.
We believe that in every woman is a story, a divinely appointed purpose and meaning, and as each woman decides to take the journey into the hope of her story our families, our communities, our world, and we ourselves are transformed and healed.
The story of each of these women continues. The story of this circle of women brought together to be one set of hands and feet in the downtown Eastside these past several weeks has only just begun, and we are full of anticipation to see how God will knit them together even further to serve and be served, to love and be loved, to heal and be healed.
