Gospel Mission > Volunteers

God Rains Shower Project,

at 327 Carrall Street, Vancouver, BC

Drew Snider's Blog on the vision God gave him.

THE SHOWER SAGA – 1 Tuesday Dec. 11, 2007
One of your agent's ministry activities involves Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Skid Row. Identified by some expert from the United Nations as the WORST location for poverty in the urbanized world, which is pretty scary, considering the competition: New York, East LA, Kolkata. Maybe it's a bit of hyperbole from someone wanting to contrast the phenomenal wealth which parks its collective bottom just a couple of blocks away in the luxury suites at General Motors Place or is visible from the DTES on the North Shore mountains. Maybe he's trying to wake up the powers that be, as we get ready to preen on the world stage with the 2010 Winter Olympics (am I allowed to use that name without copyright infringement?). Or maybe he's absolutely right.
Whatever, it ain't pretty, and Gospel Mission (not Union Gospel), which is the oldest mission in Canada (since the 20s), is right bang in the worst postal code in the country. The alley next to our building generally reeks of ... well, it reeks ... people smoke up and shoot up outside the Mission, either in a doorway or in Pigeon Park, a longtime gathering place for the poor and destitute.

These people are victims of a lot of things, including theories. A popular theory among civic officials is that if you give drug addicts a safe, healthy environment in which to do their drugs, that will somehow reduce the harm and therefore solve the problem. I'm not a stupid person, but I'm having a hard time getting my head around the theory, especially as I pick my way around the bald, obvious evidence that IT'S NOT WORKING. When the federal government wanted to take a second sober look at the concept before approving any more funding, the screeching from the program's proponents (including those who were being paid to run it) was deafening. "The site is working!" they protested, while not exactly stating how they arrived at that conclusion, leaving me feeling a little like John Cleese, when Michael Palin has just told him his cheese shop is the finest in the district: "Explain the reasoning behind that statement!" The closest I've seen to a benchmark for measuring "success" has been the claim that no one had yet died from an overdose at the safe injection site.
Sorry ... my benchmark for any kind of drug program is the number of people who have kicked the habit, and the number of people who no longer shoot up in back alleys or smoke their crack in open view ... not because they've been given a safe, out-of-sight/out-of-mind place to do it, but because THEY'RE NO LONGER ON DRUGS!

So what does this have to do with showers? Surprisingly, a lot. People who come to our "upper room" at 331 Carrall Street have a tendency to be quite dirty. Filthy, in fact. Many try to stay clean by going to our laundry area at the back and washing up at the laundry tub before our services. They live in shelters, long-term, single room hotels or on the streets. Where do they wash up, otherwise?

In late September, I took a trip to New York City. I have a friend there I hadn't seen in almost 30 years, but beyond that reunion, I didn't have much planned. But I had a notion to go and check out the ministries serving the poor and destitute there and see how they did it. That notion got kicked into high gear when I went to a series of meetings at my home church, Westpointe Christian Centre, with Lee Grady, publisher of Charisma magazine.

Lee is a prophet, and invited those in Ministry to come up for a word from the Lord. The word he spoke over me was that God would be sending me on a journey (he had no way of knowing I was about to leave for NYC) and that I would be acquiring a lot of new ideas about ministering to people. He used the image of "axe heads", like the one that Elisha caused to float to the surface in I Kings. Lee prophesied that God would provide me with more and sharper axe heads, which would finally cut through, rather than bounce off.

Among the places I visited in NYC was the Bowery Mission, the second-oldest rescue mission in NYC and third oldest in the US (there's one in Chicago that's in-between the two in NY). Pastor Reggie Stutzmann -- a Pentecostal -- gave me over an hour of his time to show me around the place and share some of the things they do. One of those services is a shower program. Twice a week for men -- and once a week for women -- they open up for people to come in and get a shower and a change of clothes.
Suddenly, I had an "axe head". I brought back others to Vancouver, but this was one worth considering. The problem was, where was the handle?
Gospel Mission occupies the second floor of a two-storey walkup. Its space is very well used, with a commercial kitchen, chapel area, baptismal tank, office, prayer room ... but noplace to put showers. So I let the idea lie fallow for a while, waiting for God to provide the handle.
He did, early in November, when our senior pastor, Barry Babcook, mentioned off-handedly that one of the two ground-floor tenants -- an anti-everything coalition I had dubbed the "rebels without a clue" -- had moved out.
I told Barry about the shower idea, and he told me he'd had the same thing on his heart for years, but it was a matter of space. He called the landlord and the landlord agreed to give us two weeks to come up with a plan -- and money to go with it. I started sending out letters soliciting funds -- which has not been my forte -- and doing a lot of praying.
I've had some good personal success with praying things into existence, and when God has His hand on something, there shouldn't be any doubt that it will happen. Looking at the timing of everything and the landlord's willingness to give us the chance, it was obvious God's hand was on this project, and we just needed to push from our end.
Three days before the self-imposed deadline, Barry called to give some encouragement -- mainly pointing out that when God wants something done, He'll generally wait until the 11th hour, 59th minute.
Two days before the self-imposed deadline, one church -- ironically, one on Vancouver Island where I fellowshipped in the year or so leading up to my going into Ministry -- came through with a large one-time donation and a pledge of monthly contributions, and a gentleman of "some means" who attends my church in Vancouver -- Westpointe Christian Centre -- called to say we could count him in for an even larger up-front donation, with more to come later.
As usual, God pulls off the "grandstand play" with the game on the line!
So as of this writing, we are getting our heads into the fact that this project is a go. More donations are coming in, along with pledges of monthly contributions -- which will be the next big challenge: making sure the operating expenses -- rent, heat, water, etc. -- are covered.
The prophecy Lee Grady spoke isn't the only one involved here, you know: the pastor at that church on Vancouver Island spoke one over Barry a few years back, that Gospel Mission would expand. This shower project gives us a street-level presence that we haven't had since we moved into the Upper Room in the 1940s. There's enough room in that space to do other outreach activities.
For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? (Isa. 14:27)
I'll keep you updated.
Want to contribute? You can send a one-time donation, or pledge a monthly amount ($50, say), to Gospel Mission, PO Box 57151, Vancouver BC V5K 1Z1 Canada. Write "Showers" in the memo line on the check.

The Shower Saga – 2 Sat. Dec, 15

Updating you on the Shower Saga (see below) ... today, I hand over the checks to the landlord. By day's end, we will have possession of the space.
Praise the Lord God who provides -- including providing the monthly operating costs (if you'd like to donate, the information is at the bottom of "The Shower Saga - 1").

The Shower Saga – 3 Sun. Dec. 16
I did indeed pick up the keys to the ground-floor space below Carrall Street Church (331 Carrall St., Vancouver) yesterday (Saturday the 15th). The whole Story So Far is summed up in "The Shower Saga-1", below, but it's amazing to look at how this went from a "neat idea" to its current point. God has definitely been leading the way and propping us up where needed, and this morning, a piece of Scripture leapt out at me. And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and by themselves victuals.
But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
And they say unti Him, We have here but five loaves and two fishes.
He said, Bring them hither to me.
-- Matt. 14:15-18
When God tells you to do something, He doesn't tell you to afford it. How many times have we heard a directive from God to do something, but we've shelved it because we didn't have the resources? Yet, that passage in Matthew tells us that, when Jesus gives us an assignment, we are to take what we do have and hand it over to Him. After all, what came next? Those five loaves and two fishes were converted into a meal for 5,000 men, plus women and children, with twelve baskets full of leftovers.

In fact, the very next thing that happened was that Jesus "gave thanks", and then started handing out the food.

Thanks for what? Not thanks for feeding everybody, because a specific prayer like that, I believe, ties God's hands to what we think we need; but thanks that God is in control and that, so long as we're obedient and walk in His ways, He will provide all our needs according to His riches in glory. And "thanks" before we see the manifestation, because in God's plan, it's already a done deal: we just have to put it in motivation with our faith.

So that's what we've been doing in getting the shower project off the ground. We took the resources we do have and gave them to Jesus; giving thanks that, if God has put this project on our hearts and given us the assignment to carry it out (Jesus, saying "Give ye them to eat"), then He will provide what we need.

One thing to remember here is that, when we take the resources we have and give them to Jesus, those are only the resources that we know about. Sometimes, we forget that in going to Jesus, we're exercising one of the most valuable resources we have: the Lord Himself.

So this is to encourage you that, when you hear from the Lord, or sense that He's put something on your heart to do, don't just blow it off as a "nice idea, but ...": press closer to Him and hand Him the resources you have ... give thanks ... and get ready to start serving the fish!

The Shower Saga – 4 Fri. Dec. 21

(Funny ... I thought we were up to more than four ...)
ENORMOUS news earlier this week! Andrew Sheret, Ltd., which has been in business, providing bathrooms to British Columbians, since 1892, is donating the showers we need! Barry and I had been discussing our next moves, and the next pressing need is the showers themselves. So the Lord gave me a nudge, and said, "Andrew Sheret".
Of course!
Back in 1992, when I was at CFAX Victoria, I was called on to MC Andrew Sheret's 100th anniversary dinner (http://www.sheret.com). The company struck me as one class act (partly because they paid me for the gig -- something virtually unheard of in Victoria!), and really, you can't stay in business 115 years if you don't have some kind of integrity. I hadn't had any dealings with them since then, but I called their head office in Victoria, wound up talking to the president, Brian Findlay. He remembered me; I emailed him the proposal; he said "yes" without hesitation!
Another brother has stepped up to the plate to provide all the soap and shampoo, and donations of towels are coming in for Kathleen's "Towel Mania" -- she's in charge of organizing that, and she and her son will be pushing that forward, when school goes back in in January.
And we still have to get pledges to cover the operating costs. 30 people pledging $50 a month will do the job, and it's all tax-deductible. They can be sent to Gospel Mission, PO Box 57151, Vancouver, BC V5K 1Z1.

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