Praying for Justice

Today I was in the prayer room/war room at the Empress Hotel with a few other people and all of the sudden I heard this woman screaming. My friend Joel and I went running down the stairs to see what it was. We saw this big guy *Chris holding this girl *Jen by the neck against the wall. Jen was bleeding from the head and Chris didn't have a shirt on. They were struggling. My buddy Joel was trying to break it apart when Jen's friend *Sue came and started cussing out Chris. I was still standing in the stairwell overlooking all of this when *Dave came running by me with a big wooden pole about the circumfrance of a water bottle. Dave takes the stick and hits Chris over the head with all his force. Chris releases the girl. I was praying and praying. I did not want to witness another murder...
Chris was trying to make sense of what was going on and was explaining that Jen stole $200 dollars off of him (it's welfare day here today). All of the sudden Dave hits Chris over the head again and bolts with Sue.
I went to call 911 and reported the whole thing. About 7 policemen came. It was crazy.

I was praying later on and didn't really know how to pray. I don't know the whole situation. I pray that God, who knows all the details will bring about justice. I know that God's been putting it more and more on my heart to pray for things that I see. If I don't, who will?

I Love Jesus

Discomfort

We are taking a class on evangelism and are exploring different methods. This is probably one of the most uncomfortable classes.
Some weeks we go out and take surveys, some we ask people if they want us to pray for them, some we have tracts that we've designed etc.
I can do this fine in the downtown eastside, but we've been going out more into the city. It is so awkward.
Who voluntarily makes themselves uncomfortable. In reading my bible there doesn't seen to be any loophole in how to escape discomfort. I read further and I think I am pretty much convinced that if you are not uncomfortable at any time in your ministry, you probably aren't doing all that you should be doing. Jesus said that the world will hate you. That people will turn against you.
Kierkergaard said once "If you haven't been offended by Jesus, you haven't read him properly."
We try so hard in life not to offend anyone or push our beliefs on anyone. I've realized that I need to be put in those situations more often. We, as Christians are the only ones on this earth representing Jesus. If we don't - who will? If not now - then when?

Some pics

I had a lovely time in Seattle this weekend, staying at the Hailles. I was the official photographer for their family, and in exchange I got to spend some lovely time in their home and eating nice homecooked meals. Before leaving we had a Passover meal at 614 Vancouver, which was a blessing as well.
Here are some shots. Enjoy...

The walking video workout

The Zoolander

Passover

Act casual, she's taking a photo

Dan and Daniel :)

What a great family
Hanging in Seattle (Roro, Darren, Kyle, Dan)

A million years later...

So here are some pictures from my younger brother's wedding which was on March 4th (yes, that was a long time ago). Do to some massive complications, it's taken a while to get these up and running. Without further ado...
(click on them to see them bigger)

No. 5 (part 2) and the Balmoral

For those interested in updates from No. 5, we have not yet received any phone calls... but we are still hopeful. Please press in and pray.
As a second part of our "project" we are prayer walking and talking to prostituted persons on Cordova (the "strip") every Wednesday night for an hour and a half. We're talking to a lot of women (and trannies) and making coffee dates with them during the week as well. Some of them live in my hotel, which is convenient in meeting up with them and making house calls.
Please pray for us! We really appreciate all your prayers from around the globe. We're also praying outside of the No. 5 every week as well and we're pressing in.

ALSO...
I live in the Balmoral Hotel (for those who don't know, it's a slum hotel in Canada's poorest postal code) and its has failed it's health inspection twice. There's a good possibility that it might be closed in two weeks if it's not up to health regulations. Just pray for justice to be done. I know that the owners and sneaking around and trying to make things "look" legit, which aren't. I want justice for all of my neighbours. Please pray that in.
Thanks so much everyone - I am truly blessed to be a part of the body of Christ where we can all come together in unity by prayer.
Grace

El Rato and Deep Cove

The other day I was walking to dinner via the alley next to my slum hotel and I saw this rat, about the size of my forearm. He was hauling a baguette that was bigger than his entire body. I know that this probably makes me sound pretty ghetto, but instead of being grossed out, I looked at him and said "Way to go, little buddy. Dream big."

Anyway... So today I went to Deep Cove. Soooo beautiful. I love hiking and I got to run through the trees and jump off rocks. It was pretty much amazing.
My camera battery died before I got there, but here are some shots that my friend Kirsty took. Enjoy!



Me, laughing as usual
Rushing streams

Kirsty Stringer, Crystal Myers and myself (of course)

A shot from the top down. It was pretty high up...
Me and Joe... I obviously found something funny

To make me smile :)

Today is feaking AMAZING! It's the most beautiful day. The sun is shinning and it feels like summer. I took a walk downtown with Joe Wizzest and I was so filled with excitement to be out without a jacket and smelling the sweet aroma of summmmer.
Spring/early summer defo makes me smile. Some other things that do the trick are...
*JESUS*, taking a sweet photo, tickling the ivories, holding tulips, strummin' my guitar, avocados, travelling to new places, the smell of barbeques, a good cry, really juicy peaches, singing with co., french cheese & baguettes, movie quoting, walking barefoot on grass, laughing ridiculously (especially if it's loud), piggy back races, mountains, picnics on the beach, swimming by moonlight, mud sliding after a storm, cherry picking, solving riddles, BIG sleepovers, listening to someone play for me, dancing through the sprinklers on a hot day, marguaritas, watching old 80's movies (Michael J. Fox, Corey Haim), kayaking, a really good stretch in the morning, finding money in my pockets, discovering a new song that I love, sharing a funny moment with a complete stranger, campfires, red seedless grapes, good snuggles, orchids, jamming, blowing bubbles, double non-fat lattes with cinnamon, getting butterflies, flossing my teeth after eating corn, jumping in puddles, getting letters in the mail, finally getting a joke like 5 minutes late and I'm the only one laughing, crunching leaves under my feet, someone drawing pictures with their finger on my back, waking up and realizing I can sleep in more :), doing random spontaneous things that you will talk about when you are old.

Oh, and F.Y.I - my birthday is coming up and most of these are incredibly inexpensive! ha

Child Labour

I was having a discussion, somewhat recently with a close friend of mine about the subject of child labour.
In the past few years I have avoided buying things from Gap and Nike because of their known affiliation with child labour, but I realized, as I was talking, that me boycotting these companies won’t actually bring about justice to this injustice. It is simply washing my hands clean of my own involvement. It’s pretty much relieving me of guilt.
I then got quite concerned (aka – started crying) about what I could do (if anything) to actually bring about justice in this area.
I was never naïve enough to believe that if everyone stopped supporting these sweat shops then they’d close down and the government would be filled with an altruistic nature and decide to educate these kids. I am not a fool.
Prayer is huge. Sometimes I think of it as a cop-out for action, or “real” work. God is changing my mind and heart about this. The night of this discussion, I was in bed reading my bible and praying and I was meditating on Psalm 12.
So prayer is key. I am still waiting on the Lord about what else I can ‘do’.
I have a wonderful sponsor child, and I know that I have been challenged to give more money towards education of children in the third world, as well. Any other ideas? Thoughts?

The No. 5

This week has been a good week.
There is this showroom/stripbar in our neighbourhood and my school of justice was wanting to make flyers and put them up for free babysitting for the dancer's kids.
We went in on Wednesday (Ashley and I) and talked to the bartender. He was pretty grumpy and said we couldn't put them up. I politely asked when the manager would be there and he said 'Friday'. On our way out we got to talk to one of the dancers and she was very friendly and interested in what we were doing.
Yesterday, Ashley and I attempted again - went in and there was another bartender.
"No, I am sorry. We don't do that sort of thing and..." he stopped in his tracks, changed his facial expression and said "Wait...tell me again what you want to do?"
We explained further and by the grace of God he completely changed his mind! We went and talked to the DJ and he is putting up the flyers. He was so excited and said that it was such a rare and kind thing. PRAISE THE LORD!
Pray for future relationships with the women, especially the single mothers and the No. 5. Pray that we will be able to love well and be able be able to build some more bridges in our community.