MISSION CANADA URBAN WORKER
Ministry Location: East Vancouver, BC
Ministry Focus: Urban Ministry
After serving on the pastoral staff at a city church for 21 years, this Mission Canada worker moved into an East Vancouver neighbourhood to live out the ways of Jesus in a community largely uninfluenced by Christian faith. In this lonely and isolated urban context, they have rooted into the neighbourhood, building a web of care and connection, seeking a lifestyle that is generous and inclusive, and one that is marked by gracious hospitality to strangers. Discovering an integrated way of living and being that is deceptively simple has the potential to be staggering in its scope.
Eight years ago when this worker moved, they bought a six-bedroom home to intentionally start a Christian community house where life is shared with all ages and cultural backgrounds, seeking to embody the gospel in how life could be lived together. Neighbours are welcomed as friends and a lifestyle of radical hospitality to the stranger is set in place. After all, that is how Jesus lived. It is beautiful and hard all at the same time. In recent years, this worker organized their neighbourhood friends in sponsoring and welcoming a Syrian refugee family. It was such a beautiful experience, that a second family is now being planned for. When a stranger is welcomed, in this case entire families, this type of activity makes the kingdom tangible. By living an alternative narrative in daily life, instead of the dominate culture of scarcity and fear, we live good news. God and His ways of love are seen, in the sacred ordinariness of everyday life. This worker is rooted in this community to be a faithful presence, joining what God is doing in bringing His kingdom to come in this place … as it is in heaven.
