New Year -- New Set of Steps

Thursday evenings we are learning how to walk in recovery and how to discover our life with God. We meet at Mission Possible at 432 Powell Street in Vancouver at 7:30 pm. Last evening we began a new series of studies in the 12 Steps (From Alcoholics Anonymous) Step 1 teaches us: I am powerless over my addiction and my life has become unmanageable.

One of the stories in our discussion, along with scriptures from the Bible was the following:

The story has circulated on the internet for some time about a water carrier in India. He had two large water pots, each hung on an end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots was perfect and delivered a full load of water each time. But the other pot was cracked and only brought half a load. The good pot was proud and the cracked pot felt sad and inferior. After a time the cracked pot apologized to the water carrier about this. The water carrier ask the pot to notice the flowers along the path where they walked every day and pointed out that the flowers only grew on the side of the path where the flawed water pot hung. The carrier had noticed the flaw early on and had used it to bring beauty that would otherwise have been impossible.

It’s no surprise to God that we have problems in our lives – even huge overwhelming ones. God’s invitation to us is to recognize it ourselves, admit that things are no longer manageable and turn to Him for a new perspective.

We may not experience it immediately, but the promise is there for us, in the Bible and in the life of many others who are living successful lives in recovery today, that God can make something good out of even our broken and confusing life.

We asked ourselves the questions:
1. What is unmanageable in my life today? How am I powerless?
2. How is my life like a cracked and broken clay pot?
3. What can I do today to invite more of God's power and love into my life?

You may be wondering the same. Come and join us and share your experience, strength, and hope as you receive and learn from ours.

Church Changes in the New Year

The first Sunday in January marked a significant milestone for Partners in Hope and two churches with whom we've been closely connected -- St. Simon's Church of North Vancouver and Immanuel Church in Vancouver. We used to travel to St. Simon's in the morning with several vans, come here to the house for dinner, and then a number of us, along with some new folks, would attend Immanuel Church at 4:30 in the afternoon.

As of January 4, Immanuel Church has begun meeting in the morning at the same time at St. Simon's and it's been a healthy exercise for people to pray and think about where they have ministry, where God is calling them to continue, and where they might need to shift in order to better do the work that God has given them.

We will continue to facilitate transportation to both churches and gather folks for dinner but there is a definite "cell division" in all of this that we pray for and hope will produce good fruit and growth in both locations.

New Year's Eve

There are lots of ways to have a good time without being drunk or high. We had a house full of people who experienced that once again this year. Snow and ice aside, we gathered for games and music and dancing and eating and conversation.

A while before midnight we gathered in the den to sing and to share how God had changed us during this past year and what was stirring in us for the upcoming year. Your heart would have been warmed, as mine was, as people shared the changes that have taken place in their lives this year so they no longer wander lonely in the addiction but are now finding themselves, their ministry, and lots of healing as they walk with God and with other Christians.

Baby Sierra stole the show with her dancing to the music. She and Lorna (who we thought wasn't going to see last New Years, let alone this year's) .... they were having a great time all evening. We all "dated ourselves" with the songs we remembered from the past .... and all the lyrics we forgot in the middle of the music!!!

No Snowdrift Too High

Well, for those from other parts of Canada it might not seem like a lot but during the last week of December weather reporters were telling us we only needed 2 more centimeters of snow to break the all-time record for snowfall in Vancouver -- 88 cm. Well, we had a couple of clear days and the rest of the snow we had didn't come until the new year but it seemed to me that we had snow that just went on and on. With no side roads being plowed, we still have winter lanes only down our streets and we are a month into this now. Lorna and I had to wait for someone to dig out of the middle of the road to get to the house this morning.

Despite the snow, we had Christmas. We prepare hundreds of gift bags for homeless folks in the Downtown Eastside. Because we had so much snow on the ground and much more falling out of the sky, Roger and Alayne Adams and I took 15 or more crates of gifts to shelters early in the day. We weren't sure cars would be moving by evening.

Then it was home to prepare turkey dinner. The snow kept some away but we had lots of fun around tables and ate more food than we probably should have .... the pies really were good!

After dinner it was finding a way to get us all 5 blocks away to the church for a candlelight service to honour Jesus, the focus of the birthday celebration after all. We were all amazed to have about 50 people arrive. Many churches and organizations cancelled their plans for that evening. We sang carols, listened to the pastor speak about Jesus having every other day of the year "covered" because of His coming to be with us that we celebrate at Christmas.

Buses were getting stuck coming up the hill and we weren't sure how we'd get folks downtown but we managed to arrive at Main and Hastings around 9pm. We circled around the area carolling, handing out wrapped gifts and being community together around Jesus' birth for a little while.

No snowdrifts could keep Christmas from being alive in our hearts and hands this year.