twenty-three

So, after a week of driving all over the metropolis of Vancouver, crawling through traffic, smelling the city, what do you think might be the best way to wrap up a week on an urban mission trip? How about some Christian Environmentalism? There’s nothing like the smell of fresh wood chips or manure to wake you up out of the city daze.

Friday morning, we woke up bright and early and headed, of all places, straight back to the border, as if we were heading home. But instead, we stopped about 4 blocks too soon at a little 10 acre piece of land in Surrey called A Rocha. A Rocha is an international organization that has a small environmental center just on the other side of the border from Bellingham, where they work on the Campbell River, teach environmental education classes, and model sustainable living. They combine their Christian worldview with sustainable, environmentally-centered living, in one of the most authentic, realistic ministries I’ve experienced. It was pretty much one of the coolest things we experienced during our trip!

Our team met Rick, one of the live-in staff on the property, and he started our day off by teaching us a bit about what A Rocha does all over the world to help share the message of environmental consciousness and it’s relationship to the Christian faith. We talked about what an "environmental footprint" is, how much of an impact we all make on our environment by living the lives we live, and what the Bible says about respecting creation. Drawing influence from the creation story and passages throughout the Bible that clearly praise the beauty of God’s creation, we had a great discussion about why we thought it was important for Christians to take an active role in protecting and taking care of the world. Afterwards, our team broke out into small groups and helped around their grounds, picking up fallen branches, doing some spring cleaning around the common outdoor areas, and helping move chopped firewood.

To wrap up the day and the week, we took the team out for a great dinner at Stepho’s Greek Restaurant on Davie St. in downtown Vancouver. A recommendation from Lance Fisher, this place hit the spot. It was packed, but ever-so worth it. We had awesome gyros, souvlaki, and cheese balls with garlic dip. It was amazing, and very cheap, considering the size of the platters we got. I’ll definitely go back there next time I’m in Vancouver, but it was also incredibly busy, so I’ll have to get there early. The place was packed, but they graciously took a reservation for our large group, so we all fit in and enjoyed ourselves.

One last night in the city. Reaching Friday night was somewhat surreal for me, after a long week of busyness and new experiences. To think we would go home the next day, after spending so much time together as a team over the last week was very bizarre. Looking back still, it’s crazy to think of the things we did with any sort of perspective or context to my normal life, because while the city looks very similar in a lot of ways, we saw a side of it that is very well hidden. We didn’t have much time to sit back and process all that we saw during our time there, so coming home also affords us that luxury and also opens up the emotions that I may have held in while I was in work mode. Now, I have to decide what I will do with what God showed me last week.

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