*crickets chirping*

Hello?
I guess I'll take this 2-month silence on the blog to say,
Hi everyone!

And I guess I'll fill you in on what I've been up to.

I'm just finishing up a year as an intern with UrbanPromise Vancouver. I have spent these past months hanging out with kids from East Vancouver, and it has been so good! Sure, these kids have attitude. I've seen more poopy underpants than I've wanted to. And man, is it hard to listen to a kid cry because they're frustrated they can't see their dad who is too high to do their weekend visit.
But that is why it is so good. Because we are there. To take their attitude without condemning them. To be someone who doesn't make fun of their "accidents." We are there to let them cry and vent, and have them know we listen and care. As hard as it is, we are there to be Jesus to them. To speak hope to hopelessness and share redemption with brokenness.
This neighborhood is weird. It's pretty quiet and full of pretty well-off young families. But amidst the affluence there are pockets of poverty and dispair. It's about 10 blocks away from East Hastings, and the pronounced problems of that area often creep up to the families here. So while it seems on the outside to be a beautiful, eco-friendly, car-sharing, urban-gardening, community-focused neighbourhood, it's far from perfect. That's what I've noticed most about working with kids. They can seem to have it pretty much together. Yet after a while, their turmoil begins to show. They are so good at hiding their problems. But once you spend enough time with them, you will begin to see how underneath a thick skin, they are dying inside.
Okay so I painted a pretty bleak picture, but it's really been quite fun. Yeah, it's been hard at times, but most days are pretty awesome. Yesterday we had a couple kids start a garden. We were digging and tilling the soil, and the kids saw some worms. It was like spotting an elephant in Africa! It's as if they had never seen a worm before! "Look! Worms! Ahhhh!!! Awesome!" So there went all our little helpers off to make (no joke) a worm daycare, where all the worms from the garden went. One kid came up to me afterwards and said, "I used to not like worms, but now worms are my friends."
The end to the school year is three and a half weeks off. After my time here, I'll be heading back to Manitoba for the summer and spending time with my family and hopefully getting a summer job. Then, I'm moving back to East Van and will be going to school at VanArts for photography. I'll also be working as the UrbanPromise house manager, which means I'll live with the interns in the house and, well, manage it.

Here is a picture which sums up the Vancouver weather this year.


Hope to hear from you guys soon!
Be Jesus to those you meet today!

Joel