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By Frank Stirk
OVER in Richmond, The Fridge – a Youth For Christ (YFC) drop-in centre at Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church
– is getting ready to accommodate 50 underprivileged and ‘unchurched’ teens from California.
It is thanks to the generosity of two San Francisco-area doctors, who are
underwriting the cost of the trip, that they – along with their sponsors – are able to come here for a week during the Olympics.
“We’ll be transporting these kids to the events that they have tickets to, and
having a time to build a relationship with them – and, through that process, hopefully show God’s love,” said Eric Enns, YFC’s Richmond area director.
At the same time, the city of Richmond will be using The Fridge as a temporary
community centre, while its regular facility is closed over the Olympics.
“It’s kind of neat that all this stuff is coming to our place, and we’ll see how it goes,” said Enns. “It might be a mess – but hopefully not.”
More than the world-class competition and the pageantry of an Olympics event, it
will be the memories of such encounters with the Christians of Metro Vancouver
that have the potential of making a long-lasting impression upon athletes and
tourists alike.
Making a memorable impression on behalf of the city is also the goal of secular
participants.
“That’s really the endgame for Vancouver,” said VANOC’s CEO, John Furlong, to Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason.
Furlong added: “I think Vancouverites hold in their hands an opportunity to put these Games in a
special category. It’s them alone who have that power.”
One segment of Metro Vancouver’s population will be focusing on a higher power.
For the region’s Christian community – which has been praying and planning for years how they can best touch the lives
of the thousands of people who will soon be arriving here – the challenge goes far beyond what others might define as hospitality.
“This is a great opportunity,” said Bob Kraemer, operations director of More Than Gold, the officially
recognized coordinator of Christian activity during the Olympics, “to show the radical hospitality of Christ to visitors from across the world and
across the street. Not everybody is embracing that, by any means – but many are.”
Commitment to serve
That spirit and commitment to serve will be felt across the Lower Mainland.
A number of churches are seizing the opportunity given More Than Gold to provide
refreshments to people lined up at Skytrain stations, and at VANOC’s four departure hubs for buses to Whistler and Cypress. Some, such as Cedar
Grove Baptist Church in Surrey and Vancouver Chinese Alliance Church, have
pledged to ‘adopt’ an entire station.
Rod Heppell, pastor of community life and care at Sardis Fellowship Baptist
Church, is urging sister churches in the Chilliwack area to do their part. He
knows of one church, Greendale Mennonite Brethren, where some 40 people had
signed up as of mid-January.
“That’s a pretty good response,” Heppell said. “I mean, if we had 50 churches, and 40 people out of each church go and do that,
it makes a big difference.”
“The encouraging thing,” Kraemer added, “is that between our mission team groups and the churches who are coming on
board, we have about 85 percent of the shifts already spoken for. That’s pretty darn good.”
Friendly conversation
“We’ll be serving coffee, hot chocolate and cold water, and just engaging in
friendly conversation with people as they’re waiting,” said Sharon Tidd, Vancouver/Whistler Olympics outreach coordinator for the
Salvation Army, which will provide the beverages.
“We are still looking for donations of coffee and hot chocolate, but the churches
are coming through. It’s amazing.”
At the same time, many churches downtown are putting out the welcome mat.
Holy Rosary Cathedral and the offices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Vancouver will be offering information and assistance.
First Baptist Church will house a More Than Gold information centre, as well as
host creative and performing arts concerts.
Coastal Church plans to set up laptop computers for visitors needing internet
access.
Other downtown area ministries are getting ready for the anticipated extra
influx of people who could need more than a hot drink or directions to an
Olympics venue.
“There’s going to be some who just may fall through the cracks, like a temporary worker
that misses an employment connection, gets stranded and can’t figure out what to do. Or somebody lost or cold,” said Bill Mollard, president of Union Gospel Mission.
“UGM’s going to ensure that we have high levels of food stocked. As demand increases,
we’re prepared to add staff to our emergency shelter and to our drop-in centres.”
The Salvation Army is also making up several thousand ‘care kits’ for homeless and low-income individuals, that include items such as a
toothbrush, toothpaste and soap – as well as ‘welcome kits’ for visitors.
The latter will include a pocket guide, a rain poncho, some hand-warmers and a
small souvenir to remind them of their visit to Canada.
Radical hostesses
But some Downtown Eastside residents are also getting the chance to show as well
as receive some radical hospitality.
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Gwen McVicker, who runs Linnwood House Ministries on the Sunshine Coast, has
helped train 12 women who will be serving, in her words, as “radical hostesses” in the Great Room, a round-the-clock hospitality centre on West Hastings. They
have been trained to assist people in distress and to be goodwill “ambassadors” for their community.
“It’s really neat how they’ve risen to the occasion. They’re very excited about the role they’re playing,” said McVicker.
“Our purpose was to give them dignity and value, to be part of the community and
to be a positive influence during the Olympics.” McVicker is now looking to local churches and Christian groups to help provide
the food and entertainment. “We’re going to play it day by day,” she said.
First aid & prayer
Trinity Lutheran Church in Richmond, meanwhile, has put out a call to other
churches for upwards of 500 volunteers to help staff its own Olympics outreach – everyone from bakers to people with first aid training to prayer warriors.
Located directly across from the O Zone, the city’s official Olympics celebration site, the church is hoping to attract several
hundred people a day to an internet café and a big-screen TV that will show Olympic hockey games.
“I’m sure people have never thought, ‘Gee, I could go to a church and watch a hockey game,’” said parish services director Don Hindle. “We’re just inviting them in, and creating an opportunity for us to start a dialogue
with them.”
In fact, there are many churches planning to extend similar open-door
hospitality to their communities and visitors by hosting big-screen viewing
parties of some of the significant Olympic events, such as the opening ceremony
and the gold medal men’s hockey game.
“We’re looking to offer an alternative location for families, large groups, to come
together to watch the events, as opposed to just staying at home or going to
the local sports bar,” said Tidd, who is also More Than Gold’s hospitality working group leader.
But neither are they overlooking the reality that some will be coming more in
need of spiritual guidance than to cheer on the athletes.
“A lot of the churches,” she said, “are looking at opening up a prayer room and having counsellors available – so anybody that comes in for those events, that needs prayer, [can] sit down
with somebody [and] ask for it. Some are going to be hosting special Alpha
programs during the Games.”
Street festivals
Helping churches to connect with their communities and visitors over the
Olympics is Fusion Canada. In the third week of February, it will be
dispatching teams across Metro Vancouver, which will organize street festivals – fun stuff like face-painting, crafts, games, tug-of-wars and sack races.
“In Vancouver, we’re working with 10 different churches, which has been really great,” said Fusion team leader Heather Robertson. “This is part of a broader vision and ongoing strategy, to see our communities
become more the way that God intended them to be.”
Other Christians will be seeking to develop a more personal connection with
Olympics visitors, including the families of international athletes, by renting
out space in their home at an affordable rate. When people contact More Than
Gold to ask about homestay, they are referred directly to a secular, non-profit
organization called Home for the Games.
Acting project manager Tracey Axelsson has no actual breakdown of the number of
homestay families that are Christian. But she said her impression from visiting
them is that many of them are. “It does seem that the overwhelming majority of the homes are. They’re definitely more into the hospitality element of the Games.”
As of one month before the start of the Olympics, Home for the Games had signed
up about 200 families, with two to three more applications arriving each day.
Fighting homelessness
One requirement is that host families must agree to turn over half of the rental
costs paid to them to Home for the Games, which will in turn donate it directly
to local charities fighting homelessness. Participating families will be issued
a tax receipt.
“They’re seeking to raise a million dollars,” said More Than Gold executive director Karen Reed. “We’re inviting our hosts to donate the full amount.”
But for all that is going on, and all the Christians who have volunteered, More
Than Gold still can use more help.
“I’m sure there’ll be people signing up even in the first week of the Games, for service in the
second week of the Games,” Kraemer said.
“That’s good for us, because we have about 85 percent of our mission teams showing up
in the first week of the Games and only 15 percent in the second week. So as a
result, it’s the second week where we really need the locals to step up to the plate and
cover more – which gives them a little bit more time to plan their schedules. And they can
still register late.”
February 2010
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