ILG: Joyce Heron - 8 Oct 2005
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Hers is a city of addiction, poverty and sickness - 38% of her neighbors have AIDS, 67% are HIV positive. The WHO notes that there, in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, Canada, scarcely 15 years will pass before an AIDS epidemic equal to that of some African nations could begin to threaten Canada and all of North America. As Joyce shared her story, the 24-7 community was deeply challenged to go deeper in our response to the needs of people around us.
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 downtown, eastside: vancouver | |
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Secret: God has a bias“Did you know that there are over 600 Bible verses about ‘poor people,’ ‘the least of these,’ ‘orphans and widows,’ and God’s heart of justice toward them,” Joyce asked.
It’s not that God loves them more, she explained…He loves all of His children the same.
“Picture yourself as a parent of three young children," she said. "Two of return from home school happy, fulfilled…but one returns bullied, picked on…which one will you stand up for in that moment? Which one will you fight for? You see, God loves us all the same, but He fights for the one who needs Him.”
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Secret: Galatians 2:9-10“James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All that they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”
Remembering the poor is at the heart of Jesus, and the apostle Paul as seen here. To keep this value of God’s kingdom close to our hearts and lives is Joyce's charge to 24-7 - reminding us that ministry is not separate from life – nor is life separate from ministry.
 Secret: Be friends OF poor people, and never friends TO poor peopleMother Teresa: “People think I go to bring Christ to the poor. They do not understand that it is in the poor that I meet Christ.”
Secret: Function precedes formOur challenge is to become friends with poor people, offering our companionship and Christ in us. Only from that place can we ever seek to serve poor people, and only out of that seed grows the chance to release in people the dignity that Christ died to return to them.
“If you want to serve poor people,” Joyce said, “promise me one thing: that you won’t go start a program. Don’t do it. We use programs as buffers between ourselves and the people God wants to bless. Do go make a friend, but please don’t start another program.” Secret: Prayer“Prayer changes us,” Joyce said. “Getting God’s heart for people in prayer is the root of loving them. If we are to be anything to the people who need God, then we must go to God, get His heart for people, then do something with it.” | ||
From her experiences working at Secret: Success
“People come to me and ask me what success looks like in this type of ministry,” Joyce said. “‘What is to be expected? How can we know when we are making progress?’
I say to them, ‘here is your success – here is your great reward: to share in the sufferings of Christ. To weep. To ache. To share in His lament over the injustice and suffering of the people He loves.’”
Fostering Hope
Listening to Joyce’s challenges to 24-7 gave me hope and vision. Listening to Joyce’s stories and diagnoses of the people of her city made me cry. She explained that nearly all of her addict friends are foster children who had been literally bought from the Canadian government from house to house by greedy foster-care parents. Abused and ignored, it is hardly a surprise that so many of these people become drug addicts, prostitutes, etc.
“I want every Christian community to foster one child. Just one,” Joyce said. “Can you imagine how different the world would be if the church cared for these orphans, and instead of accepting the payment from the governments for caring for the children, giving that money directly into drug and abuse treatment centers?”
1 John 3:16-18 - “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”
“If God Himself is so willing to friends with the poor,” Joyce said, “So should we.”
Barry Hall and his wife Charlotte recently moved to Chichester, England from Kansas City, Kansas to be a part of 24-7 Prayer. They both graduated from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Between the both of them, they love labrador retrievers, writing stationery, jam bands, and Cafe Rouge - the best cup of tea on South Street.
*photo 4: www.thetyee.com.gallery