Her name is Nikita,
She is five years old with black hair, dark brown eyes and a pony tail on the top of her head that looks like little fountain of water springing out of her head. Did I mention her smile...oh that beautiful smile lites up what ever room she is in.
The first words out of her mouth are "Hi Andrea!!!!" I greet her with a big hug and pure joy in my heart. Well hello there sweet pea how are you today? "I am very good today...what are you doing?" I am sorting the vegetables so that when the folks here line up for them it's nice and easy for all of us cause that way they can see exactly what they get to choose from. I can see her eyes shooting glances over towards the line-up of our regular patrons there to partake in the 10:30am soup. I ask her if she'd like a bowl of yummy chicken noodle soup. "Oh yes please!!" Her enthusiasm is contagious, I stop what I am doing and attend to my little Friends needs. As we wait our turn in line she looks up at me and asks once again "What do you do?" I try to explain to her that what I am doing is exactly.. "what I do". She looks up at me confused. I am starting to see that the concept of someone hanging out with her and getting a bowl of soup for her is kind of a strange job...not like others. This is not our first encounter mine and hers. We first met a couple of weeks ago when she came in with her mom, dad and three older brothers. They had just arrived to BC from Ontario. Dad had no job and no money to feed or clothe them. Thankfully we were able to help them out. And yes I did spoil the kids rotten cause that's the kind of gal I am.
Nikita is too young to really understand what the mission is all about and for that I am grateful. I hope in the years to come she just remembers the lady who hung out with her and laughed and shared a bowl of soup with her now and then...oh and spoiled her rotten! You see unlike others who come through the doors Nikita only sees the good. She doesn't notice the people sleeping in the corners of the mission cause they are sleeping off a binge or because its simply not safe for them to fall a sleep at night so they force themselves to stay awake all night then come to the mission for some rest during our hours of operation. Nikita doesn't notice that these people do not look like many others that she is in contact with, she just sees a nice man who let her go in front of him in the soup line focusing only on the fact that she was one person closer to a warm bowl of yummy soup and not on the fact that the man had ratty old clothes on and smelled like urine. I love that fact about her. She sees through the eyes of Jesus. Simply because she has not been conditioned to see otherwise. Good Job Mom and Dad!!!! I pray for Nikita and her family. I pray that she will always have the eyes of Jesus to see others through and I pray that they continue to love each other and hang in there through this difficult time of adjustment. And I thank God for all of the little children who remind us that a kind gesture can go a long way.
But I especially pray that Nikita and her family won't need the help of the mission much longer...because it is certainly no place for children to be.
God Bless all of those I know and love and all of those I have yet to meet and love.
In your most precious name Jesus,
Amen,
xoxox andrea

There are days when I feel as though I am in a movie. Everything is surreal, and in slow motion.

I saw her walk through the doors and thought to myself oh thank goodness she is still alive! I hadn't seen her in a while and in my business that can mean one of three things. The person has moved on from the area, has gone into rehab/hospital or...they are dead.
No one I deal with is innocent by any means. I deal with liars, thieves, murderers, hired thugs, drug dealers and addicts of every kind. I deal with the lost. They are not bad people...they do however do some very bad things. To themselves and to others. The first thing she did was come directly to me. I remember asking her if she was alright and where she had been? She looked at me and said with tear filled eyes Andrea can I talk to you? "Of Course" I replied lets go into my office. As I sat and waited for her to gather herself she began to open up to me and tell me about where she had been. Her son had a truck and sold it to the guys living downstairs of the house they rented. Unfortunalty they are members of The Hells Angels and also their landlords...did I mention the truck was stolen? Well it was and not only was it stolen it was tracked down by the police and therefore the new owners were none to pleased with the purchase sold to them by her son. The truck was reposessed and now there was a debt to be payed off so naturally her son took off leaving her to deal with his mess. This lady was held in the house and used as a prostitute for a week. She was given no food and no rest. So when she had come to me she was in very rough shape. As I sat and listened to her tell me this I found that I was numb. I kept thinking "no way, this is a lie, this can't be true? How did she manage to live through this? God are you hearing what this woman has been through????????? Frick this is the kind of thing you read in the papers not hear from the woman sitting in front of you on a Monday morning after one of the best weekends I have had in such a long time! I remember crying with her and hugging her not wanting to let her go EVER AGAIN! This is the kind of thing I deal with on a daily basis. The pain and suffereings of a fallen world.
I am an Outreach Worker. This is what I went to Bible College to prepare myself to do. Inner city ministries. I love my job. Even the bad days don't seem as bad to me as they did in other jobs I have done. I am doing exactly what it is that I was called by God to do exactly 4 years ago. It is what I love and what I am good at. I love the people that I care for. They are in fact my friends and I am honoured to be able to work with them and have an opportunity to not only love them but allow them to love me back. Yes that's right I am proud to say that these people are my friends. I know exactly where I stand with them. I may not be able to trust any of them to watch my purse...I can however trust them to watch my back! I can trust that as long as they are walking away from God, they are going to continue their ways and I will continue to encourage them and love them exactly where they are at. This is not always easy but I find it impossible not to do. We are all equipped to know right from wrong. However this is impossible for us to truly understand until we accept Jesus. Because we are blinded by lies. Therefor we continue to convince ourselves that its alright if I steal cause the guy I stole from stole it from someone else anyways! Judgement is always clouded by false reasoning. And this cycle will continue until we accept Jesus into our lives and the reason for that is Jesus sifts through all of the lies and clears things up for us to be able to see and I mean truly see the truth. Which means "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"...does NOT mean its alright to steal from them cause they've stolen from you! It means stop and remember how mad, sad upset you were when you went to get that whatever it was and couldn't find it. Only to realize that it had been stolen from you! WHY WOULD YOU PUT ANOTHER HUMAN BEING THROUGH THAT!!!!???? "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" means you want to be treated with love, kindness and respect, we all do and no one can deny this. So love, be kind and respect others. Instead of tearing people down with your vicious rumours build them them up with your kind words. And maybe, just maybe someday they will return the favor. I was wondering what I was going to preach about on Thursday at the mission...Guss I found my sermon.

By the way the woman is gong to trial tomorrow facing up to 2 years in prison for her connection in the theft of not only the truck but also a ring of other thefts by herself and her son and his girlfriend. Her son is facing upto 4 years in prison for armed robbery. I will let you know how it all turns out.
God Bless all those I know and love and all of those I have yet to meet and love.
In your Holy and precious name Jesus, Amen
Andrea