By David Aupperlee

With an estimated two thirds of the worlds eyes about to focus upon Vancouver at the time of the Winter Olympics. The world's media is also focusing on the marked contrast to be found between the tourist opulence of downtown Vancouver and the poverty of the 'Downtown Eastside' (DTES) only a short walk away. Options magazine carried an award winning article that reported on a remarkable group of Christians that work in the DTES - (one of many Christian groups devoted to serving the poor). For an overview see 'Church & Mission in the downtown eastside' by Peter Biggs.

Poorest postalcode in Canada

Many days my walk to work seems to resemble the foreboding imagery before God spoke into that dark emptiness.

I watch heroin being injected and I see crack cocaine being smoked; I watch street workers sell their bodies so they can feed their addictions.

My workplace is in a Vancouver neighbourhood called the Downtown Eastside, said to be the poorest postal code in Canada. It's notorious for being one of the most drug-ridden, HIV/AIDS-stricken populations in the Western Hemisphere, infested with mental illness, loneliness and physical pain.

I work with Jacob's Well, a small faith community located in this area. Our primary intention is to form relationships with the people who live nearby. We invite folks to live life with us as we eat together, worship, socialize and work.

Our work is ever-changing as the needs of the community evolve, but three summers ago we started a routine of gardening in the neighbourhood each Wednesday.

'A small act of civil disobedience'

In July of 2005 we committed a small act of civil disobedience and cut open a lock allowing our entry to an abandoned lot in the area. The lot is of little use to its legal owners, and sat barren for a number of years, functioning only as a waste receptacle that collected tires, used needles, plastic bags, shag carpet, aluminum cans and paper coffee cups.

We entered into this neglected piece of land and began cleaning it up and taking care of it for the Owner (Psalm 24) and the owner (clause 82.1, Vancouver property rights).

We laid down cardboard to suppress the weeds and arranged for the city to bring about six dump truck loads of rich compost; compliments of them.

Harvest - 74 crates

Our first growing season in the garden was this past summer and we were able to harvest around 75 crates of organic, locally grown produce. It was distributed to our friends in the neighbourhood who don't have the means to buy organic produce. We were able to cook and eat this food with our neighbourhood friends around the same table.

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While the large harvest was inspiring and exciting, I have been more impressed with the people who have entered our little community garden and spoken creativity into it.

Eli, a refugee farmer from Jamaica, taught us how to prune our tomato plants; Will, who has recently become homeless, coached us on taking care of our soil with natural, organic treatments; Pops imagined with us how our garden should take shape in the future; Christine passes by once in a while to look at and smell the flowers; Robert consistently comes by to keep us company as we work in the garden.

This may seem fairly normal. Why get excited about someone teaching us how to prune tomato plants? What's thrilling about someone stopping by to say hello?

The creation communicates...

It's exciting because these interactions are happening with people who are so often considered not normal. Abnormal. They are considered the scum of society (according to the guy I overheard on the bus last week).

As I walk to work each day, I pass dozens of people hurting with mental illness and addiction. They don't consider themselves worthy of much, because that is the message they are receiving from the society around them. It's exciting because the creation does not communicate this message to the marginalized of society.

The apostle Paul tells us creation yearns for the day when humanity is made right before the Lord (Romans 8:22). It is in the garden that the barriers put between Eli, Will, Ben, Christine, Robert and myself were broken down.

Depending together on God's provision

In these moments we are a people who depend on God's provision through the earth; we know that my monetary wealth cannot make me enjoy the beauty of a rose any more than Christine, who has no money. Creation is something we all have in common, despite our differences; we all depend on and seek beauty in the natural world.

Taking care of creation is not just a command to tend to what God has created, but also to make things right between fellow human beings. The health of humanity is intimately connected to our right relationship with creation. The garden has somehow stripped away layers of shame, poverty, addiction and mental illness that cover so many of the residents of the Downtown Eastside to unveil the humanness beneath. It makes me ponder how this lack of indignity is reminiscent of Adam and Eve's situation at the end of the second creation narrative: The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:25

David Aupperlee is a full time 'urban farmer' at Jacob's Well in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. He has a masters degree from Vancouver's Regent College.

February 11/2010