Christmas '11 Newsletter Embracing the hungry and suffering Along with our new logo, brochures and signs, the Board of Directors has chosen a new slogan, or mission statement: embracing the hungry and suffering with the love of Christ. It is bold and I like it. Our culture does not value pain. It is simply to be gotten rid of, so we can get back to enjoying life, which for most of us means buying more stuff. But, of course, suffering is always present. We just don't know what it means or what to do with it. So, we ask 'Why?” Then we are offended when there is no good answer. Not sure where we think that will get us, but that's what many of us do. C.S. Lewis observed “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” That is not a happy thought, but it does give meaning to much of human experience. Lewis does not say that God causes pain. As a Christian he would say that God is not defeated by pain. The Christmas story is about God coming himself, in the person of Jesus into our suffering world – and suffering himself! God is not removed from human suffering, or indifferent to it. He is present in it. It is in suffering that God is most at work in us and the world. So, at the Ark, we don't run from suffering. We understand that suffering is all around us. The stories of some of our friends here are heartbreaking. But suffering needn't be the final word. Change, growth, hope all can emerge from pain. Many people say there is something different about this place, or that they like the 'atmosphere' here. That is not an accident. It is because we embrace the understanding that new life comes out of death and decay if we will let it. But there is more. Jean Vanier founded L'Arch, (The Ark) a global network of homes for developmentally challenged adults. One of those homes is here in London. He notes there are five attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities (and the poor): fear of the abnormal leading to rejection; pity leading to institutional- ization; respect and compassion leading to attempts at integration; wonderment at the transformation in us from relationship with people who challenge our pursuit of personal success and power; and finally the realization that we see the face of God in those who are weak. “Their presence is a sign of God, who has chosen 'the foolish in order to confound the strong, the proud and the so-called wise of our world.' And so those we see as weak or marginalized are, in fact, the most worthy and powerful among us: they bring us closer to God. They turn our world upside down!” (Vanier, Our Life Together , pp.10-11) Our slogan is on the front of our building on and on the side of our van as it drives around town. We are challenging the dominant themes in our culture. The people on Dundas St. in Old East Village really are the heart of the city. The Ark works because of that. People show up to volunteer (don't let that stop you!). Food arrives at our door without us asking. Without a major donor or government funding, people have been cared for for twenty-eight years. People tell us the Ark is their family. Something mysterious and powerful is at work. Hungry and suffering people are loved here. We all are the better for it. The Ark Aid Street Mission, Inc 696 Dundas Street E., London, Ontario N5W 2Z4 Tel. 519-667-0322 Fax: 226-289-3045 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.arkaidmission.com