Scott in Winnipeg: July 2010

"Oh Winnipeg, Oh Winnipeg I wish to know your heart"

Canadas Aboriginal people are currently the fastest growing indigenous minority in the world. Winnipeg having the highest proportion of Aboriginal people for a Canadian city. And still why when a friend walks into my families house and asks my father "how many Indians do you know?" (my Dad having lived/worked with-in Winnipeg the last 40 years of his life) my Dad has to awkwardly bumble out a reply of "maybe one". I'm as guilty as my father in 'being' the a part of our contained segregation .... but I want to delve into reasons why and if people are wondering the same thing on the other side of the tracks, I want to be whatever bridge I can.
(http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-638-x/2010003/article/11082-eng.htm .... and.....http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/abor/canada.cfm)

This coming weekend I along with a friend will be attempting to walk around the Winnipeg perimeter (weather permitting) in prayer and petition for our city. We're calling it 'pray for peg city' and it's something both of us felt a calling to after returning from foreign volunteer work. That if we can give so much of heart to some other place without prior ties how much greater should/could our hearts be in our home. My friend will be returning to his home in the core and I'll be following this prayer sess with 40 days in the North end.

I've been able to live the last two years in a place I would compare to a blending between Winnipeg and Thompson. A struggling northern city with an ever growing Native pop and the reality that if there's going to be a future there needs to be a shared hope despite some friction and sacrifice.

So why 40 days in the North end...?

On a personal level
I've been toying with the idea of '40 days in the North end' for the last 7 or 8 months mostly because I think it'd be fun. Work locally, get a cross cultural experience and keep to the sort of minimal but exploratory life I've been able to have for the 2 years; finding a new and joyful experience in every trashy back ally and random conversation GOD brings my way. I've been able to spend the last years on a rather minimal income but receiving complete payment in the fulfillment of working hard at work worth doing(working at New Hope YC). And so as a long distance runner knows not to stop for fear of fatigue setting in, I hope to continue a similar lifestyle. Luke 8:16 -19 kind of stuff (Lamp on a Stand(Truth that is not understood and appropriated on will be lost... kind of theme))

On a Symbolic level
In the Bible when Daniel gets ganked out of his homeland and forced into foreign occupation he dosen't grumble about it and call down GOD's curse on the infidels in his home he still looks for a way to sacrifice for Yahweh (in not eating choice meat and wine). And in a similar vein I want to look for a way to give from that which was given me, specifically the blessing Thunder Bay has been to me.

on a Socio level
I went to a 'community building' conference this past year and was able to come out with some profound truths. One of the plenary speakers was talking about urban poor in Canada and how our cities are different from major industrialized American cities in that we don't have centralized ghettos, he quickly corrected himself by stating "except for Winnipeg". In his further session he went on to explain the issues that occur when we 'outsource' the poor and turn people in strained situations into a 'serviced' poor (go here for this treatment, there for that) and don't engage and learn from the people we're meaning to help. This weights into my conscience because of my schooling/career choice of social work. In the same way as me not wanting to be a pastor that preaches good news to those in tough times and retreats to the verbs, I don't think it's fair for social workers to live removed from their target areas.

On a practical level
I don't exactly know how this is going to work out. I hope to be able to spend my complete summer in the North end with out leaving but i know that being 'hard lined' enough about anything can turn sour so I'll try to keep my ideal in an open hand. As far as the day to day of it. I'm going to be spending my first week living with a friend who currently stays at a shelter/temp house off main and then look for an apt and job (hopefully a convenient store, if you haven't seen I've got some killer facial hair right now that screams sleazy 7/11 employee). But if this doesn't work out I'll be able to work with summer street camps that Inner City Youth Alive are putting on in the Nor E. Broadly, i want learn where GODs working and see how I can be a blessing. Specifically with Native youth.

I've had a number of opportunities and job offers (from paid positions at churches and camps to working on my friends organic farm) but I feel that this is the best sitch for summer 2010. I'm excited, however we'll see what my ambitions actualize into, hopefully good things (still remembering -- Jesus said we're like sheep before the slaughter ...... hahaha HIS words not mine.) I'll to my best to keep a degree being caution, I promised a 9 year old once that i always would and I really don't like lying to cute kids that care about me.

If you need further rational as to why I want to do this please read an excerpt from a previous blog below.....

So that's my plan I hope to keep you updated. Don't hesitate to message or meet up with me for coffee. Thanks for reading and please pray for me and the heart of the city.
Scott

Blog entry taken from September 09 scottinthunderbay.blogspot.com

This past week my pastor had a sermon where he linked the wanderers laments of the Hebrews peoples Exodus through the desert to the desolation he felt on the banks of the red river. I was willing to hear his story out and wait patiently but when he started quoting the weakerthans in stateing..... 'I hate Winnipeg' I felt it was my time to interject, and so some gentle boo*ing set him straight and the sermon back on tracks. Its funny I had no trouble on minus forty nights walking down Portage or back up Spence from school singing that song that curses peg city, but as soon as others trash on where you're from the fists come up........ however I've been having a hard time raising fists to some of the last complaints on Winnipeg I've come across.

Almost ever kid (that I've met through the centre) that has some brief affiliation with Winnipeg has horror stories to tell. Seriously crazy shit! Brothers joining gangs and never being heard from again, guns being pulled on friends or near anyone, theft on full families, burning of houses with full families, abduction, rape and just this last week I listened to two different accounts of youths having witnessed their friends murders; all in Winnipeg. Straight up cliche stuff that you kind of know "happens" but your 'better' or 'convenient judgment' convinces you else wise. 'April Raintree' or 'Under the Ribs of Death' stuff; both the only books I know written about Winnipeg both with the greater theme being death.

My 'better' or 'sound judgment' is telling me to cut in and let you all know that I got clearance from the individuals who shared these events with me to share them with you all. I'm having a hard time though communicating the bitterness of the concluding remarks of one of the last Winnipeg conversation I had with a kid... it ended along the lines of ............ "I'll never go back to that city".

I seriously still don't want to believe half of terrible things that I've heard about Winnipeg, and actually acknowledge the dichotomy that city has. I know that these things happen in all sorts of major urban centres, but to know that I lived in that city for a year and a half (not avoiding 'rough' areas but intentionally moving to them) and still haven't been able to crack the core of the city and help from within the hurt, seems rather sad.

I feel insulated by status or notoriety. Which I take as great blessings I've done little to nothing to receive. I'm not trying to strip away all that I've been given to give (blessed to bless) in the order of an unbias sterile education of poverty. That would just be building an insincere mask of poverty in order to 'relate' and not give credence to the fact that I will probably always have consistent family/state of mind that will be willing to help me out of pockets of poverty I might reside in. I just want to help from within the hurt. Which I believe is a Biblical/Honest model.

I'm not sure when I'll be called back to Winnipeg again but it's something that sort of scares me. It's a complicated fear. Its the fear of urban dissidence. Spending my time entertaining myself or making money to entertain myself. It would just feel unnatural avoiding all of the issues that I know occur in Winnipeg. I'm not saying I'm the saviour for a city by any means, it would just feel, I don't know unnatural. Kind of like seedless watermelon or a developed shore line, there's something behind that's not sustainable, full or completely sincere.

Like I said it's a complicated fear. Its the fear of feeling like we all; living in the south end or being the fringes sitters of Winnipeg.... hex even those in our trendy downtown, are doing exactly as 'Sam K.' refers, and 'are' that golden business boy/girl watching the North end die. (Sam K. being the writer of 'One Great City'('I hate winnipeg' song earlier mentioned))

I'm not trying to write as a judgmental outsider who sees all that's wrong with 'that place'. I'm acknowledging that I'm a Winnipeger that has played along with the apartheid that we keep with-in our perimeter.

I've been writing the word 'feel' several times throughout this entry and I don't intend to. What I'm trying to communicate is something beyond feeling -- that is meaning.

There was a random man that Jesus loved. He obeyed the commandments and Jesus loved him. Then Jesus said...... 'give to the poor'.

I'm assuming that you all who are reading this can understand with me that what is meant by 'give to the poor' is not a cop out for 'give to the poor in 'spirit' ' and skip the sacrifice so that I can go for a round at the links and witness to my friend at the country club.

I'm assuming that you can read Jesus' words for what they were.....

Your body your mind your emotion and soul ...... "give to the poor"

Mark 10 NIV
post script ... I got clearance from individuals to share these views/experiences 'on Winnipeg' before I wrote them down.

Scott in Winnipeg

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Scott in Winnipeg

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Thunder Bayo to Winnipego