Being Truthtellers and Peacemakers in the Heart of the City

by Reverend Chuck Harper

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Dec 1972

I was a 16-year-old rebel who left home because I didn’t like being told what to do or to have rules. So my mom and I agreed it was time for me to leave home. I went to Vernon and panhandled on the streets. I survived on tea, garlic toast and cigarettes. My last night on the streets I entered a cold, dark, empty building that was once a Christian coffeehouse. I had no pillows, blankets, or bed. I tried to sleep on that cold concrete floor with just carpet and my clothes to fend off the chill. It was then I decided I was better off at home. It was close to Christmas and my mom let me back in for a period of time. My stays at home were short and for a time I was not even welcome to come back. Now, 50 years later, I walk beside young men and women who are also very broken and lost. In some ways, it feels a lot more hopeless for them than it did for me.

The world I grew up in is so long forgotten, a sense of innocence is now a thing of the past. The dysfunction and lack of social character is in our faces. The world of the Houseless is addiction, mental illness, suicide, murder and fear. Poverty takes many forms and many faces. It also takes many lives. The drug addiction, the opioid crises, the housing crises, are just some of the things men and women face. Harm reduction, safe supply, are the catch phrases of the day. But what about A Recovery Orientated System of care? What about recovery housing–– where men and women can learn about themselves and the basic life skills that come from a home environment?

I have spent a majority of my life walking alongside youth, men and women who come from a place of brokenness and need a Saviour. Having experienced a similar background as them, I know the importance of the safety and security that comes from being in a community. The men and women I walk beside need the hope that environment would offer.

Weekly, I go out with volunteers and members of the community to check on the camps in our city. Some are so very well setup and compact. Some are spread over the ground like a hoarder’s delight. There are times when the camps have to be decommissioned. The drama and trauma that comes with that is sometimes very explosive because in reality someone’s home is being torn down. Some camps are set up in such a creative way, like when a lawn chair is set up to be toilet and broken branches with twine are used to make walls.

There are many different types of people who are homeless. Some are so broken they don’t know how to look after themselves. They are so involved in the drugs that are killing them they couldn’t play nice even if they wanted to. They end up dying behind dumpsters, in doorways or on the street.

It’s not always a choice that results in people ending up this way. Sometimes life happens and that changes a person forever through no fault of their own. Like a family man involved in a car accident who is now not the same man––addicted to the drugs that saved his life and now steals to find the money to stay medicated. Or the youth who has lived a life of abuse and now does the dance of an addict as he bee bops down the streets, his body twisted and gnarled by addiction. Or a mom who went in search of a child and wound up being addicted and dying without her family by her.

I paint a pretty depressing picture, I admit. But despite everything, there is hope. Our world spends millions of dollars on programs, buildings and organizations to help our homeless. It is money that is not wasted. There is also a Saviour, Jesus, who walked with the poor, who changes people's lives–– like mine. They are His children, just like the Christ followers who are in the trenches daily walking beside them. There are many people, organizations, churches and communities invested in the lives of the “least of these.”

As I said, I have spent most of my life walking alongside people in need of hope, healing, and forgiveness. As A.A. says there, but by the grace of God go I.  I’ve been there. I am watching people die on our streets. We need to do more as Christ followers; we have the answer. My team of volunteers and supporters are in the trenches, building a community and sharing the love of Jesus. It is amazing to hear the words thank you, or how much they appreciate what we do. It is gratifying to hear someone call me “pastor” and want me to pray with them and be someone they can vent to.

We all have choices, and we all can make a difference. My challenge to you is to find a way to become that person Christ has called you to be and serve, pray, support or just give a glass of cold water in His name.

If you feel called to get involved, consider supporting this year’s Coldest Night of The Year fundraiser happening on Feb.26, 2022. For more information click here

Reverend Chuck Harper C-Min

North Okanagan Community Chaplaincy

A ministry of First Baptist Church Vernon