Meeting with Ellen on Saturday... I'm really excited :)

Some of you may have heard me talk about my missions trip to Vancouver back when I was a student at CBC. If you haven't, here's the brief rundown: I flew out to Vancouver with a group of seven or eight other students from my Bible college in Regina during our "intersession" week. We did a number of things while we were here, but by far the thing that had the biggest impact on me was working with "mom" on the streets at night. "Mom" is what all the kids on the street called her, though her real name is Ellen. She went out every night from 7pm to 2am-ish with a wagon full of food. She fed the street kids. She loved on them. She built relationships with them. They trusted her, respected her, and looked out for her. She didn't preach to them, rather she daily lived out Jesus' mandate to love and care for the poor and broken. That week in Vancouver working on the streets with her impacted me more than anything else in my life. That is the one week that I still look back on as probably the best week of my life. The most meaningful. I've often thought about that week over the last 7 years... often wondered. I think in some ways, God used that week and the experiences that came along with it to begin a process in me... start me on a path... begin to develop a passion in my heart. Now seven years later, here I am, back in Vancouver.... unfolding dreams. I've wondered since moving here (or even before really) whether Ellen was still working on the streets and if there was a way to find her. With all that has happened over the last five months, I still hadn't pursued that. But for some reason, this week I felt ready. I went online (Good old google... What in the world did we do before google? Google puts Sherlock Holmes to shame!) and was amazed at how easily I found a phone number for Ellen. I also found a couple of really great articles about what she does. Here's the links for those of you who are interested in reading more:

http://www.vancourier.com/issues02/123202/news/123202nn3.html

http://www.ubyssey.bc.ca/OldWebs/2002/20020308/womenMother.htmlf

So, today I called Ellen. I'm meeting with her on Saturday afternoon. I'm SO excited!