Last month I was on an airplane to Holland and
received a visitation from the Lord. Through the visitation, the Lord made it clear to me that mantels of anointing and ministry such as what Maria Woodworth Etter, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Katherine Kuhlman walked in were being
released from heaven over specific women in this hour who have prepared their hearts with holy devotion in the presence of the Lord. They are marked by the Lord as a generation of revivalists.

They will be a company of women who are not looking for name or renown, but who are humble before God and completely submitted to
the Holy Spirit. They will be women of prayer and women of His presence and power -handmaidens, bondservants. The younger women especially will be raised up in these revivalist mantels and will move powerfully in miracles,
signs, and wonders. They will be holy women and will raise the standard of purity in the Body and will challenge the impure mindsets of the world. They will carry high levels of Kingdom authority.

Like Catherine Booth, many of them will be called to radical street evangelism. They will be confirmed by the Lord through attesting miracles.

Patricia King www.extremeprophetic.com

"The Lord gives the command; The women who
proclaim the good tidings are a great host." Psalm 68:11 NAS

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."
- Dom Helder Camara

My friend Elaine has been on about mercy without justice lately. What's the big deal you say? Well, mercy is standing by the river and pulling people out of peril as they are swept by. We can do that as a society and even as an Army. We have a soup kitchen/drop-in/shelter bed/thrift store/family services for you. Justice, however, is going up the river to find out how everybody's ending up in there in the first place. Do we do that? As a society, there is no shortage of associations and coalitions devoted to bringing about justice, as they see it. As an Army though, where are we upholding justice as the King of Justice sees it? He says this in Malachi 6:8:

"He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

So where's the justice in your walk with God?
I invite your comment...

Take a stroll with me down Hastings Street...

Carnegie Centre/Health Contact Centre
This is a popular spot for milling about and meeting people. Our semi-weekly street van parked there for 2 1/2 hours to share food and prayer and relationship with the hundred or more people that showed up. Lots of people choose this alley to 'use' in and there are enough dumpsters there to hide someone from nosy vehicular onlookers and intrusive eyes of police. This is one of the most rat-infested alleys we have.

The Safe Injection Site

www.cbc.ca: "Vancouver's supervised drug injection site is making its Downtown Eastside a better place to live, according to a new study.



More than 500 addicts use the clinic every day.

The Radio Station Cafe is a definite hangout in the 'hood. It's about a 3 minute walk from the Empress Hotel and a great place to stop on the way to class in the morning for a small coffee and muffin ($2!) There is never a shortage of folks milling around on that corner (Main & Columbia) buying, selling and shooting the breeze. Inside the cafe, you can sit as long as you like and make use of free internet access. It was one of my favourite spots, because the coffee is drinkable, the muffin was warm, the internet was free (no time limit unless someone is waiting) and there are big windows so you can see all the action outdoors. The only other place where I saw more friends shoot up or smoke up than here was at Hastings and Abbott.

Pigeon Park
Not the kind of park to take the kids to - unless you've got a Warrior Academy. This is a congregating spot for folks in the neighbourhood to go on the nod, shoot up together, yak the afternoon away or take a load off on one of the benches. Death and Glory held our open air meetings here, marching from the Empress Hotel, down Cordova (past Harbourlight), down Carrall back up to Hastings with the Blood and Fire flag out front, cornet right behind and djimbe in the rear. As many of us that were soldiers wore uniforms, and the rest wore the Red Shield and we were manned with songbooks, testimonies and Gospel shots. Oh, and chocolate covered digestive cookies - God bless Family Services!) This is where I met Shelley, a street tough drug dealer in her early 40's with a hard-core attitude and great hugs.

The Bottle Depot
In Vancouver, you can collect a deposit on bottles and cans and return them for cash. Many of my neighbours made that their full-time job -scavenging in dumpsters, public garbages,food courts etc. My dear friend Ken runs the "United We Can" bottle depot. He has a beautiful heart to help people and gives many work opportunities to those who need it - even if they missed coming in last week because they were high.
I went to my first AA meeting here in October of 2003 and made it my home group for the next year and a half.
You'll know when you're close, because the bottle depot emanates a pungent odor of rancid beer and pop as well as a steady stream of hunters shouldering their garbage bags or pushing their grocery cart full of bottles and cans.

Hastings and Abbott
I grew to love this intersection even more than Main and Hastings. Definetly the darker of the two, if not the more notorious, this was where the Death and Glory session of The War College spent the majority of our time, either in class, or in Re:Cre8, the evening coffee bar we hosted for our neighbours. This is an interesting shot, because it gives the impression that everyone on that crowded corner is on their way somewhere. Truthfully, most people we found there moved from that corner to the alley and back, at a constant frenzied pace seeing who's buying, who's selling and who's sharing.
I made some of my best friends here - except I'm thousands of miles away, and they remain...and unless they respond to the touch of Jesus Christ, in 2 years I'd be able to return and unless they're dead, know exactly where to find them.

The second installment of Vancouver as I know it, photos courtesy of Carl-Magnus Dumell at www.dumell.net

Hastings Street
where $20 will get you anything, even killed This shot was taken right out the front door of the Empress Hotel where a bunch of us frenetical believers laid our weary heads...I have to smile when I think of all the parking tickets and tows that occurred out front of the hotel...some things aren't funny until way afterwards...one fixture that is absent from this photo is my friend Michael, who sits on the corner of Hastings and Main with his garbage bag full of treasure. He was there every morning when I walked to and from class, or meetings or errands. He likes apple juice the best and if you stop for long enough, he will actually converse with you - I learned quickly, however, that when I saw a congregation of empty beer cans strewn off to his right side to give him a wide berth - beer made him verbally nasty. All that being said, he has one of the best smiles in the DTES.

stairs
stairs,somewhere, leading nowhere These stairs lead to one of the most panoramic and impressive views of the mountains and North Vancouver in all of Vancouver - at Crabtree Beach. It's fitting, however, that married with this stairway to beauty is the undisguised reality of the neighbourhood, depicted in the rig casually displayed at the base of the stairway.

negotiating
a prostitute trying to make a deal
done deal
prostitute getting into a customers car Perhaps it's easier for someone who doesn't know anyone in the 'business' to scroll over these two photos. These are my neighbours, and not just neighbours like your sub-division sort of neighbours, these are men and women that I spent time with, ate meals with, had evening tea with, walked places with and prayed with.

with grace, and sentiment,
Heather

all photos available here
are copyright © 1993-2005
Carl-Magnus Dumell

When God calls His people to a place, He gives them His heart for the land and the people, that they may best be channels of His love. Few have understood my partiality to the Downtown Eastside save those who -like myself- have met Jesus there. I'd like to spend a couple of blogs sharing the Vancouver that I have known through the heart lens the Lord has given me for that place, with the help of photographers, artists and poets found online.
The following photos and comments by Christopher DeWolf


Welcome to the Downtown Eastside. This is Vancouver's poorest and most troubled neighbourhood. It is a ghetto for drugs and drug-addled whores, freaks, outcasts, junkies. Yet it is also home to people that care, the kind souls that hand out soup and clean needles and volunteer in the Carnegie Library. It is the best and worst of Vancouver.



Copyright 2002 Urbanphoto
- Christopher DeWolf
www.urbanphoto.net/ 24van/photo20.htm