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September 16, 2008

This summer has been a great time in the city for many of the ladies who visited our Women’s Drop In Centre. Every Friday in July and August we loaded up the van with Ladies, blankets, bocce ball, badminton and of course lots of snacks. We visited a different location each week and enjoyed quality time with one another, where we really connected and got to know each other on a personal level. We visited Science world for an exciting day of exploring, and all 13 women that we took had never been there before. We went to see a feature film at The IMAX Theater at Canada place where we were able to treat the ladies to a day out on the town. We visited local parks and beaches for sunny picnics by the water, and treated them to an occasional ice cream cone or slurpee to cool us off.

On one of these beach day adventures an interesting thing happened. There were 12 ladies joining us for a picnic at Cates Park in Deep Cove on this particular day. None of them knew each other very well, and I noticed that there were quite a few different nationalities.

After munching away on goodies galore, laughing and lazing about in the shade of a big willow tree, a woman named Wei from China stood up and announced that she would like to sing a song for us. Wei is in her 70s and immigrated here in 1979. Her English is still very poor but she has been attending the drop in centre for conversation to learn more English.

Wei stood up boldly and sang a traditional Chinese song with such a great expression of joy on her face and in that moment I thought that it must have taken a lot of courage to do such a thing.  After a big round of applause from passersby and our group, another woman stood up and began to teach Wei a song from India. Gulnar, an East Indian woman, generally shy and reserved, grasped Wei’s hands and started to sing her song as loud as she could. The two danced together and sang off key, but it was the most beautiful thing. Another woman with First Nations heritage joined in and taught a worship song in her native tongue and after another round of applause, the singing continued and the bonds grew stronger. It felt like a little taste of heaven with almost every tribe and tongue and nation, praising God together.

Since then I have noticed that these women have more time for one another, and go out of their way to talk to each other even if their language is completely different. It was a memorable summer. Old relationships are stronger, and new ones have blossomed. And out of a few simple outings to some beautiful places in Vancouver, we were able to see God bind women together from all walks of life who may have never met.