Urban Plunges

Teachable windows

Urban Plunges can be heart-breaking and hope-giving. A teachable window is created when we stop looking at “who’s doing what” and start asking, “what is God doing?”

Youth at Gathering 2004 participated in a downtown quest for survival. They quickly learned that for young street dwellers, prospects for being safe and fed diminish in a matter of hours. The youth spent significant time speaking to street kids and learning what it takes to merely survive. The Sanctuary Street Church was our host, and pastor Steve Martin delivered an accurate, even graphic, view of his neighbourhood.

An intergenerational group of more than 60 people spent an afternoon at Regent Park, a housing project of over 6000 residents in three blocks. There are over 100 distinct nationalities represented in the area. Corps 614, the Salvation Army church there, led the group through an orientation. The children were able to plug into kids’ programs while the adults went door to door praying for people. Upon learning of the day’s assignment, one delegate remarked, “You’re kidding. We’re not really going door to door asking people if we can pray for them, are we?” After the experience, this same man eagerly identified an area in his home town where he could bring prayer teams.

Toronto is a different place when night falls. A yellow school bus full of delegates braved the dark downtown on a spiritual scavenger hunt, to look for places where God was moving. Some shared food and stories with prostitutes; others conversed with the homeless; and for others, it took the entire evening just to feel comfortable walking in the core. The group met at Allen Gardens to debrief, pray, worship and share communion.

—Tara Bishop, Plunge Coordinator, MBMS International

On the tough ground of Toronto

“Church planting in Toronto is tough.” This is what a group of delegates heard as they headed off on an “urban plunge” to the Behta Darya Asian Church.

The Behta Darya Asian Church hosted a group of Gathering 2004 delegates for a service and a meal in their current rented facility

This statement was amply underlined as they listened to the testimonies of pastor Vishal Ranga Masih and others, and toured the South Asian areas of the Greater Toronto Area in a yellow school bus. Large Sikh temples and mosques anchor these neighbourhoods; chants to the gods are the background music of their stores; the church building the Behta Darya group rents for its services sits next to a Hindu temple.

But the gospel of Christ is also a reality here. Behta Darya means “flowing river” (taken from Ezekiel 47) and the encounter between MBs from various parts of Canada and members of this growing congregation proved to be both informative and refreshing. The visit included singing and testimonies, an exchange of questions and encouragements, and an Indian supper.

Behta Darya Asian Church, under the leadership of dynamic young pastor couple Vishal and Rafiqua Masih, ministers to people from the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia, who have moved to Toronto. Some 115 attend Sunday afternoon services; three languages (with a 4th to be added) appear on their music overheads. Last year, there were 27 baptisms.

This work is spiritual warfare, Masih said. The congregation does a lot of praying and fasting, including monthly all-night prayer meetings. They also seek God for miracles in answer to prayers for healing, not to test God, but for the sake of His name in the South Asian community. The opening of a Hindu woman’s arthritic hands began a chain reaction that brought her husband to Christ, for example, then his brother and his elderly parents. Both brothers in this family shared their testimonies with the group.

John Krahn (right) speaks with pastor Vishal Masih (centre) and Younas Masih (second from right)

Members of the group expressed their strong sense of being a minority within the community and their lack of resources, especially when it comes to ever owning their own building. Using the Old Testament imagery of “possessing nations” for God, Masih said that non-Christian nations were now “possessing land” in Canada, a nation that seems heedless of the Christian heritage it is giving up. He urged that the church not look just to doing mission in other countries, but to assist in the very challenging mission to the “nations” within our own country.

“We need prayer warriors,” he told the group. “We need resources. It’s our mission together.”

—dd