SOAR teens break through biases

More than 125 teens and leaders spent 12 “incredible days” together in Montreal June 30 to July 12, in an inner city cross-cultural mission experience called SOAR Montreal. SOAR is a program of MBMSI’s Youth Mission International (YMI) for youth ages 15 to 18. Kerry O’Brien of Waterloo (Ont.) MB Church helped staff the event and sent this report.

Montreal is the strangest mission field I’ve been in.

It has the same entrapments as most big cities: homelessness, violence, drugs, alcoholism, prostitution, and the hopelessness that comes from being far from God’s natural creation for long periods of time. But there is something different. The people you meet will be generally kind, until you speak English.

They will be kind again if you explain that you are only visiting, that you are not an Anglophone who has lived in Montreal all your life without learning French. This is a city, and province, divided against itself.

The first step in the SOAR program – the briefing – took five days. Participants were exposed to Montreal through urban dips, guest speakers and guided tours. They were briefed on the mission experience itself: what to look for, what to embrace, what to be wary of, and how to relate in their teams and ministry fields.

Traditionally, there is a footwashing service on the last night to commit the teams to serving each other. I had been filling tubs with water and then settled in to catch the last of the session.

Our director, Philip Serez, was speaking about the prejudices against Anglophones rampant in Quebec. He told about a common French profanity meaning “we’re gonna get those English,” taking the predominantly Anglophone youth aback. He then asked the Anglophone youth how often they said “pardon my French.” There was a sullen silence, and then youth and leaders began to stand up and admit to prejudices they had in their hearts.

There were Anglophones who had denied their French roots, ashamed of their family names, coming forward and apologizing. There were Francophones who had inherited prejudices from their families and their culture and were only now learning how Anglophones could care for Quebec. They hugged, cried, and washed each other’s feet. Many youth would later tell me that the footwashing was the single most important night of the trip for them.

The Catholic tradition here reminds me of many Latin American countries. The spires and towers of the grand old Catholic churches spiral high into the sky and stare across the clouds at each other. On the streets below the name of Jesus is not heard except in curses. Church is a Sunday event that bears little to no value in everyday life. Like a city of musicians that never play a note, the majority of Montrealers profess to be non-practicing Catholics.

The service part of the SOAR program sent the youth into a variety of situations. Some ran carnivals and VBS programs; some hung out in parks and played soccer with locals; some sorted socks to be reused at local charities. But in all this their focus was to provide a sense of love and caring for the city. They realized, some for the first time, that the love of God they were showing was having an impact on people.

“I was amazed to see the lack of love for each other, not to mention God,” said Leah Hastings of Halifax. “I could tell by the different responses of people when we did PAC [Public Acts Of Christ]. It was as if they never saw someone do something simply out of love before.”

“The city reminded me of a rebelling teenager who was fascinated by all the worldliness surrounding him, without realizing Christ is waiting for his cry for help,” said Jeremy Adrian, a leader with Willingdon Church from Burnaby, B.C.

“I realized that everyone needs God, not just homeless people,” said Dave Poirer of Chilliwack. “It could be a student at McGill who doesn’t know Jesus, or it could be that homeless guy who only understands the word coffee.”

What most struck me about Montreal is the fact that few of us [evangelicals] are here. Those that are, are predominantly English speakers. English is at best a halfway point, a means of communicating when all other means have failed. At worst, it carries such negative political and cultural weight that it alienates.

The pockets of evangelical Christians resemble the early church in some regards. They meet wherever they can – movie theatres, homes, gyms – in isolated groups. Most know each other. They are strong and fearless in sharing their faith, yet joyous and gentle in their worship. They are ready to plant seeds in the garden of Montreal, but they need both practical and spiritual helps: practical to prove the sincerity of the English–Canadian church and spiritual to prove that there is hope beyond the cultural and linguistic biases that consistently divide the people of Montreal.

The youth of SOAR Montreal had to break through the biases around them, but first break down the biases in their own hearts that come from living in parts of the country that historically oppose each other. I am humbled to have seen the change in their hearts, proud to have served with them, and hopeful that the love they learned for Montreal in specific and for God’s children in general will continue.