“The Downtown Eastside (DTES) has long been notorious for poverty, crime and open drug use. But the situation here has never seemed worse, or more frightening. Walking through it Monday morning, I saw more than two dozen women and men sitting or lying on the filthy pavement. Using. Bleeding. Passing out.

“It’s total insanity, it’s crazy,” says Keith Ahamad, an addiction medicine clinician researcher and physician at St. Paul’s Hospital. “We’re seeing two deaths a day. And that’s just a fraction of the total number of overdoses.”

The culprit, of course, is fentanyl.” (National Post)

The crisis is very real on the east side of Vancouver. Yet in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation there are those who are reaching out in very practical ways.

“Full house every time the doors are open at Street Church. Over 1 Million meals served since 1996 to the homeless and hungry in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The Gospel is preached here.”

Vancouver Foursquare Church – Street Church 175 E. Hastings St.

www.vancouverstreetchurch.com

I personally am grateful for many men and women who do not hide their light under a bushel. They choose to do what is before them and make a difference.

You can curse the darkness or light a candle. Your choice.

Blessings!