Dear Licia Corbella

With the recent death of Glee actor, Cory Monteith due to a drug and alcohol overdose, there have been many articles and thoughts buzzing around the internet and social media world. When I stumbled across this article, which has received a lot of negative media attention, my blood boiled to a degree it had not yet reached, and I decided to send the writer an email. She may not even read my email, and I don't expect a response by any means. While my email to her may have blown off some steam, my primary reason for writing her was to address the injustice and judgment she expressed of Vancouver and the DTES. 

An article about Corbella defending her original piece can be read here.

Disclaimer: I am fully aware that harm reduction and pretty much this entire topic is quite controversial. I don't think harm reduction is a solution by any means. Truthfully, I would love and I strongly desire to see people set free of their addictions and not need a place to use drugs in a safer manner. God is setting people free and will continue doing that! He isn't bound by harm reduction or abstinence based programs. Perhaps I will write more on that another time. 

For interest's sake, here's an article written by a Christian nurse who worked at InSite, titled "Why I help addicts shoot up".

Dear Licia,

I am a home care nurse who works in the "cancerous lesion" that "needs to be surgically removed", known as the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver (DTES). I am writing in response to your article, "Vancouver's easy drug access may have helped kill Monteith". I am sure I'm one of many, many people who have emailed you about this and expressed anger. I am angry for a couple of reasons. Firstly because I feel you expressed opinions based on your own assumptions, biases, and complete lack of understanding or evidence.

I could go on and on, directing you to evidence-based, thorough research studies about InSite and the (extremely low) percentage of people who use drugs for the first time there, as well as articles about harm reduction and how it is successful. I could also mention that above InSite, is OnSite which is a detox program. I could also remind you that InSite does not provide drugs, but rather it's a supervised place where people can inject and health care providers can help to bridge a health care gap to people in the DTES. It's not only a place where people come to inject drugs. For many, InSite is a first point of access or contact with health care services. They can be connected to OnSite, a physician or clinic nearby, and have their wounds dressed or other health care concerns addressed. But, by now you might already have been told all of this or read it for yourself.

The second, and biggest reason I was angered by your article (and defence article) is because I work very closely with the population you are discussing who access InSite and live in the DTES. The population of drug users that you have described as a "cancerous lesion" are in fact real people, more like you and I than you might care to believe. It has been a complete honour and privilege to work in the DTES as a nurse, to get a glimpse of what these people face on a daily basis and to come alongside them, help them advocate for themselves, and ultimately, see them as people and treat them in a humane, merciful, and loving way. They are not just drug users, they are over comers in every sense of the word because they have faced trauma and judgments that no one should ever have to face. I would encourage you to walk in their shoes or at least learn about harm reduction and what InSite's purpose really is before broadcasting your opinion and judgments. The DTES doesn't have room for anymore judgment. 

Next time you are in Vancouver, I encourage you to take a tour of InSite to find out what really happens there and talk to people firsthand who work there. Not that it's "safe to assume" anything but I do think you would find it is more than just "well meaning". 

Sincerely, 

Megan Wiebe

Informed Vancouverite & Nurse

Community: Peace Doesn't (Always) Equal Understanding

About a month and a half after Sarah, Robert and myself had started "living in community" together, they found out they were pregnant. When I heard this news, several emotions went through my head. Some of these emotions I'm not particularly proud of. While I felt excited and joyful, I also felt scared, upset and disappointed because I thought our time of living together was going to end even though it had just begun.

As I said, I'm not proud of the initial emotions I felt and although I'm not in any way justifying it, I do want to provide some context and background. We had just moved to Vancouver. Sarah and I had both graduated from nursing school and written our Canadian RN exam in June. I had only been working at my new job in Vancouver for a few weeks, and it was overwhelming to say the least. This was also the first time I had moved out, and I was missing my family and the familiarity I had known. I felt like everything in my life was in huge transition, and not very much was familiar or comfortable.

I reacted to this news out of a place of fear (and selfishness) and couldn't see past it for a while. Upon receiving their news I immediately decided that the obvious, logical thing to do was find a place to live and new roommates. And I tried to do that. Ohh, how I tried! It was honestly God's grace that nothing worked out, and he was certainly trying to tell me something. I just wasn't listening, or wasn't ready to listen. I didn't understand and decided to focus on that which ultimately made it more distressing.

I remember telling a friend about all of this, and how I was sad to have to move and experience more change. His response to me was "Well, what is your definition of community?" I didn't really know how to answer that at the time. He pointed out that community also includes families, and that perhaps when someone's having a baby it's the time when they need people in community the most.

He had a good point.

What he said felt like a sucker punch in the stomach to be honest, mostly because I felt offended. I felt offended because I knew he was right, but I didn't know what to think of that, nor was I ready to accept what he was saying. So I kept on doing what I was doing...looked at a few places, tried to figure out who to live with... In the mean time I was feeling more and more confused about what to do, while Robert was hearing from God that we may all continue living together. He didn't tell me this until later. Sarah was also going through her own process with all of this.

Finally I took time to listen to God and I felt him saying to lay it down and just trust him. So I did, and should have from the beginning! The shift for me was night and day. I went from being anxious and stressed over my living situation to total peace. I felt like I different person. People noticed the change. The crazy part was, I still didn't know what I was doing. I had ZERO understanding.

"If you want the peace that surpasses understanding, then you must forfeit your right to understand." 

- Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson's quote sums it up perfectly. I had to completely forfeit my right to understand in order to get peace. Once I did that, I was in a better position to hear from God. Eventually I sensed very strongly that I was supposed to stay, which was not an easy thing for me to receive and accept. It took some time to get there. I was in a bit of denial over it all, to be honest. Not to mention it seemed crazy to stay in our two bedroom place with a baby on the way!

I surrendered all that and other thoughts, concerns, and fears to God, as did Sarah and Robert. Only when all three of us came to that place, each in our own time and process with God, do I think we really began to walk out what it means to live in community together. To this day we are still living together! It's awesome. Sure, there are challenges but it's honestly been one of the best things I've done!  There has been so much grace to "live in community" together and walk this out. God is so good and loads grace upon us when we walk in obedience according to HIS will.

Ultimately I learned that understanding doesn't always equal peace, and more often than not, we gain peace amidst our lack of understanding. After all, the Bible does say peace "which transcends all understanding..."

How many times have I read that verse? Too many times to count! It just took me some time to get it, or rather start to understand that a bit more. May we all continually go deeper in our understanding and experience HIS peace that surpasses all understanding in whatever our circumstances! It's so much better to forfeit our right to understand than it is to try and fight for understanding using our worldly understanding, "logic" and perspective.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

Guest Post: Reflections on Marriage in the Context of Community

Sarah is my lovely, amazing, beautiful friend whom I live with in community alongside her awesome husband Robert and their adorable son Joshua! I asked her to write a guest post about living as a married person in community, and these are her thoughts. Enjoy! 


Disclaimer: I would just like to say that this is not a holistic or definitive discussion about what it is like to live in community as a married person. It is simply a reflection on one aspect of how living in community has impacted my marriage. There are challenges and many other aspects involved that are not discussed in this post. 

When we first moved into community a year ago, my husband and I were not really sure what we were getting into. We were excited, yet nervous at the same time and at times even a little scared. How would this impact our marriage? How would our relationship function in this new context? Would we struggle? Would living in community expose the ugly parts of us in a way that would be damaging?   

We had lots of questions but we were ultimately happy and eager to be walking in obedience to what we felt God was calling us to. Little did we know that we would get pregnant within the first month of living in community. This created its own set of stressors and raised many more questions which Megan might address in a later post. With that said, to our wonderful surprise and the graciousness of God, living in community has become a great blessing and gift to my husband and I. Living in community helped prepare my husband and I to become parents.

No, Megan is not like a child to us. She is a fully functioning adult who is incredibly responsible and mature for her age. However, living with another person has caused a very positive refining in our marriage which equipped us to be better parents. Living with Megan has made us conscious about more intentionally stewarding an atmosphere of peace in our home that is free of strife and discord. We do not always do this perfectly, but we have been much more aware of this then when we were first married and living on our own. We are more careful about how and what we speak to each other. We try our best not to argue in front of Megan (although I am sure we have done this on some occasions). As a result, what, in the past, would have been a heated argument in the moment often turns into a much calmer discussion later behind closed doors. My husband and I fight far less since we started living in community a year ago. 

No, we are not just suppressing things or being fake. We do still argue sometimes and continue to have very deep, challenging, and sometimes intense discussions both individually and as a community. With this said, we have learned how to pick our battles and often chose to not engage in a certain conversation because we know it will not go anywhere and is simply a waste of our energy and time. We have learned to say sorry, and forgive more quickly.

 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 

Ephesians 4:2-3

We are aware that the love, unity, and connection in our marriage not only affects our lives but Megan’s also. The responsibility of this has caused us to nurture and protect our marriage more and this made our transition to becoming parents much easier. I think most parents desire to raise their child in a peaceful and nurturing environment.  This is not always an easy thing to achieve and often requires a steep learning curve and ultimately no family can do this perfectly. Yet, we have had a lot of good practice by living in community, which has made our learning curve easier.  Living in community has given us the grace we need to walk out one of the main things God has called us to do in this season: be parents. For this we are so grateful.  

When we put our trust in God and walk in obedience to what He is leading us to do, even if we don’t understand we are given the opportunity for massive growth in our character, relationship with the LORD and with others. Have you ever had to put your trust in God and walk in obedience even when you did not understand or felt scared? What did this look like for you?