Places Where I've lived: Mount Pleasant 15

It was getting involved in that evangelical community church in Kitsilano that began the change.  I left the Mennonite house church because I wasn't feeling spiritually fed there.  Intellectually they were stimulating and very educational but their relationship with God seemed more intellectual than visceral and I began to feel rather hungry and thirsty there.  A friend I had known back in the Jesus People and charismatic days had re-emerged in my life and he invited me to his church.  We also shared a common desire to be part of an informal home prayer group, so with a few others we formed one, alternating between four homes every Friday evening.  There was a lovely intimacy and strong sense of God's presence in these little gatherings and for a while we throve and flourished.

I found myself under and unemployed and was able to put in two shifts a week as a volunteer worker in the Dayspring Christian Bookstore, which was the evangelical community church's major community outreach ministry.  I loved it there and more often entertained all manner of intriguing strangers than sell books.  I also began to feel really involved with my new church.

The bloom really came off the rose when the leaders of the church wanted to absorb our home prayer group.  We mostly resisted it at first, then were fifty-fifty.  We eventually capitulated, which ended the group as we knew it, destroyed its beauty and began the end of my involvement and presence in said church.  The vision we had for this group was of providing a safe and nurturing bridge between churches of all denominations.  We didn't need to be claimed by anyone.  The vision perished and soon it was time to move on.

I was awake all night and spent the time in prayer and received a prophecy, or a written message, and to this day I believe it was from God.  It was a message of rebuke to a church that was divided and rebellious and estranged from the reality of love.  The leaders of the evangelical church rejected it since they expected God to be a kind grandfatherly gentleman who wanted only to spoil us with good things.  Others were very open to it.  I decided to leave this church following just nine months attendance.  I found employment as a home support worker and was suddenly plunged into care-giving, including palliative care.  One day after work I walked a great distance home while seeking God in prayer.  It was at that moment that I was initiated into silent prayer marking a major shift in my life direction.  A month later I moved to a basement apartment, larger, only a little more expensive but also a hugely needed change.  It was a one bedroom, furnished and actually very cozy.