Fish can have trouble breathing when water gets too muddy, and our cities can pose similar problems for vulnerable neighbours, writes the director of Helping Hands Street Mission in Hamilton, Ont.
I’ve always loved water. In fact, I was born in Abbotsford, B.C., a place where water is truly special. Did you know the Clearbrook neighbourhood in Abbotsford has received the title of “best tap water in the world” multiple years in a row?
I also spent childhood years in northern B.C., where the salmon jump along the North Bulkley River and are fished by the Wet’suwet’en people. And I’ve lived in southwestern Australia, where we gathered fish of all kinds for our table, dove down to see coral, and watched spouting whales.
These days I live in Hamilton, next to the vast waters of Lake Ontario. Along the shoreline is a nature reserve called Cootes Paradise, which can have glistening water, majestic swans and lush green trees.
However, when I tried kayaking there last summer, I had to inch along through ten metres of mud before the water got deep enough for me to glide. Out on the water I saw a big splash and then a large fish leaping out of the water. Over the next 15 minutes, I saw about 25 jumping, somersaulting fish. It was incredible.
When I got back home, I googled “what large fish live in Cootes Paradise” and then “why do carp jump.” Although some fish jump out of the water to catch their food, or simply from sheer joy, it turns out carp jump to clear their gills of silt. If the water quality is bad and their gills get clogged with mud, they jump.
So that’s what the carp were doing. They needed to jump to stay alive in an unhealthy environment.
Think of what whales and coral need to flourish – and the salmon in northern B.C. They need good water, ideally as good as the prize-winning tap water in Clearbrook.
In a similar way, people need a healthy social ecosystem in order to thrive. There’s a lot of mud in our cities that’s hard to wade through, especially for people who are vulnerable.
My friend Chris in Hamilton was living in a tent due to renoviction. It took a number of months for him to find housing, and then the housing he found fell through. He had to go looking around for a new place again, with the barriers of extremely low income, no credit score and no positive landlord references. There’s a lot of silt in his gills from being stuck in the muck.
My friend Sarah was renovicted from her home with her two teenage boys and found temporary space in her ex-husband’s house, surrounded by his marijuana-smoking family and friends. It took her a year to find an apartment she could afford because her income is provincial disability payments and no one wanted to take a chance on her. Her gills were clogged but she didn’t have the physical capacity to leap.
My friend Steve lived in a cockroach-infested little house together with whoever would join him for periods of time and help him pay the rent. He was diagnosed with cancer but struggled to understand the need to stick with his doctor’s treatment plan with no family to support him. After a year of the cancer ravaging his body, I was called to his home by his housemate to find him sitting dead in his chair. His gills were full of mud and he just got tired of breathing.
How can we help improve the ecosystem these neighbours are living in? Can we be more like the Wet’suwet’en people who are working to protect the water of the Bulkley River? They are working together with the B.C. government to bring back health to the aquatic ecosystem and habitat, and to ensure abundant and safe drinking water. They realize it’s important to collaborate to come back to a place of flourishing.
As Christians, we understand God has called us to take care of the earth and steward it well. This includes care of nature around us, and also each other as created beings. God calls us to unity and to collaboration as we care for each other and our world. In Matthew 18:19–20, Jesus says: “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.”
Some Christians in Hamilton are learning to gather, agree and steward together. From a charities’ perspective, with the support of our local interdenominational church network (TrueCity.ca), we have begun a network of charities that are learning to work together. We are calling this network “Charities Together for the Good of the City.” Every month, leaders from a dozen charities are meeting together to build relationships with each other, providing a foundation for collaborative work.
Local organizations such as Helping Hands, Indwell, Open Homes for Refugees and 541 Eatery have allowed many people to breathe fresh air as their gills are being cleared of silt. Safe and supportive homes have been found, crucial and life-giving relationships have been built, and daily needs have been met.
Working together we can help each other, including our vulnerable neighbours, jump to loosen up the silt. We’re in a mucky place right now, but when we work together in community, we can help each other breathe.
And as we wade through the muck together, we can pray together. And as we pray together, we can encourage each other to remember God will answer the prayers of His people and provide fresh, clean water in time, and with it, abundant life.
Alice Plug-Buist is executive director of Helping Hands Street Mission in Hamilton (hhsmhamilton.com).