CHRISTIAN TEENS FROM ALBERTA SEE GRITTY DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Seven kids from a small farming community in rural Alberta stroll along
Dunlevy Avenue sightseeing in the heart of the Downtown Eastside. Decked
out in Gore-tex jackets and Nike sneakers, they seem unconcerned by the
crowd of addicts and dealers mulling around a needle exchange across the
street.

Suddenly, a middle-aged black man in a shabby sweater and well-worn jeans
leaps onto the sidewalk near Oppenheimer Park to block their path.

Placing both hands on his hips like a sentry he shouts, "If you're not drug
users, you must leave right away!"

Laughter erupts as the gaggle of teenagers splits and flows around the mock
sidewalk guard. "That's JJ," says one of the group, turning to the rest.

A total of 22 teenagers from the sleepy farming town of Lacomb, Alta.,
ranging in age from 13 to 18 years old, spent the last week touring the
Downtown Eastside and helping paint the Mission Possible drop-in centre on
Powell Street. All members of Lacomb's Youth for Christ group, the teens
willingly gave up their spring breaks to be shocked by prostitutes and drug
addicts on the streets.

Douglas Woods, director of the Mission Possible Compassionate Ministries
Society, said the main goal of the unusual field trip was to open the
youths' eyes to the "dark side" of life on the Downtown Eastside and help
them understand they have a responsibility to help the disadvantaged.
Similar Youth for Christ groups are currently touring Tijuana and skid row
in Toronto.

"When minds are young and formative, they're more open to these kinds of
things," said Woods. "Maybe 10 or 20 years down the road they might come
back and help."

Besides painting the centre, the kids were sent out with an adult leader
every morning for a walk through the neighbourhood.

"I told them to look for things that would shock them, that would really
open their eyes-the prostitutes and drug dealers. I wanted them to talk
about how that made them feel," Woods said.

Chelsey Hughes, a 16-year-old on the week-long trip, said she learned a lot
about real life in Vancouver.

"There's only two homeless people in Lacomb and everyone knows their
names," she said, adjusting a pair of dark-rimmed glasses and combing a
strand of long black hair behind her ear. "Sometimes we even lend them
money and they always pay us back."

Though initially shocked at the sight of "high people running around in the
street like chickens with their heads' cut off," she was surprised when she
spoke to a few of the addicts who dropped into the centre while she was
painting. "I expected them to be all messed in the head from all the drugs,
but some of them were extremely intelligent."

Hughes had no reservations about spending her spring break in Vancouver's
seediest neighbourhood. She said if she wasn't on the trip she would have
been working at a pizza place back home.

Despite the poverty and despair, Hughes said the trip helped her put her
own life in perspective. "I've not had a rough life. I really haven't had
big problems like these."

Nathan Perley, a tall 18-year-old with glasses and a mop of thick blond
hair, said he's never seen anything like the Downtown Eastside.

"It made a big impact," he said, admitting he was scared walking the
streets at first. "But overall it really made me want to help." Perley said
he felt guilty for having nice clothes, though he picked up his black
t-shirt from a thrift shop back in Lacomb.

The most shocking thing he saw was while he was walking back from the Army
and Navy store early in the morning.

"There were all these people huddled in the doorway smoking crack. It kind
of surprised me out in the open like that. I mean we have drugs back in
Lacomb, but nothing like that."

Like Hughes, Perley said he was astonished to find that the addicts weren't
all crack pots.

"I talked to this guy named Chris, and I guess I just never really figured
homeless people were educated or smart. But he had a real good philosophy.
Actually, I felt kind of dumb myself for just assuming he was uneducated."

The group has been staying with members of Youth for Christ in Abbotsford
and will return to Lacomb Saturday. It was the first time a youth group had
visited Mission Possible shelter. Two more groups-one from Oregon and the
other from Manitoba-will arrive in the next few days to help out at the centre.