Anyone walking through downtown Penticton at about 8:30 on any given Monday or Thursday morning is likely, on at least one occasion, to come across Pastor Peter. He is probably within close proximity to the Tim Hortons, sipping on a coffee and chatting with someone, or maybe he is just standing alone.
On the day he met with this reporter he was doing just that. The pastor, also known as Pete or Street Pete but never anything more formal, was leaning against a lamppost on the corner of Nanaimo Avenue and Main Street, his long blonde hair tucked under a black toque and his black leather jacket hung open drawing attention to the shiny black cross strung on a black rope and sitting close against his sternum.
At first Peter is a looming figure — his large stature makes it easy to imagine his former life as a Harley-riding bar bouncer. It’s difficult to know what to expect. Then he smiles — his warm, kind blue eyes lighting up his face and, in most cases, follows that up with a hug. It’s not difficult to determine that Peter is more teddy bear than grizzly.
His hugs, among the people who live or spend their days in downtown Penticton, are legendary.
“I get the toughest guys in the whole wide world giving me hugs,” he said, adding with a laugh that many of them wouldn’t even hug their own mother.
It’s because, in most cases, Peter is their friend and as he puts it, their brother.
Peter is a 49-year-old street pastor and founder of Another Chance Street Ministry. It’s a job he has been doing for five years and one he doesn’t get paid for. He does not work out of a church. In fact he is not of any denomination and does not consider himself religious.
“I am just Peter,” he told a congregation while guest speaking at a church last year.
But that doesn’t mean his faith is not solid. Rather than going to a church to hear and speak about God, Peter brings God outside. The streets, parks, benches, door jams and alleyways are his church.
“It’s not a jump up on the street corner and do the hallelujah brother stuff,” however, he cautions. Rather Peter’s mission is about sharing his love for God. He compares his work to that of Paul, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible.
“They wanted us to understand their walk, their relationship and then take that someplace and then take your own walk. They were the example and so be an example yourself,” he explained.
“Literally, that’s all I do is I walk around with my relationship and wait for someone to either throw a rock at me or get a hug from me. It’s up to them what they need. You can use me as much as you want.”
Peter spends his day giving of himself all over the valley. Mondays and Thursdays are reserved for Penticton. Tuesdays and Fridays he spends on the streets of Kelowna and Wednesday is spent in Oliver, helping to serve warm clothing and hotdogs, doughnuts and coffee with other volunteers at the food bank there.
His weeks end just as they begin, in Penticton, where he holds what he dubs a “situational” church service on the lawn of the Penticton Courthouse. Chairs and tables are set up, hot coffee and snacks are served and socks and other clothing gathered from donations or purchased by Peter out of his family’s pocket are there for the taking while he delivers his unplanned sermon. It is one that is based on the immediate needs of his congregation, a group that is always evolving and changing depending on who is in need at that time.
The Sunday service is like a metaphor for the rest of his life: unplanned, holy and based on whatever comes his way. Much like his days, no church service is ever the same, save for the hot coffee.
“The Lord puts things in front of me,” he said, adding that he knows most of the people on the streets of Penticton, Kelowna and even Oliver. While not all of the people whom he meets live in the street — there are about five permanent residents currently living on Penticton streets, he estimates — many spend their days there.
While there are more people in Kelowna and fewer in Oliver, what they are doing there is often the same — many have addictions, live in poverty, are involved in a cycle of crime and have somehow seen their life spiral out of control. But like everyone, they need someone to hold onto, someone who does not judge them but accepts them for who they are. They need relationships, he said, and that is why he continues. The morning of this interview, he was interrupted every five to 10 minutes by people he considers family, seeking these relationships.
Dixie, wearing her bright pink toque and colourful pink and purple snow suit was one of the first to approach Peter on the cool winter morning. She asked if anyone had a cigarette and when no one could help, she swore and then quickly apologized. She gave Peter a warm hug and then told him about her plans to spend the day panhandling.
Dixie said she doesn’t live on the street, but times are tough and she is just living day to day.
“I am really on the outs with my ex and I have no money and I am going down to panhandle,” she said, adding that a hug from Peter is enough to brighten her spirits even when things get difficult.
“He has the greatest hugs in the world and I adore him.”
“I adore you,” she said laughing and turning to Peter for another hug, adding that she would see him at the Soupateria for lunch later that day. The rest of the day is filled with similar encounters, lots of hugs, smiles, a few laughs and conversations and promises to see one another later. Relationships with people like Dixie didn’t come easy. In fact getting to this place of comfort and trust on the streets took years of work and tests of faith.
It was just eight years ago that Peter himself found God during a chance encounter. He had been walking near a park when he noticed a group of people serving hamburgers and asked them what they were doing. They indicated they were a church group who was serving food to anyone who wanted it. He asked to help. The man serving the burgers later told him that he never let anyone help but there was something about this big, tattooed biker that made him say yes that day. After that it all happened very quickly.
“I found myself sticking my nose into everything and trying to help anywhere I could and that was my teaching point,” he said, adding that he quickly discovered he was better at talking to people than flipping burgers.
“I could relate to the people coming.”
Then five years ago, three years after finding God, he realized his place was not inside the church and he left the secular world. Despite concerns from his family — he is married with five children, three who still live at home — he quit his job and went out onto the streets. His plan was to have no plan, just to let things unfold and take them as they came.
“For me ... everything is a new experience, but I have the Lord to guide me in everything that I do,” he said.
But that doesn’t always result in positive experiences. It has led him to question his faith on more than one occasion. One such “faith walk,” as he calls it, took place in that first year. It was the middle of winter and he had been standing outside for about an hour-and-a-half, all alone in the freezing rain.
“I am just freezing and soaked and (wondering) what am I doing here? I haven’t talked to anyone this morning, nothing’s gone on. What am I doing here? And so I prayed a little bit ... and the clouds cleared and I just felt uplifted all of a sudden, just a feeling inside. Maybe I just needed to stand there for an hour-and-a-half in the pouring rain to understand something,” he said, adding that lack of finances at home, death of people on the street and fatigue have also caused him to question his faith.
Over the years he has seen a lot, and learned even more about some of the issues facing people living on local streets — a lack of proper affordable housing and of treatment centres for addicts are some of the most trying issues.
But it’s this knowledge, this ongoing need, that has forced him to carry on. There is more work to be done and until God directs him otherwise, he says he will keep walking.
“It’s my whole life. I am wasting time here (on Earth) if I am not doing this. I’m just filling up the couch at my house,” he said.
“I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I don’t belong in mission work in Mexico.... This is where I belong. This is where I fit.”
for more info: http://www.anotherchanceokanagan.com/Raymond Maaske, BBA, CCC, ATM-B
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