In September of 2008 I moved to Edmonton with Kate. Some of our Edmonton friends might be surprised to realize it was so recently. We'd been visiting Edmonton so frequently by the time that we moved, that many assumed we'd been living here for years.
We'd intended to make this move since the Summer of 2004 in Lethbridge, Alberta. We'd planned to get married, start a youth drop in and mentorship program at our church, and then move to Edmonton to plant a church. Once established in Edmonton, we'd start a family.
We spent three years getting the high school program in Lethbridge started. By 2007, we regularly had one hundred awesome misfit teenagers and young adults hanging out, enjoying punk rock shows, and being loved. There was a collective of twelve ready to keep it going.
We loved those kids. Really. They spat and swore and were violent and . . . worse. They were everything we believed that Jesus' friends were probably like. We were together at shows, parties, dinners, weddings, and funerals. Our faith was coming alive like we'd never experienced. And we began to enter their world, and the world of the punk bands that played at the event.
A couple of years in, we looked down at our black leather oots, and realized we'd started to kind of "blend in". We liked it.
This is around the time we started visiting Edmonton. We had no money (volunteering to start a youth drop in doesn't pay much), but we were excited to discover the arts and activism scene in the capital city. We stuck our thumbs out on the highway, and headed North. In 2007/2008, we spent more time on friend's floors in Edmonton than we did in our own hometown. We almost always hitchhiked.
One of my earliest memories was showing up at the Anarchist Bookfair in 2007. I was so nervous. I'd been reading Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Tolstoy, and liked them, but had never met a real anarchist. Not knowing what to expect, I stuttered as I told strangers who'd later become friends that I was a Pastor, and wanted to plant a church in Edmonton. Hardly judgmental, most of the crew were warm, engaging, and kind. The biggest impressions were made by Samano from Calgary, Pete with the gigantic smile and thick dreds, Jeff passed out tired in the hallway, and Monika who drove us home. When I got in Monika's car, I wasn't sure if I should wear my seatbelt, i mean, assuming she was an anarchist.
I remember being asked if I was a Quaker or a Mennonite by one of the vendors. Nice.
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