There is a location near our neighbourhood which used to be part of our neighbourhood. The Woodwards building, adjacent to our old prayer space and the old Crosswalk shelter. It now sits on a gentrified block of expensive grocery stores and hipster coffee shops. A lost block.

Inside the Woodwards building is a large atrium with a basketball court, a spiraling staircase, and a lone piano. Vancouver puts pianos out in various place, encouraging passersby to fill the streets and public places with music.

I play a little keys.

So on our prayer walk tonight, needing to stop by London Drugs anyways for something, Cherie and I went to the Woodwards. She purchased; I played.

Beside the piano was a man who, in earlier times, almost certainly would have been sitting in our Recreate Coffee space across the street on a cold, wet night like tonight. And almost just as certainly he would have been sleeping that night in one of the bunks of the Crosswalk shelter, now gone these past three years.

As I sat down to play, he began to clap and cheer and rock where he sat. "Yes!" he cried. "Please, play beautiful music!"

Hoping to oblige, I began to play the songs I knew by heart, which are not many. And I began to sing, quietly. Amazing grace. Come as you are. Hope for the hopeless. Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal. I know a fount.

Each time I rested, he cried, "Please! Play one more!"

When I had finally exhausted my supply of songs, he called Cherie and I over to him.

"How did you know?!" he asked. "How did you find me?!"

What do you mean?

"Just last night I got really sick, got robbed, got kicked out of my shelter. I'm homeless, and can't get into UGM until nine tonight, and have to be out at six tomorrow morning. I'm so scared! But you found me, and sang to me."

We spoke to him of love, and peace, and Jesus, and places he could go that were safe, that could be long-term. We prayed with him.

"Oh, how did you find me?!"

God is love.

"Oh, God IS love! He showed you where to find me. Oh, he knew what I needed tonight!"

This is not the first time this has happened at that lonely piano, in that space that used to be part of our neighbourhood. Maybe it can still be part of our neighbourhood. Maybe I'll head back to that piano, every now and again.