The world needs more Lynn Neds!!!

[Stan]

Lynn Ned: Passion, perseverance

By Trudy Beyak - Abbotsford News - March 20, 2008

Tossed between 54 different foster homes by the time she was nine years old, Jeannie felt unloved and lost in a chaotic world that didn’t exactly place out a welcome mat for her.

When she was 13 years old she thought she had finally found real love in the arms of a man who was 12 years older.

She was wrong.

Damian was born nine months later.

Holding her son in her arms, the new mom desperately struggled inside to find a solid identity for herself, let alone little Damian.

After her little guy was settled in a safe home, Jeannie “jumped head-first” into drug addiction drawn inexplicably to the shadowy magnet of Vancouver’s eastside.

More pain awaited the teenager on the garbage-strewn streets. She dropped to 98 pounds and became so sick she was bed-ridden for three months.

I’m on death’s door, she thought. I’m so dead inside.

How could she endure this agonizing life of addiction any longer?

In a moment of clarity during a healing ceremony and with the moral support of her two brothers and “Nan,” a child psychologist, Jeannie got the sense that she didn’t belong on the streets anymore.

She experienced a spiritual transformation and a sparkle returned to her eyes as Jeannie entered the doors of Peardonville House, a residential treatment centre for women in Abbotsford.

There, she met a woman who would become her mentor – a kind-hearted counsellor named Lynn Ned.

A dream was born in Jeannie:

“That’s the kind of person I want to be like.”

* * *

“Blessed are those whose heart is pure . . . you are the light of the world.”

Those tender words, first spoken by Jesus, were quoted at the opening of the Spirit Bear Center on Monday, revealing how pure compassion overcomes pain and darkness.

That’s a sweet picture of Lynn Ned.

The counsellor shyly avoids the limelight of the TV cameramen, yet, according the people who know her, her life radiates a soft, gentle ray of hope and love in a scary world.

Lynn’s eyes brim with tears as the 10-bed treatment, detox and emergency centre for aboriginal teen girls opened on Monday in Abbotsford.

When Jeannie shared her story at the opening ceremony of the Spirit Bear Center, Lynn couldn’t have been any prouder.

In fact, this “home of hope” is Lynn’s dream come true.

It all started about seven years ago, she said.

Lynn and members of her family have personally experienced the pain of substance abuse and addiction.

“I looked around me and saw that there was no safe place for our kids to escape, and nobody was breaking this horrible cycle,” Lynn said.

A member of the Sumas Indian Band, she is married to Lester Ned, Grand Chief, Sto:lo Tribal Council.

Lynn’s family has shed too many tears, buried too many loved ones.

She shared one such story.

Her brother-in-law Clarence was looking for his kids on the Eastside, she said, when he got caught in drug addiction himself and died of an overdose.

After Clarence died, Lynn redoubled her efforts to make her dream come true.

The woman on a mission pursued her goal, step-by-tedious-step. And, she was smart and strategic.

She got a job at Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation to work on the inside of the government agency to learn everything she could about how to start a treatment centre for girls, she said.

And, she also worked as a counsellor on the streets.

Lynn was deeply troubled when she worked on the Eastside for about a year.

She saw wide-eyed teens barely older than children sucked into the vortex of addiction and prostitution.

It broke her heart.

“Our kids are going down there and we’re not bringing a lot of them back,” she said, with emotion.

“Some of them are coming home in a coffin,” she said, adding that many contract AIDS/HIV and give up on themselves.

Drug addiction is death’s door, but Lynn opens another door for them - the door of life.

“They need to know they have a purpose in life,” she said. “I want to see these kids succeed.”

The teen girls need a treatment center – and that’s that!

As a committed Christian, Lynn pursued her vision with prayer, passion and perseverance.

She started knocking on politicians’ doors with tears in her eyes and a plea for help.

“I wasn’t giving up. I wasn’t going to stop,” she said with iron-clad determination.

The faces of the teen girls on the eastside kept flashing before her mind.

Some doors closed, others, however, opened.

Lynn’s compassion started exciting a network of local politicians, aboriginal people, the Christian community and various people working at social agencies.

One day, she decided to talk to Milt Walker, executive director of Peardonville House, pouring out her heavy burden to save teenage aboriginal girls from suffering a life of ruin.

He encouraged her, and the Fraser Health Authority soon approved funding for Mollie’s Place at Peardonville House, a 90-day program for women suffering chronic addictions.

This is where Lynn is currently the residential coordinator.

That was the first step to an amazing year of events culminating in the opening of the Spirit Bear Center for teenage girls.

She credits a number of people for making her vision a reality.

“Les Boon believed in my dream,” Lynn said, noting that he is the local director of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Meanwhile, Bervin Construction also donated a feasibility study on building a recovery transition house.

She found the ideal spot.

When Lynn discovered a 28-year-old house for sale in a serene wooded area, north of Rick Hansen secondary, she whispered a prayer and placed a down payment on it.

All in faith.

She earnestly pounded the pavement and did more legwork.

Local politicians such as Liberal MLAs John van Dongen and Rich Coleman, and Conservative MP Ed Fast, arranged meetings for Lynn’s dream to be funded.

And money started pouring in.

The Province of B.C. paid $1.2 million to buy and renovate the home.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development offered a one-time grant of $350,000.

Meanwhile, Abbotsford City council caught the “Spirit Bear bug” and passed the zoning application despite a petition signed by 125 people opposing the facility.

Renovations began.

The Real Estate Foundation of B.C. donated a capital grant of $50,000 and Fraser Health gave $12,000.

Volunteers from Northview Community Church, South Abbotsford Mennonite Church and Grace Church threw themselves into the project making comforters for the beds, sewing curtains for the windows and painting walls.

Sleep Country donated mattresses.

The renovated tudor-style house is warm and inviting with the aroma of salmon soup wafting from the kitchen, teddy bears on the beds, and a work-out gym ready for use.

The Spirit Bear Center is set to help females, 13 to 19-years-old, kick drug and alcohol addiction as they pursue education, employment and life-skills training, and fulfill their dreams.

Aboriginal girls, referred from anywhere in the province, may reside at the recovery and transition house for up to one year.

The girls must commit to abstain from drugs and alcohol, demonstrate a willingness to work on themselves as they make the transition back into society.

Lynn loves the name of the home.

She explained its meaning:

“Spirit” represents the Creator – “Bear” is the aboriginal name of Clarence, her deceased brother-in-law - and “Center” means a place of healing.

QUOTEBOOK:

When John van Dongen brought Lynn Ned to visit the office of B.C. Housing Minister Richard Coleman, she won his heart. Eventually, the B.C. Government approved $1.2 million to make her vision come true. Coleman found Lynn’s gentle influence irresistible.

“When you meet Lynn, it’s over . . .”

– MLA Rich Coleman

“Lynn is an inspiration.”

– Abbotsford-Clayburn (Liberal) MLA John van Dongen

“It all started with the vision of Lynn Ned.”

– Ed Fast, Abbotsford (Conservative) MP

“Nobody has the patience and perseverance that Lynn has - Lynn has done a marvelous job. . . She has compassion and foresight!”

– Abbotsford Mayor George Ferguson

“Lynn is a force to be reckoned with.”

– Tom Christiansen, Ministry of Children and Family Development

“. . . Nobody is bullet-proof to this problem whether Native or Non-native.”

– Lester Ned, Grand Chief, Sto:lo Tribal Council.

SOURCE

[darlene]

Yes, I read that article about Lynn Ned in yesterday's Abbotsford News. She is a very humble but committed person who wants the best for the First Nations People. We do need more people like her! It sounds like she is a very committed Christian who doesn't let things stand in her way for long. She has really worked at getting that recovery house. If we faced what she has faced would we give up or continue on? Hopefully we could continue the mission Jesus has for each one of us.

[darlene]

Oh yes, Trudy Beyak also wrote the article. Trudy is an Adventist living in Abbotsford who has won many, many awards in journalism, across the nation and the continent. She works for The Abbotsford News and in an excellent investigative journalist.

[Stan]

Just thought of this..

We could use a few more Lynn Dels as well :)

[LynnDel]

Awww...

One is actually quite enough, I'd say - but thanks anyway!