love/hate but home

It's been eight years since I left the only place I ever knew to come to Vancouver, BC. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that all those years have past. But at the same time, it's not so hard. When I search my heart, I realize that Saskatoon is no longer home. It is home in the sense that it is my hometown, but it remains simply the place that holds my childhood. It doesn't feel like home to me anymore.
Vancouver has become my home. It's happened slowly, and without my realization. It's happened as I have come to know it better - that big, foreboding, intimidating city that seemed so scary and overwhelming before has come to feel like my neighborhood. Not to say that I am not extremely cautious when I go there - it's still a big city after all and not the safest one at that. Nor would I say that I am super familiar with it, because I'm not. However, I've slowly learned who Vancouver really is. And I've come to realize that I have a complicated relationship with Vancouver. It's love/hate.
Love: There are many reasons to love Vancouver and I love Vancouver for all of them. It has superb weather. Okay, it does rain a lot, and that stinks, but I would take rain over snow any day. So the mild climate, yes is a plus. It has so many places to explore. Amazing shopping. Myriads of restaurants and cafes. Historical attractions, tourist attractions, and outdoor adventures are plentiful. Worldclass events come here: the Olympics are number one. Figure skating. Concerts. And there's another reason I love Vancouver: the spirit of the people who live here. I realized this during the Canuck Stanley Cup craze. We have an awesome hockey team. We hosted an awesome Olympic Games. And ignoring the riot, we know how to come together to celebrate something that unites us. It's magical.
Hate: I don't like the sketchy people that a big city always brings or how you don't feel safe all the time because of the seedy areas. I don't like how materialisitc the city is and how rich it is. I don't like how spiritually dark Vancouver is. There are so many broken people here and very few who have encountered God. When I think of missions, I realize that God has laid Vancouver on my heart. We always think of missions as going somewhere internationl, but really, the biggest mission field is on my doorstep. I love Vancouverites and I have such a burden for them. I know that God loves them so much and I pray that I can somehow become a worker in the harvest that I know he has in store for this city.
But even though Vancouver is not perfect, it is my home. That I have come to realize as I sit here in my Canucks shirt and look at the photos pasted on my wall that depict my Olympic memories here from just over a year ago. I have realized that my heart has come to lie in Vancouver and that no matter where I go, I will always be a Vancouver girl. There is a part of me that will always be a prairie girl, but another part that belongs to Vancouver.
We have the best hockey team, had the best Olympics, have the best weather, and the best opportunities. I pray that God will reveal himself to the people of Vancouver and save this city that I have come to love so much.