Tummy Ache

Last night it was just Jamie, Rob and myself at homeless outreach. It was bitterly cold and we were discouraged because of that and our small numbers. We ran out of both food and supplies within minutes and people were begging us for more.

Mr. Chong got an apartment with friends for now, I hope he moves up from now on. Billy is back living in that abandoned wheelchair lift, him and Richard in the wheelchair are apartment hunting separately. Billy never complains, he was happier about his home in the tiny 4×4 foot wheelchair lift than most people are in their 4 bedroom 3 bathroom 2 garage homes.

After we went to do our evangelism and we left early, 9:45pm. I ate too much junk food. A rice crispie square, quarter pounder with cheese, medium fries, honey mustard sauce and 4 slices of that fancy bread that I rarely eat. Ooops. I really felt it afterwards.

I Do It Because

On Sunday Leslie asked me a question I couldn’t answer due to time constraints, she asked how I got such a heart for serving. I think there are a few reasons. First of all when I was growing up my parents raised me that way. I was always in the habit of giving away all (I mean all) of my possessions to others (not always by choice). If some other child was in need, mom or gramma would take my things and give them away. Be it a toy, or clothing or my most prized possessions such as my transformers wrist watch. Many times my bedroom would be empty and I knew that whatever little I had was being enjoyed by people who had nothing. Not that we had much, we were pretty poor ourselves.

All of my money always went to my family for our expenses and these days to missions work – so serving became natural. Mom would volunteer me many times to help other people, even when I needed help myself.

As I grew older mom would ask me to help people as much as possible. One time we were in the car driving down Goreway drive and a man in a wheelchair at Westwood Mall couldn’t get onto the sidewalk because it wasn’t wheelchair accessible. Everyone was just walking right by him giving him no acknowledgement. I ran across the street and helped him across the road onto the sidewalk. I can’t remember his name but he said he would never forget me. Mom was the one who ordered me to help him, yet I feel that I was the one who got the benefit.

When I got saved I just jumped right into serving. Children’s church, youth, young adults, food bank, outreach, evangelism, missions, general church you name it. Shovelling snow, cleaning the building, errands, volunteering a day here and there, volunteering a day a week, 2 days a week, 4 days a week, and now 5 to 6 days a week.

My mom got saved, sis got saved, different family members got saved. God gave me a heart for ministry, really caring about getting people saved and delivered. I wanted everyone to know Jesus. I still do. When I go to a church, even a new church for the first time, people are usually drawn to talk to me, vent to me and tell me all of their problems. Even just doing my day to day errands it’s not unusual for strangers to chat me up and tell me their life story. (It’s a good thing, just makes me late for almost every appointment I have). But it makes me think God built me this way.

Today my passion burns stronger than ever and I have experience and a little more wisdom on the subject of giving and serving. I’ve given many times when I had nothing to give. I’ve given out of my rent money, food money, vacation money. I’ve given more than I had. I’ve borrowed to give. I’ve given of my time, my energy, sometimes of my sanity. I’m always keeping my ears open to see if someone needs help and I always think “maybe I can do something.” Of course sometimes all I can do is offer my prayers and encouragement.

It’s still a difficult question to answer though – how did I get such a heart for service. I do it because it makes me feel good. I do it because God says it’s the right thing to do. I do it because it’s natural for me to do. I do it because I can’t help but to not do it. I do it because it makes me feel like I’m showing love to God. I do it to show God that His work in me is not for nothing.

40 People For Dinner

These past few weekends I’ve rested. I mean rested from work. I still do a lot of chores and errands. Endless endless errands.

Last night 3 of my guests cancelled out on dinner so I drove up to Kendra’s and we started our trip down to the restaurant. I asked her how come she can come to all the dinners but not always the community service and she laughed as if I was joking. Any way it was raining and I like that.

We got to the restaurant, there were about 40 of us in all. I sat beside Leslie who lives in Aurora. She works at a Christian company that takes care of the disabled. She earns a decent salary. Has a big family. Does a gift exchange for Christmas instead of buying hundreds of gifts. She tried some of my fish and chips and I tried some of her steak and I realized I should have ordered the steak. Dinner was super delicious.

Anyway, we did a gift exchange, you know that game where you choose a gift or steal a gift from someone else. I hate the game but whatever. Well I brought a bamboo plant, in a very nicely decorated pot. A small child, a girl asked for it at the end of the evening and of course it was given to her. I got a bag of gum and a coffee mug, I gave it to Kendra, I would never use it.

It was fun to have fun time with everyone. You know we weren’t talking business or ministry or anything like that (for the most part) I mean we mentioned stuff here and there but we were really just having a good time. For the last few years we’ve just been feeding the homeless and talking to people about Jesus and we haven’t had much time to just be friends.

Of course today it’s back to work. I’m prepping to chat with the young adults about outreach opportunities tonight and try to get the lazy bums motivated for something other than free food. Have I mentioned I hate young adults?

Endurance

I worked during the day, got a good amount done. I got downtown early, heading out to do some errands, which I hate to do downtown because the city makes little sense. Canada Post’s website said the Canada post at Eaton Centre would be open until 9pm, but I got there at 735pm to learn that they closed at 730, so I had to go to money mart to make a money order, then a different place for an ATM, and then walked around the city looking for a Canada post – of course couldn’t find one and nobody I asked knew where there was one, not even a worker at the Closed Canada post location in Eaton Centre. Frustrating.

I walked back to the cars, we met our team (which seems to be getting smaller and smaller each week as it gets colder) and we started our mission. We chatted with Richard, our friend in the wheelchair. He lost his wife and daughter a few months ago, and then a few weeks after that lost his legs. We met Billy, a tall and slender young man who is always grateful for the supplies and food we give him. We promised him socks for next time. I’ve put it on my calendar so I won’t forget. Mr. Chong was nice and full, Cubby was drunk out of his mind and didn’t even notice us despite my calls to him. And that was it. It looks like we brought way too much food in-fact. That’s a first. We walked over to our evangelism spot to meet our Mennonite friends. It’s so delightful to have them there with us while we evangelize. It was a good night, we handed out probably 500 gospel flyers and we talked to some people about Jesus.

It’s Amy’s last Thursday with us until March of next year. How sad. I’ll see her once more for dinner on Sunday and then that’s it, she’ll fly out. First Manitoba then an orphanage in the Philippines. It’s nice to have your friends close by while you do ministry. On the way back home I stopped at Macdonalds, cheating on my diet. I regretted it afterwards because I’ve been eating so healthy and putting all that trash in my tummy made me feel awful. It’s like eating crap.

Canada Shouldn’t Have Homeless People

So yesterday I drove to downtown early, hoping to visit some shelters but instead I walked around praying that we would have a successful night for God.

Mr. Chong isn’t doing very well, he doesn’t look good. Sad, sick and just looking like he has no hope. I wish there was more we could do. I am trying to hook him up with a home as best I can. Cubby was drunk, actually I had seen him much earlier in the evening coming out of the LCBO, but by this time he was really out of it. We got them all hot drinks from Tim Hortons.

Amy is leaving soon for her missions trip. We evangelized on the corner of Yonge and Dundas, I spoke to an old man who told me he was going to hell when he died, and I spoke to a young man who also told me he would go straight to hell when he died. It’s a big change from the masses who automatically feel everyone goes to heaven after they die. The old man really struck me though, you could see the sadness in his face. When I gave him a gospel flyer and told him that he could go to heaven, his friend asked for one as well.

Robert spent the whole time talking to a young lady who used to be a Muslim but now was more of a Hindu, talking about nirvana and how we could all be gods. I always like to remind our Hindu friends that they came to Canada because the Christian God makes better countries than the Hindu gods.

Around 10:20pm we walked back to our cars and left for home. It was a good night, and I pray the people we talked to that night would end up in heaven with us.

I Keep Trying

Last night at young adults we did another Rob Bell video, very good stuff and it leads to challenging discussions. You always learn things about people that you never would have thought of when you stick them in a circle and encourage them to talk. The quiet people have a lot to say, amazing stories to tell.

This year, more ministry than ever before. I mean really life impacting ministry, not just in-church stuff, but street ministry, outreach ministry. Not just paying for missionaries to go overseas (I did that as well) but all the local stuff. Soul winning, life saving work.

Stuck In A Rut

I usually always have something to say after Thursday’s homeless outreach and evangelism night. Some nights are difficult, bitter weather, displaced team members and just an overall feeling of blueness can sour the evening.

We got to chat with some of the regulars. Mr. Chong, told me that he receives about $211 per month in government assistance and that some of his friends pretend to be disabled and receive $500 or more but he refuses. I feel bad for him, and he is one person of whom I would put in an apartment asap if I could. He’s such an honest person. He always pulls out his wallet and shows me paperwork to prove his story. He doesn’t have to because I believe him. He never has anything crazy to say. He’s very accurate. He also rarely complains, if ever actually. Last night I saw a look on his face that I haven’t seen in a while. A look of concern. This would be his first winter homeless. I wonder if there’s anything else I can do. Just 2 years ago I could have immediately put him into a home for 6 months but I’m stuck in a rut myself.

After we took care of our homeless friends we headed to Dundas Square where we evangelized for a good hour. It was a good night.

I got to speak to a man of Russian decent. He was waiting for a bus. I asked him “would you like to answer the million dollar question?”. At first he walked away, but later came back asking me how much it would cost. I should have mentioned it was free.

He told me his view, that he didn’t believe in God, or that if there was a God that He would have no care to reach out to people. I pray that God does reach out to him. He said he would be very interested in knowing God, but how?

You Gotta Do What God Tells You To Do

I still don’t like using the microphone when I speak in public.

At church we watched an amazing 15 minute video from Rob Bell about the spirit of God and breathing and the name of God. I lead a short study after. After service I got to finally sit down and chat with Joe, Ashton, Erica and Brittany. Ashton, Brittany and Gerrald are all going to Australia for God in 2009. Meanwhile Caroline comes back next week from 12 months there. What is about Christian people leaving Canada? Please stay! We have a shortage of good Christians here.

It makes me happy that they are going to do that for God, I feel bad that people like Ashton feels she might stay there forever, or at least not come back to Canada and do missions forever. I guess as a young person I could have done the same. Sometimes I feel that I still can. I support a bunch of full time missionaries and part time missionaries and I’m always sad to see them leave Canada. But you’ve got to do what God wants you to do.

Finally The Youngest One In The Room

Last night I went to church for the evening service, a mens choir was performing some hymns for us which was ultra boring. All of the men were seniors, and thus most of the people in the audience were seniors, I was the youngest there which was a nice change.

Please Interpret This Dream!

Lastnight I had a dream that this guy came to town who had super powers, and he demolished buildings for a living and he could take down a house in just a few seconds and clean up the mess as well. Well anyway I was working in a grocery store and I asked the guy how he could do such things, but at the time he was giving his girlfriend a massage so he got angry that I disrupted them. So he forced me to eat a pig. This was all happening at 3525 Brandongate drive, the townhouses where I used to live. Definitely one of the most bizarre dreams I’ve ever had.

Yesterday I worked, and then headed out to church to pickup my pals for a night of homeless outreach and evangelism. James, Ryan and Rebecca came. Shayvon couldn’t make it but she brought lot’s of delicious foods for us to give out. We got downtown at 8:30 and fed the homeless. One man, named Mike asked us for prayer – but he said he couldn’t pray himself because he didn’t know any of the words. It was heartwarming and I could see the conern in his eyes. He works full time but it’s not easy getting an apartment, I know what that’s like.

We met some of our usuals including Cubby and Mr. Chong. I’m concerned about Mr. Chong because he doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to actually get into housing. But I’m still hopeful.

Anyway, last night we met a large group that drives all the way from Kingston every week. It’s 6 hours round trip but God has called them to minister to people in Toronto and they’ve been helping the community a lot. A Christian group of course.

After we met up with the rest of the group Amie was there, and she was super hyper! At first I thought maybe something was wrong. We evangelized on Yonge and Dundas for a good while, it was very cold but after a while we didn’t notice. It’s very easy to talk to people – “where will you go after you die” I ask them. It’s a hard question for even the most aggressive athiest to ignore. Each person’s soul cries out evidence of Jesus Christ, regardless of what that person believes.

I got home around 12:45am. Ouch. But well worth it. I was scared that I wouldn’t make it through the night because I’m fighting off the flu. Today I have a moderate fever, nothing major.

Seaton House

Traumatizing is what I call Tuesday night’s homeless outreach ministry. Remember the first time I went out, back in 99? It was rough. We saw kids sleeping on the street. It makes me wonder if I went to school with any of them.

Last night wasn’t any less traumatizing. We started at Nathan Phillips Square and there weren’t very many of our regulars. It helps that there are a lot of abandoned condo’s in the area now so they sort of have a place to stay.

My concern is with the downturn in the economy we may have a much larger influx of families, and I’d hate to have to stay where the other people stay. After we drove to Sherbourne park, where we met Roy, a Jamaican man. We chatted with him for a good while (by the way, it was –5c outside, very cold). After that we drove over to Seaton House, a government run facility for homeless men. The women stayed in the car while we handed out many sandwiches and bowls of chilli. It was a rough place. I mean these guys were out of their minds and you could see drug paraphernalia all over the place. One man was dressed very nicely and I figured he worked there, actually he was just as homeless as the other guys. We got out of there quickly. What bothers me is the horrible way some of the homeless treat each other down there. I hear of beatings and rapes and thefts. It makes it harder to solve the problem. Seaton House is in a terrible area. There is a woman’s shelter not far down the street but the street itself is side to side pawn shops and strip clubs. Police officers were patrolling up and down the streets and plenty of fights broke out during the short time we were there. I asked one of the men behind a thick iron gate if it’s always like this and he looked around before answering me in fear, “yes!”.

Mennonites Wear Bonnets And Still Spread The Gospel

I worked more than 15 hours on Wednesday. That was no fun.

Wednesday evening I got to meet my old associate Robert who is still in Toronto, in the same crappy office building. For a filthy rich guy he sure does not know how to treat himself. While we were getting our business done he asked me if I know my biological father, and I explained to him that he abandoned me before I was born and tried to kill me. Robert was agitated and told me the story about his grandfather. Well back in the 30’s Robert’s father was in India, his grandfather had taken him there to live for a while. His grandfather then abandoned the family and moved to London to live the high life. Robert’s dad, many years later visited his father to get some closure, but the grandfather showed no remorse for what he had done. A sad sad tale and I could see the pain in Robert’s eyes as he told the story. Robert is typically a jerk-face so I’ve never seen this side of him before.

Anyway, Wednesday night ended with a great big success. Yesterday was Thursday and I worked through the day – seemingly getting nothing done even though working over 12 hours.

I went downtown very early to do the homeless outreach. Actually traffic was really nasty – something I downright hate about Toronto. A 20 minute drive took 1 hour. I needed to get some errands done before hand. I parked my car in the usual spot and my credit card was declined at the parking meter, even though there was plenty of cash available on it. I walked about 20 minutes to the FedEx location only to have them tell me that their pickup time was at 6pm. They recommended I go to another location – wouldn’t you know it, very close to where I parked. I would have gone there first but the FedEx website didn’t even mention that location. Anyway it was a FedEx Kinkos. I walked all the way back there and submitted my envelope. The lady told me they don’t currently accept any cash or debit, LOL. So I paid with my credit card just fine.

We reached out to a bunch of homeless and got to really chat with them this time around. The weather was actually quite nice. Around 10pm we headed to our evangelism spot on Yonge and Dundas, where we met about 40 Mennonites from Kitchener who come to sing songs and evangelize. I’ve seen them for years but this time I stopped and introduced myself. There are so many great Christian groups spreading the good news in the area. It was great to make friends with them and it was so uplifting for me to see other Christians doing God’s work there. We talked to a lot of people about Jesus that night and I thought it was a huge success.

Typical Night

It’s been a really busy month so far. Last night we went out for our usual homeless outreach.

We prayed and started our outreach. We ministered to just a few because we ran out of food quickly. 2 of the people kept following us, I’m sure they were lonely and could have done with some more food but we just didn’t have enough.

Anyway after that we walked to Young and some other street and started doing some evangelism to the general public. That went well. I find that people are willing to find out about Jesus and who He is.

On the walk back to the parking lot we met a group of young adults who we stopped to chat with for a good while. One a Hindu, one a Christian from Ghana and 2 Muslims.

Jocelin and I chatted with the Hindu, and I think he will give his life to Jesus. The Christian man seemed a bit ashamed, maybe he needed to re-dedicated his life and make a serious commitment.

Thanksgiving

This is how I usually do Thanksgiving. I got to the restaurant at 5pm and the place was packed beyond capacity. I mean they have a 200 person capacity and there wasn’t one empty spot, even kids sitting on parents laps. The place is owned by Jimmy, a Christian who has done this kind of thing for years. He makes his restaurant completely free on Thanksgiving day from 5-10pm so that people in the community can come and have a delicious meal. What a blessing! I was a busboy at first, busing tables, which means cleaning them off and getting them ready for the next people who would be seated. There were waiters and waitresses who took food orders and delivered the food.

We served about 650 meals at least, probably more. The food was great, we had dozens of kinds of non-alcoholic drinks and great food and pumpkin pie. It was truly exhausting cleaning up and serving so many people in 5 hours. I mean the work just went on and on and never ended, I didn’t think I would make it through the night.

The paid staff there was really hard working and we had volunteers from several great churches in the Toronto area. One of the long time paid staff named Peter has a 2 year old son, he works like this 16 hours a day to provide for his family. He’s a really good guy.

It was so crowded there was hardly any place to walk and we had to move fast to get everything done in time. There were a lot of lonely people there. A lot of people who simply had nobody. Families with children who you could see were poor. Sweet people. One man got up and played guitar for an hour outside on the patio. He was very soft spoken and had a good sound.

There were a few people who were there all alone. I felt extra for them. I know how that is. We took time to chat with the people and give them smiles. There was so much pain in some of their eyes. One elderly lady, probably 75 years old, ate alone. Another younger Asian man, maybe 25 years old ate alone. He stayed for a couple of hours actually. I’m glad he did. There were all kinds of people there.

Later on in the evening I met 2 of the Toronto Argonauts who showed up to sign autographs. I don’t watch sports except for boxing and martial arts, but I was glad to meet Claude Harriott who was born in Jamaica and gave his life to Jesus. He served people their food and helped us out a lot. Signed lots of autographs especially for the children. Him and I sat down at the bar and we talked for a long while about how Jesus is changing the lives of people we know in the carribean.

Around midnight I started my drive home and I was thanking God for such a great evening and opportunity. I live for stuff like this.

Country Drives

Okay so there’s this fund raising dinner for an African orphanage I’m going to and I waited till the last minute to ask a girl I have a crush on. There are these 3 sisters who live way up in the country and we are all crazy about them. All the guys go nuts over these girls. Any way I waited to the last minute to ask and I asked the oldest one (Let’s call her B) to be my date and she said she would have gone with me if I asked sooner because now she’s going with her female friend Dianna.

So I asked her younger sister (Let’s call her R) and she said yes. Now I just want to take a moment to mention, these 3 sisters are absolutely crazy-beautiful but most importantly, they are wonderful Christian ladies which is hard to find these days.

Saturday I worked in the morning and then in the evening I got ready and I picked up Kendra (when I have a car, it’s usually full of people that I drive around everywhere). We headed over to the banquet hall. Remember last year? It wasn’t easy to get there, I took the bus for about 2 hours then I walked a very long way, my feet were really tired after. This year was easier.

I’m not really a social person in general, I don’t know why. I think I used to be at one point when I was younger. My mom tells me I also used to be an avid break dancer. LOL. How times change. My date, R, and her friend Natasha showed up shortly after me. I purchased an entire table so I could have B to myself for the night but when that fell through I told R to bring a female friend.

It was my lucky night because we had so many people in attendance that we had to squish tables closer to each other. Guess who I was sitting back to back with? R’s older sister B! If you’ve read my December 2006 entry then you know I had about $1,000,000 cash on my coffee table when I was 17 years old and it felt good to me. But sitting next to these super gorgeous ladies made me feel a whole lot better. I don’t know how the heck their parents made 3 gorgeous daughters, but may the Lord bless them. Every time I see them together I think “Hot damn!”.

We had some guest speakers and food and overpriced drinks. For some reason, even though I paid for my own table, other people were placed at it. I guess it doesn’t matter, it’s all for charity. So also at our table was Moses and his wife who are pastoring a new church. Another lady and her 13 year old daughter who did a contemporary styled dance for us, it was really good! R told me about her job and a bit about her life in the country. She currently works at an Inn, her friend Natasha is currently in college.

Around 9pm the dancing started in one room while the cleaning started in another. I’m not a dancer by any measure anymore, but I do enjoy watching people dance, maybe I’ll learn a thing or two. I gave a flower E, the youngest of the 3 sisters who was working at the banquet that night and I asked her to make sure that R, B and Natasha each get a flower.

It took about 6 of us to clean up the place, we finished around 12:30am or later.

The next day I did my chores as is my custom, and around 7pm I left for the country, heading to B+R+E’s house. B was holding a farewell party for Johnny which is a very sad thing for me.

The beautiful old farm house can be considered an hour up into the country. I love country drives so it was fun getting there.

I pulled up around 8:15pm and greeted the remaining crowd. I walked around looking at the beautiful photos on the wall and the wonderful trinkets decorating the old and beautiful house. B’s father gave me a tour of the inner workings of the house, showing me some of the things he’d renovated over the years. I played with their dog tucker. I thought about the cozy winters there and the balmy summer evenings they spent together. Long quiet prayer walks looking up into the sky, is what I’d do. They probably see millions of stars at night.

A father, a mother, happily married, 3 children, a house up in the country, each family member serving the Lord in one way or another – if I had the whole world I would trade it for this.

B sat beside me on a sofa while tucker and I had a staring contest. After I helped them tidy up a bit and B said I could follow her home since she recently moved into the city for school. I had Kendra in the car as usual, chatting away and I was trying to give her hints to just be quiet and enjoy the beautiful ride home so that I could enjoy it to. This will also be the last time I see Johnny and will also put me in a slight transition also.

The Loop

I’ve been in the loop and out of the loop. This time I’m out of the loop. Just when things were running smoothly and on an upswing, yesterday a fellow pastor friend of mine quickly resigned and is moving far away in less than a month. I called him as soon as I found out but apparently about a hundred others were calling him also.

Eventually

Last night Tim invited me to a church in Oakville. The church building was off a quiet country road in the middle of nowhere. After a long drive I got there a bit late. We watched a very well produced documentary called “Invisible Children.” About struggling people in Uganda. Honestly, if you really want to change Uganda I think you have to start by killing the rebel armies that terrorize the Ugandans. At some point you have to fight your enemy. At some point you have to kill your enemy. Sometimes to have peace, you have to go to war. Maybe not right away, but eventually.

Anyway I still support these organizations but I’ll tell you – I would support a Christian military organization 100 times more (financially and spiritually) because they get the job done permanently. I’m so sick and tired of hearing about our missionaries being kidnapped and tortured, raped and murdered. What’s the point of spending billions to do missions and relief when the terrorists and rebel armies just take it all away anyway? Why not just kill them and get it over with, then the people won’t even need our billions of dollars.

Remember how David killed Goliath instead of making friends with him? Sometimes you have to do just that. Sometimes killing is the right thing to do. Canada itself wouldn’t have survived as a country if we didn’t kill once in a while.

After the service I had a nice long chat about this with the 2 young ladies who were travelling with the ministry all over the US and Canada to spread the message.

Rough Night

5 people showed up for community outreach. We had a rough night. We talked to about 20 people in total and we prayed for about 5. While walking around Nathan Phillips square in downtown Toronto a young lady and her group of about 10 friends from a local Christian school walked up to me boldly and told us that they had run out of food for the homeless and she told us where we could find them. I loved her boldness.

Next time we’ll check out the children in the rougher areas. Hard to believe but Canada has many homeless young children who live on the streets and eat out of garbage cans.

Smiling From Ear To Ear

Well-satisfied. That’s how I felt last night. After I took a nice hot shower I purchased an umbrella at the dollar store, checked my tire pressure, returned some items at the library, picked up Kendra, picked up Chima and got to the church at 8pm.

Have you ever had an entire night that you knew was ordained by God? When I woke up Thursday morning to spend time in prayer and worship, God told me it was the last day I would be using my fall jacket. I thought that was funny because it was a few short weeks old and I was rather attached to it, it was a really cool jacket with a perfect fit. Those of you who know me, know how attached I am to my few items of clothing, I’ll wear them till they fall apart. We left at 8:35pm for downtown.

There were 10 of us, not counting the other teams and other churches that were already there. In Total maybe 40 from all the churches combined.

– Myself
– Paul
– Freddy
– Kendra
– Chima
– Mike
– Catherine
– Ryan
– Rebecca (it was her 19th birthday that day, she chose to spend it serving God)
– Jocelin
– James
– Mom

We arrived downtown at 9:15pm and after getting organized we started on our route around the streets. Each of our bags of food contained personal testimonies that we had written as something each recipient could be encouraged by. Years ago the children of another church hand made 300+ Christmas cards and we gave those out with our food and we found that most of the recipients cherish them to this day even years later.

The first person we saw was Melvin, someone who we had met before, had been on the street 4 years, ever since his family situation turned sour. The first time I met him a few months ago he told me he was going to kill himself. My mom and Freddy prayed for him, today he looks a lot better and he’s on the job hunt.

While Jocelin and Mike were ministering to someone we met John. John is from Nigeria and he had been on the streets for 6 years. He’s a very soft spoken man, you can see contriteness in his humble eyes. He recognized us right away and started talking to Chima who is also from Nigeria.

Mr. Chong, another regular that we see walked up to me and said “tomorrow is my 60th birthday”. He then showed me his pictured-health card to prove it. He told me his jacket had been stolen and he was very cold at night, and he asked if we had any jackets with us. We usually do but not tonight. I remembered what I felt God speaking to me earlier in the day and I emptied my pockets and gave him my handsome jacket. It fit him perfectly, and he had a smile on his face while he hungrily ate his food. “1 – 2 – 0, one hundred and twenty days I’ve been living here.” He said to me.

The group gathered around John and Mr. Chong and we prayed for them both, that God would give them good health, jobs, housing and in the future – their own homes. John was almost moved to tears and said he would be on the job hunt first thing in the morning.

The entire group was deeply touched and we moved on. After ministering to a few dozen more people we started running low on food and time. It was already 10pm but we each felt the calling to speak to at least one more person.

Jocelin, Mike, Kendra and Catherine found a young couple whose child had been taken away from them. They encouraged them and prayed with them.

While that was happening, Chima and I walked up to a man named Reece and gave him food, he took the food happily but didn’t seem to be very talkative so we bid him a goodnight and kept walking. I told Chima that “maybe we’ve opened the door to talk to him next time, or for someone else to talk to him about Jesus.” Well wouldn’t you know it, a few minutes later Rebecca, Ryan and James walked up to him and began ministering to him. Reece couldn’t stop talking and looked very happy to have some new friends. I walked back up to him and we ended up praying for him. Now He didn’t want us to leave!

I met a young man, Clark, barely 18 lying down on a bench. I gave him my last meal (sandwich, oatmeal cookies, bottle of water, mints and an apple) and he tore into it as if he hadn’t eaten in days. He told me he hadn’t seen his parents in years, he’s been living in foster homes most of his life and he dropped out of school. He had a strong desire to finish his schooling but he didn’t know how with his current situation. He asked me to pray for his older sis (19) who just suffered a miscarriage.

Paul spent a long time ministering to Clark’s friend Daniel, who was 17. Daniel’s mom, a drug addict, kicked Daniel out over a drug dispute. I later told Paul that God brought him with us tonight for the specific purpose of talking to Daniel, there was nobody else in our group who would have been able to make a connection with him. Paul was glad he decided to come.

After that we organized and left for home, around 10:40pm. After dropping everyone off I got home around 1am.

I haven’t mentioned every single person we encountered because I can’t remember all of their names, and each individual in our group has their own additional testimonies. I know that God used us that night. We prayed for dozens of people out on the street in-front of everyone and left them all with a full tummy, a smile, a happier heart, the notion that they have a friend, and most importantly we invited them all to let Jesus into their lives.

Going somewhere

Another Monday. It’s Civic Holiday today (I don’t even know what that is). We are going to take care of the homeless this Thursday again and I’m praying for at least 10 people to show up this time because we were really overwhelmed the last few times.

This weekend was fairly relaxing, I did all my chores, some work and rested a good amount. Last night I went to bed at 10pm.

WOW I thought my testimony was amazing but no

Last night at Tim’s house a young Muslim lady who we call Notion talked about her journey in life, from Afghanistan to Russia to Canada and she broke down crying, which made everyone cry. I’m always inspired by people’s testimonies and I’m glad I have God to always get me back on track and correct my thinking. Jesus is saving people worldwide and He is unstoppable. I bet if America brings back all their troops and sends out the same number of Christian missionaries, the problems they are having in that region of the Middle East would be over FASTER, CHEAPER and PERMENANTLY. Because only Jesus brings about real change. He changes the hearts and minds of men and women.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

Penny wise and pound foolish. That’s how to describe people who pinch their pennies while they let million dollar opportunities fly by.

Last night when I showed up at the church I expected to see 75 people for homeless outreach. I saw 4 people. I was pissed. I was really pissed. It’s always the same people who do all the work. I go from church to church and pastors tell me that it’s the same handful who do all the work while the other 99% do nothing and complain.

I waited over an hour hoping and praying that more people would show up. Nobody showed else showed up.

We went downtown and met with hundreds of homeless people. We ran out of food and supplies quickly. There were a lot more families on the streets this time around as the economy has turned sour. One man didn’t even have shoes. Someone stole them them at the shelter. At least we had fresh socks to give him. One man didn’t have teeth and so he couldn’t eat much of the food we had for him, we’ll remember to bring softer things for next time.

Last time we were out some people requested peanut butter and jelly so we REMEMBERED that and brought it around for them this time. Thank you team!

These same people who never ever show up for volunteer work are always the ones crying out that God doesn’t answer their prayers, that they are always suffering, that they need a miracle from God. Gee I wonder why they never get their blessings. These are the same people who always remember that there is a dinner meeting after church. They always remember the free BBQ’s and the free pizza parties. They are never absent from free food nights, they never forget those. The bible says that these people will be cast into hell. That’s all I have to say in the matter.

Plain Truths

Have I said this before? If I invite everyone to a pizza party, everyone will show up. If I invite everyone to do volunteer work, just a handful of people will show up. People will rearrange their schedules for free pizza, but they won’t for ministry work. People will lie to their bosses and say they are sick for a party, but they won’t to do God’s work. This is why TV Evangelists use gimmicks, people are bored with plain truths.

Progress

7 people signed up for homeless outreach. 3 of them showed, plus another 9 who didn’t sign up which was a pleasant surprise. We went to a church in Toronto for orientation (which was a mistake, I should have just trained them myself) then went downtown and split up into groups. Giving out food and supplies to the homeless and talking to them, trying to give them hope for the present and future. Some of the homeless hid in the corners of ally’s and bushes and others were bold and put themselves on the sidewalk. Some didn’t even have sleeping bags or blankets. Some stored away our food for later and others gobbled it up right away. When we got back some of the group thanked me and asked if they could come along more often. Progress.

My New Friend John

After church I met a man in a wheelchair named John, who at this time is 85 years old and has been married 2 months shy of 64 years with his wife. He stopped me in the parking lot, out of the many other people and struck up a conversation. He gave me a booklet with his testimony and I read it, very inspiring! He reads the bible from cover to cover every month now that he’s retired. He even invited me to his home to have bible studies with him and his friends and family.