It’s Missions Month here at ET and, having grown up in the Church, we talk about missions a little differently from most churches. We talk about kingdom, calling, vocation and reconciliation; not just the Great Commission and proselytizing. And what I love most about this is that we tell stories. Their remote village in the mountains becomes ours when a team comes back and connects us to them. Their brokenness becomes our brokenness when Shelby shares about a girl who showed up to camp without lunch. We hope these stories encourage you to join in God’s reconciliation story.
Adapted from Pastor Sam’s sermon on Sunday, December 18th, 2016:
Every Christmas, we partner with St. Jude’s Christmas Angels and Santa Comes to Bay St. where our small groups sponsor food bank clients by helping to buy gifts and where businesses in downtown Toronto donate toys. As we were delivering these gifts last week, we had to make a stop pretty far east. As we were driving there, I thought to myself, “Why would someone come from all the way out here just to go to St. Jude? Isn’t there a food bank closer to them?”
With this thought in my mind, I went up to the door and knocked. When he answered the door, I had to do a double take. He was an older gentleman whom I recognized from 5 years ago when I helped out at the food bank every week in the summer. He vaguely remembered me and we had a chance to catch up. As we were saying goodbye, he shook my hand, grabbed my arm and pulled me in really closely. “Please tell Martha [food bank organizer] and Father Greg how excited I am to seem them again and chat next Wednesday at the food bank.”
It’s one thing for us to sign up for St. Jude’s Christmas Angels, but there’s so much more to what Father Greg and Martha do. They build relationships with the clients at the food bank meeting not only their physical needs, but being willing to chat, integrating them into their lives and journeying with them.