By: Mattan, Community Engagement Coordinator
These past two weeks have been a blend of busyness and excitement. Being a youth in both this church and community, I wanted to use this opportunity to learn about how this church works to serve the Victoria Village community and gain insight on how I could engage myself in this community. I’ve quickly learned that the church’s operations and purpose is not only for Sunday Service and Friday Fellowship. There is so much behind the scenes that allows for services, activities and initiatives to happen.
Angela and I have worked on creating the Hub’s annual summer guide that helps families find activities to do around the community and city. Alongside Ontario’s reopening plan, the summer guide contains in-person and online events. I didn’t realize the scope of activities offered in my community! From local restaurants to Hub social groups, each activity brings a unique flavour. I believe that the summer guide is important now more than ever with the past couple months leaving everyone locked down.
Additionally, I served at the St Jude’s Foodbank in a team of 6 other dedicated volunteers on distribution day on Wednesday. I was tasked to carry packed bags of food from the pantry to the table for the customers. I was guided on how the operations were run by the more experienced volunteers and I learned so much by simply observing the other volunteers. It was both tiring and gratifying to spend the morning serving others. The work that the volunteers do is so vital to the community and I got the sense that God was working through us.
Despite this most unusual summer, there are more experiences to learn and grow from. I am most excited for the next six weeks as I know there are many more outreach opportunities! I am looking forward to initiatives such as planning a community garden and organizing a joint fellowship with Hub and ET’s youth fellowships.