Yesterday easily became a busy day for the Matthew 25 house. In an effort to show a physical act of ownership for the community, we decided to try and clean up what we lovingly call "Mattress Alley".
For those of you who have visited the house and have had the experience of driving down the back alley to our parking lot, you may remember seeing a couple mattresses against the fence. Well, we decided it was time to discard them - and what a difference it makes (one friend felt lost when she noticed they were gone last night!).
Through some of our contacts, we received the name of a private garbage disposal company down on Gage. They graciously (after some talking with Marion) offered to let us bring our garbage to their facilities. Loading up Marijke's truck 3 times, we managed to bring three mattresses, three box springs, old lumber, numerous bags of trash, and various other discarded items away from our back alley and from the side of the Hasty Market on the corner. It looks much cleaner, and it was a great activity.
After taking a break for lunch, we got dressed and headed to our second 'booking' for the day: City Kidz. This proved to be an incredible experience. We went to their facility (a renovated theatre) and received a tour from Morgan (one of their staff) and Hazen (a volunteer). We spent a few moments upstairs receiving a brief outline of the program and the organization's history before heading downstairs to see the program in action for a few minutes.
Wow - what a program. The program has 9 busses that travel various routes through many areas of Hamilton's Downtown. They pick up children and bring them to the facility on Sherman Avenue. Once inside, the kids grab a seat in the old theatre and join in the singing and activities. While I have never been to a Hannah Montanna concert, City Kidz is what I anticipate it looking like. Flashing lights, songs with great actions, people on stage leading the singing and activities, team games like 'freeze dance'... it was high-energy, and highly entertaining. All of us that went have a heavy camp background and our days of running camp came rushing back. It was great.
Closer to the end of the program, the kids get a meal (usually a hamburger) and watch a bit of a movie before closing in some more songs and heading home. This week was Christmas and so every child received a gift, a turkey wrap, a stocking and a hug from Santa before heading home. They were SO excited.
The best part of the program is that it infused with Christian teachings. Through the fun songs, teachings of love and joy are spread. In activities, sportsmanship and fairness are taught. Throughout, the children are taught that Jesus loves them, that they are not a mistake, that God has a plan for them, and that it's OK to be a kid. They get a chance to revel in those facts, and just enjoy a time of fun. It's great.
Another important aspect of the program is that every child has a volunteer (or staff) that they talk to and meet every week. Often this is the person that is on the bus that makes sure they get picked up and helps them walk home. This person tries to touch base with all these children through the week and be a sort of mentor for them. This is a huge commitment for the volunteers, but is such a part of the program.
After being bombarded by all this information and getting excited about the program (and dodged the kids running out of the theatre to get their presents on the bus) we headed home to continue our busy day.
We finished our night quite peacefully, baking cookies (our tool to meet more neighbours :D), wrapping presents for the Angel Tree program we are helping with, and in good conversation.
Overall, a great day of serving and learning in the community. The trick for us now is getting involved... but not over-committed. A balance is necessary, but tricky.
Pray for us as we continue to find ministries that are really exciting and that we would love to get involved in, but need to decide where to focus. Pray for our neighbourhood as we continue to get to know our neighbours and try to find needs that we can help with.
Thank you all for your prayers so far, and your support!
Oh - and we're hopefully upgrading to a .com soon! We hope to have business/info cards ready soon and to have a small calendar of sorts available too!
Blessings,
The Matthew 25 House
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
House Blessing & Dedication
Last night was an incredible experience!
We had the opportunity to spend a few hours in prayer and fellowship, focusing on blessing and dedicating the house for the ministry we have been called to. Rough estimates (thank you Marion and Lea!) are that approximately 60 people packed the living room and kitchen of 25 Saint Matthew's Avenue to join the service. While it was not the epitome of comfortable, the joy and excitement was enough to keep anyone from complaining too much.
In the hour or two that followed, we broke into groups and prayed over the many areas of the house. The basement, the sleeping areas, the living room, the kitchen... some even went with Marijke and braved the -25 degree temperatures to pray outside over the house and neighbourhood. The house was doused in prayer and blessing.
The outpouring of support and prayer was intense and incredible; God-granted and Spirit-lead, for sure. I am positive that not only was the house blessed, but many who attended left feeling enriched and touched. There was a feeling of camaraderie and community in the house and among the people, even with the many different people we had present. We had people from as close as within the City and people from Chatham and Clinton. We had children and those with a little more life experience ;). We had people from many different churches and denominations. It was a unity and fellowship that exemplifies our unity within Christ. It was amazing.
We closed the night well, spending the last hours before bed with a few remaining guests in fellowship and singing some songs. We are now planning and moving towards some new opportunities. We have many opportunities available and we are at the point of figuring out what to do first. Discussion right now is mostly revolving around our cookie gifts to the neighbours (getting to meet and greet the people of Saint Matthew's Avenue), discussing wrapping our gifts for the Angel Tree Program, and figuring out how to put together a clean-up day before the heavy snow comes our way. I'm sure you'll hear about them as they come to fruition :).
On behalf of the residents of 25 St Matt's, THANK YOU. Thank you for even taking interest in reading about our activities. Thank you for supporting us in this ministry. We may be the 'face' of this ministry, but you are definitely a huge part of us. We need the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ! Last night, for example, was the most encouraged we have felt about this ministry. Thank you!
With that said, it is time to sign off. We will be trying to keep this blog updated with stories and announcements as they come up. If you have any questions, give one of us a shout! Or feel free to drop by the house - someone is usually home.
We had the opportunity to spend a few hours in prayer and fellowship, focusing on blessing and dedicating the house for the ministry we have been called to. Rough estimates (thank you Marion and Lea!) are that approximately 60 people packed the living room and kitchen of 25 Saint Matthew's Avenue to join the service. While it was not the epitome of comfortable, the joy and excitement was enough to keep anyone from complaining too much.
In the hour or two that followed, we broke into groups and prayed over the many areas of the house. The basement, the sleeping areas, the living room, the kitchen... some even went with Marijke and braved the -25 degree temperatures to pray outside over the house and neighbourhood. The house was doused in prayer and blessing.
The outpouring of support and prayer was intense and incredible; God-granted and Spirit-lead, for sure. I am positive that not only was the house blessed, but many who attended left feeling enriched and touched. There was a feeling of camaraderie and community in the house and among the people, even with the many different people we had present. We had people from as close as within the City and people from Chatham and Clinton. We had children and those with a little more life experience ;). We had people from many different churches and denominations. It was a unity and fellowship that exemplifies our unity within Christ. It was amazing.
We closed the night well, spending the last hours before bed with a few remaining guests in fellowship and singing some songs. We are now planning and moving towards some new opportunities. We have many opportunities available and we are at the point of figuring out what to do first. Discussion right now is mostly revolving around our cookie gifts to the neighbours (getting to meet and greet the people of Saint Matthew's Avenue), discussing wrapping our gifts for the Angel Tree Program, and figuring out how to put together a clean-up day before the heavy snow comes our way. I'm sure you'll hear about them as they come to fruition :).
On behalf of the residents of 25 St Matt's, THANK YOU. Thank you for even taking interest in reading about our activities. Thank you for supporting us in this ministry. We may be the 'face' of this ministry, but you are definitely a huge part of us. We need the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ! Last night, for example, was the most encouraged we have felt about this ministry. Thank you!
With that said, it is time to sign off. We will be trying to keep this blog updated with stories and announcements as they come up. If you have any questions, give one of us a shout! Or feel free to drop by the house - someone is usually home.
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