Update Tuesday 22/11/11

It was a cool autumn evening as a small group of us ranging in ages from 6 to 60+, gathered in Gore park in downtown Hamilton.  What started as an initial observation by a young family driving into the city for prenatal appointments was finding expression in an act of obedient compassion.  Some friends of ours from a suburb of the Greater Hamilton Area have been putting proceeds from a home business towards supplies that they use to make meals for the homeless in Hamilton.  So when they contacted us we were honoured to join them in this act of service.  We spent a few hours Sunday evening handing out sandwiches and coffee to the homeless in the downtown core.  We all recognize that next to the towering issues of poverty, addiction, mental health etc. it is one small gesture easily lost within the shadows cast by such huge and complex issues.  On the other hand God has a way of multiplying seemingly small contributions for His sake and the sake of His Kingdom.  And really, speaking as a pastor, as I see individuals and small groups moved enough by the brokenness around them to break the temptations of apathy and inertia, then I can't help but think that God has already done something huge.   What I also loved about the opportunity, was the direct interaction that we had with individuals on the street.  It is one thing to give money to a charity (and I still encourage us to do so - often when we work together in an organized fashion we can do more to affect change) but it is another thing to see and hear from people first hand and to engage with those whom we seek to serve.  I can only imaging the impact this will have on our youngest children as they think about the individuals they handed a sandwich to and with whom they spoke.  There is already talk about the next time, and further ideas about what and how to respond to the need.
Along similar lines The Hamilton Spec (our local paper) released another set of articles in its Code Red Series looking at issues of poverty in the city.  The most recent articles focus on the issue of teen pregnancy and provide some very insightful, albeit challenging statistics.  For those of you who have had some connection with the Sanctuary Network over the years, these articles may be of interest to you as they not only address Hamilton, but also provide statistics from Halton (the neighbouring suburban region) in which many of our churches are found.  The statistic about abortions in Halton was particularly striking.  Interestingly, the articles also tried to provide an insight into the issue from a First Nations perspective and they chose to focus on Big Trout Lake which happens to be a northern community to which the Oakville Sanctuary has been leading mission trips for many years now.  The links are below:

Code Red  

Big Trout Lake

Thanks for your continued interest and support.