Update Tuesday - Up and Downs of Serving on the Fringes

Serving in the city, and serving some of the cities underprivileged comes with up and downs.  This week has seen a bit of both.  I started this week by returning from a number of weeks of travel and going through my mail.  There was one letter from a church in North Carolina that was particularly encouraging.  Although we have never met anyone in this church in person, they have been faithful prayer partners ever since hearing about our church a little over a year ago.  They joined our prayer initiative and adopted a street to pray for in our neighbourhood and have continued to follow what is happening here and continue to pray.  A few months ago I received an e-mail letting me know that they had a VBS planned and that they usually took up an offering during the week that usually ended up being about $150, and that they would like it to go towards our work here in Hamilton.  They also asked if there were any specifics that they could share about where the money might be used to help the attendees feel a bit more connected to the offering.  In my e-mail response I suggested that they talk about our work with the underprivileged,  I shared an estimate for what it costs to serve one meal and suggested they could talk about providing meals.  When I opened the letter this week there was a cheque for over $380!  It was encouraging to see a church who continues to pray for us, who has a heart for Hamilton although they have never even been here and who feel connected to our work with the less fortunate in our city.
This morning was also the first week after a number of weeks away that I was able to connect with they guys at the Beer Store again.  I must admit that although I has a great time away, and that a lot of significant things happened, this was one thing that I missed being able to do.  There is always a bit of confusion when there is a holiday Monday and the numbers where a bit lower than usual and some of the regular faces were not present.  I was sad to hear, however, that one friend in particular was not there for different reasons.  It seems that my friend is in the Barton Street Jail.  From what I gather, he was found drinking in public which was a breach of probation that landed him back in jail.  I suppose that this is not an altogether surprising set of events for a homeless alcoholic.  I have managed to track him down however and will be heading over to visit him this evening.  I am praying that this might be a bit of a wake up call and the impetus to seek some real change-to seek Christ.