The beauty of shooting the breeze

I just got home from outreach in Parkdale. It was a cold, rainy night, so not many people were out and about. We ended up spending the majority of our time in Tim Horton’s, chatting with friends from the community who had joined us on our walk, and friends that we happened upon at Tim’s.…

We’re on each other’s team

A good friend and I often remind each other that “we’re on each other’s team”. By this we mean that we’ve got each other’s backs, we’re cheering for each other, and we believe in each other. I’ve been noticing lots of examples of this around the Dale recently too: A woman in distress came up…

We’re back!

We’re back from camp! Thanks so much to everyone who donated, prayed, and came along for the trip! The three nights and four days that we spent up at Camp Koinonia were doused with blessing. We were also doused with rain for most of Tuesday and part of Wednesday, but people didn’t let that stop…

The Great Outdoors

Being outside is just good for the soul. I spent part of this afternoon weeding our plot in the community garden, and it was great. Sure, I grumbled a bit about the very luxurious dandelions that had taken root, but being outside, tending a plot of earth is one of the loveliest, and most satisfying…

Beautiful moments III

Every few months I take some time to look over my journals from the previous few months. I just spent some time doing this, and came across some beautiful moments I wanted to share with you. – a faithful member of The Dale’s worshiping community prayed one Sunday in January “Lord, thank you that your…

Polarity Management

These past several weeks have felt very full! We participated in the “Spring into Parkdale” street festival, hosted a couple of different youth groups, went to a Street Level (www.streetlevel.ca) conference in St. Catharines, and held an open mic night, along with all the usual Dale programming. Erinn was also away for one of those…

A Future Not Our Own

The following reflection is from Oscar Romero, an archbishop from El Salvador who was assassinated on this day, in 1980, for speaking out against the repression of Salvadorans by their government. I read it this morning before heading off to The Dale, and it was exactly what I needed to hear. May it be an…

Beautiful moments II

My friend “Matt”, the person doing battle with addictions who I wrote about in the last “Beautiful moments” post, is continuously astounding me with deep, faith-filled one liners. On Tuesday, he told me that he was at another drop-in where some people were giving him a hard time. So he went into the bathroom, looked…

Beautiful moments

This afternoon a friend came into the Thrift Store for our coffee/chat drop-in, and excitedly showed me a book he’d taken out of the library about the teachings of Jesus. Tonight he came to our Bible Study at Coffee Time. He’s feeling determined to turn a new page, do battle with his addictions, and has…

Hope is a big word

Today we had our weekly drop-in at the Salvation Army Thrift Store “Coffee Corner”.. A friend joined us who is often in conversation with herself and/or an unseen other. She is sometimes very clear, and sometimes not. Today she spoke about a lot of things, including the feeling that she doesn’t have anyone in her…