Toronto Day 4 (Wednesday)

A realization set in today, we are half-done our trip. Today was our third day out or four of working. For my group, it was almost like we’re getting in a groove. We managed to get to our site by ourselves (which somehow happened to include a trip to Tim Horton’s, shocker). We also managed to get back by ourselves and also shower, what a great day!

At the site things were flowing well. We’ve really gotten to know a lot of the kids and they have gotten to know us. I really didn’t need to do much (usually I hung out with the older kids, today they were actually doing the craft without nudging, I got to work on our “Happy Fun Notes” or encouragement notes). Our students did a great job with the kids, more people getting into leading the songs, Bobby and Helen having fun with the Memory Verse, our drama, Shawn leading, it just really went well. But at the same time, it’s become a little bitter-sweet.


Tomorrow’s the last day. The last time we get to be with them for just a few hours. It’s amazing how you manage to care for and love these strangers in so short a time.

This afternoon, we had some free time for the first time (or so it seems). I took some of my crew walking (I needed to go the bank) and managed to share some of our Canadian products with them. They really love mint Aero bars for some reason…

Tonight we went to Chinatown. A lot of people went out and bought trinkets, me and some of the boys went for some real Chinese food. Nice greasy duck and rice (with some chicken). It was fun. We almost didn’t have enough time to get back, and although it wasn’t a lot of the “experience” of Chinatown, I just love hanging with the guys, just talking with our students (and girls too, they just weren’t there at the time).


After we had a little bit of ice cream and someone had cake (Happy Birthday Rebecca) and we talked about power and how Jesus chose not to use the power He could have but instead chose to hang on a cross so we could have the chance to know Him. How He chose to submit His power and ask us to do the same (like Peter being asked not to use his sword to defend Him, those who live by the sword die by the sword), how we have hope because when Jesus laid down His power a greater power was able to be given through the resurrection, but it started with giving up some power first, as we should do. Afterwards we broke into group time where we basically just talked. Heard about who was where, stories of the day, and talked about what we hope to get out of our last day.

I think tomorrow will be hard being the last day, but instead of guessing about tomorrow, some of our students would like to tell you about their trip so far.

Nikki J. ~ I think that this week God has been working in mysterious ways with every single person on this trip. Group four went to St. Jude’s academy for the arts which was a school for adults who are mentally and physically disabled. Many of these people the past couple of days have been showing many of us how powerful God really can be. All of these people are so powerfully “all in” for God, that it just blows my mind. Tomorrow is our last day and I hope that I, as well as the rest of the people in my crew, can be helped as much by these people as I have been the past couple of days. I truly believe that they have taught me more than I have helped them this week. God bless the students at St. Jude’s.

Eric O. ~ Never blogged before bear with me, Ok well for the past few days I have been working at St. Francis Table, a restaurant for the poor where they pay a dollar and get a full meal. There are 3 guys that run this place, Brother John, a Franciscan Priest, and the two cooks Sam and Dominic. It has been up and running since 1987 and it just me today, they had told us before, but in the past 20 years they have served over 950,000 poor/homeless people meals in Toronto. The reality of that number hit me today when I realized that 950,000 equals the number of people living in Marion County.!!!!!!!!!!! Wow it just really amazed me. Looking forward to our last day tomorrow. God Bless

Jordan H. ~ I dunno if you read Eric’s post, but I am also new to the blog. So yeah, for the past 3 days I have been working with team 5 with the Nazarene Church program called Refresh. The whole goal of the program is to repaint houses in the low income section in order to give tenents a little better self-image. We have spent a lot of time cleaning up after other groups which has been a little discouraging just because we haven’t completely finished a house yet. Today, though, we actually had the chance to do it right. It was amazing to see, because everyone in our group was at the point where we would have given up showering in order to finish the house. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that, but we did get it done. It really has been amazing to see God at work in these people. And Kendall is trying to trade me a Canadian 10 for two 5’s and can’t find his wallet… And Tim Hortons may well be the best thing ever, and there is an image of people playing hockey on the 5 dollar bill…. Last day tomorrow, and I hope we can all make it count. God bless.