On top of that, tonight we did a walk through downtown Toronto with a tour guide from the Salvation Army who lived there as a homeless person. It's an interesting perspective and there is a lot of talk about gentrification (the idea of a community pouring a lot of money into an area to improve it while at the same time not solving the poverty, simply moving or hiding it). Lots of opinions, lots of discussion. But for now, I'll leave you with some stories from our students.
Thank you for your prayers and support, we covet them all!
T
Today was my second day working at Booth Industries. There,
we get the opportunity to work with some really special people who suffer from
mental illnesses. I got to work with a man from India named Kiswar. He told me everything
about him. I could tell he liked to talk. After we were done at our work sites,
we went on a street walk with a man named Anthony. I learned a lot of lessons
from Anthony’s life experiences. He really exposed me to a new perspective on
life.
-Scott Kokjohn
I had a really life-affirming day. I have to say, I left on
the mission trip kind of expecting it to be like the others I’ve been on, you
know, all one of them, and I’m glad to say I was very wrong. I went to Booth
Industries today for the second time, which was similar to my first day. I got
to work with two guys named Leonardo and Cedric. They chatted with Jacob Stebbe
for a long time about sports, not my strong suit, but I jumped in when I could
and I’m glad I could be part of a better connection with them today. The really
great part of my day came when we went on a street walk with a former drug
addict named Anthony. He had a really radical message for us, a product of how
hard his life has been, but I really liked what he had to say. He told us about
how the struggles he went through get ignored by society a lot of the time,
which of course I totally agree with and I would love to do what I can to help
expose the problem of homelessness and drug addiction to people, but the most
important thing he helped show me is that when I do see something, I can’t just
be angry or upset that it’s bad, I have to take action or spread the word to
those who can do more. He was really inspiring and I really feel like a different,
better person after listening to what he said. Also, he quoted Nelson Mandela,
which automatically makes me super happy. I can’t wait to take what I’ve
learned today and use it on the rest of the trip and the rest of my life.
-Jacob Bennington
Today was an awesome day. When I arrived I did not know what
to expect. Troy
told us to hug one of the youth works people so I hugged a helper named Rachel.
She was very nice and hugged me right back. I am helping at a nursing home all
this week. The elders really love to sing. We sang take me out to the ball game
and firework by Katie Perry and many more songs. The elders love to be fashionable
so I painted many of the ladies nails hot pink. I met many people here in Toronto. Some of the
people we work with are from Boston and from
right here in Toronto.
One of the girls I’ve met was adapted from China like me and we even share the
love of music. With there help we fed the elders and played Bingo with some of
the residents. For the afternoon activity we went to the beach, the water was
very cold so we had a contest of who could stay in the water the longest. I won
of course. Today we went on a tour of the city with a former homeless drug
addict. He told us his life story and we got to sort of walk through this life.
The experience was life changing and made me think about how I could help in
the world. I hope the rest of our time turns out to be a fun and life changing
week.
-Emily Lavey
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