More than Socks

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

The month of October was a very busy one at SPPC and included our "cozy toes" campaign. You can see in these photos, Christian love in action.

As noted previously, we've gone beyond socks in this program and now collect personal items as well as coats, sweaters, underwear, and  boots. 

It is all gathered and sent on to The Mustard Seed. This marvellous, compassionate organization has been helping the vulnerable on our streets since 1975. 

In the past four or five decades nearly all of the agencies in our area have evolved and expanded. The Open Door began in 1986 with a peanut butter sandwich and a sympathetic ear in an upstairs room at Metropolitan United Church. The Upper Room, founded in 1967, was a simple coffee house, offering a meal and shelter to those living rough on the streets of Victoria. Eventually, those two organizations joined forces to become Our Place, which now serves over half a million meals per year, provides hot showers, medical care, clean clothing, and help with housing.

Cool Aid began in 1968 as a hostel for transient youth travelling across the country. It didn't take long until they realized there was a need for more and added medical and dental clinics 

In 1975, Rev. Gipp Forster set up a prayer stool in a closet in his shop and The Mustard Seed Street Church began. Anyone could come to pray and receive spiritual and practical care. For a time he had a broadcast on local radio. I remember the homilies began with "I'm Gipp Forster and I'm a street pastor." Today the Mustard Seed provides family support, maintains a huge food bank, operates "Hope Farm" in Duncan, offers hospitality at a drop-in centre and conducts services and offers spiritual guidance in their church.

For all the growth and expansion the passing years have wrought, they have never forgotten their core values, including, 

Christianity: knowing that love comes from Christ and redemption is the way of God’s Kingdom, we serve and lead as a response to that love, shared with our neighbours, a love that pervades everything that we do and are.

If we were to look at these agencies, along with the plethora of soup kitchens and clothing drives operating out of church halls and service clubs, we would say the "industry" is thriving. Their customer base expands year after year, their budget increases, community buy-in is huge, their payrolls expand. . . . Sadly, this "success" is not the aim. Nothing would make these "helping ministries" happier than to be out of business, in a city where hunger and homelessness do not exist. 

Until that day, they spread the love of Christ amongst the disadvantaged and vulnerable in Victoria.   

At SPPC we are privileged to add our gifts -- a warm sock, a thick coat, a tube of toothpaste -- to their larger ministry.

Camp Imadene 2020

The link to this week's youtube service is https://youtu.be/Gn2sghdEG5c

Camp Imadene as we know it will not happen this summer of 2020. No cabins full of eager campers. No cabin leaders wondering if they'll ever get some sleep. No kitchen staff trying to keep everyone fed and happy.

However, there are still opportunities to enjoy a day camp experience.  Check out these websites for information.

 https://imadene.com/

 https://imadene.com/imadeneinvictoria.html

 There will be a lot of staff as campers will be separated into 10 member pods, each with their own leader, and minimal contact with the other pods. In preparation for day-campers Diane, Benjamin and Peter spent a couple of days making physical preparations at the site to accommodate COVID-19 protocols.

There was a hornet's nest that had to be destroyed. 

   

Time spent in the kitchen produced a little whimsy and a menu board. . .

. . .and some awesome treats. 

Rice Krispie squares?

Camp in 2020 won't look the same -- I saw a cartoon the other day where an older person on her birthday said she wasn't counting 2020 because she hadn't used it--but there will camp. There will be good times, there will be new friends, there will be God-talk. It's all part of our "new normal."

We are grateful to those who have figured out a way to make it happen and still keep everyone safe -- and kind and calm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This arrived in our in-box at church. If you can, remember all the agencies who are struggling right now. 

As we reopen our doors to welcome our family members back to Our Place at 919 Pandora, we find ourselves in need of toiletries – ( hotel size shampoo, soap, skin lotions, toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouth wash, dental floss, deodorant, safety razors, shaving cream, band aids, sun screen )  Thank you for your continuing generosity to the Our Place Family.  Items can be dropped off at 919 Pandora Ave 7 days per week at Reception.

 

THE HUMBLE SOCK

  The sock,-- humble, taken for granted, mismatched, missing, holed, cotton, wool, bamboo, silk -- is an amazing wardrobe article. 

 It takes us hiking --

 It tickles our funny bone.

It bundles a baby in love.

It hangs by the fire filled with expectation.

It lets us show our team colours, or declare our nationality.

It can even become our friend.

But the most amazing thing a sock can do is hold compassion and comfort for someone living on the street.  Someone with cold toes and blistered heels.  Someone who is loved by God.

October is "Warm Toes" month at SPPC.  Fill a sock with toiletries, a treat, a message of hope, a book . . .

and put it in the basket in the narthex.  At the end of the month they will be delivered to Our Place, a token of Christian love.