Gospel Transformation In An At Risk Neighbourhood

For 10 years, New Song Church has been alongside one of Windsor’s more challenging neighbourhoods of social housing. What we affectionately call the Glengarry neighbourhood is a series of four high rise apartments, several rows of townhouses and an assisted living facility. It experiences the most tragic of life experiences as well as a quieter majority that are just trying to survive.

Through collaboration initially with The Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative and partnership with Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation, we run a 4 day per week drop in centre, a community garden, the cafeteria contract in the assisted living facility along with a weekly Bible study and prayer meeting for residents with spiritual desire.

In this episode, Kevin Rogers interviews Kevin and Paula Saunders as well as Elizabeth Anderson.

Let Nothing Be Wasted (Ejay Tupe)

One of our podcast regulars, Ejay Tupe brought this message ‘Let Nothing Be Wasted’ at the Our City Windsor - Signs Of Hope conference.

His years of experience in urban ministry are informed by his reading of the Scriptures.

Ejay is an urban worker in downtown Toronto.

Link:

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/ejaytupe

Becoming Bilingual (Cal & Chrissy Krahn interview)

With almost 30 years of ministry experience, Cal and Chrissy Krahn have often been drawn to those outside of the church walls. As urban workers with Mission Canada, based in Montreal, Quebec, they care for those around them who are lonely, hurting, or in need of a friend. This can be through involvement at the local food bank, sharing a meal or a coffee with someone, connecting newcomers to Canada with helpful resources, or simply giving a granola bar to a person who’s hungry.

In the words of Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), "When you take up residence among them, you have an opportunity to do things for transforming that community and those people not only spiritually, but it will change their lives economically, socially, and educationally, and all the things that follow. YOU can make a difference in the world.”
In a province where less than 1% of the population attend an evangelical service on a Sunday morning, and where many do not trust religion or have been hurt, Cal and Chrissy desire to embody "the Jesus way" by living their lives based on the example of Christ - full of generosity, hospitality, and love.

 Links:

Mission Canada Profile Page

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/cckrahn

From Organized Crime To True Religion (Alan Campbell interview)

Years ago, I worked as a federal chaplain at a halfway house. I learned so much about the value of faith-based community friendships for men and women returning to the community.

Alan Campbell has devoted his adult life to Jesus-inspired care for people being released from jail. He is humble and virtuous in his approach and remains focused on the mission. l am grateful to know ‘Refuge Ministries Canada’ and to serve them when I can.

Alan shares his story of conversion from incarceration for his involvement with the Toronto Mafia, God’s call to help prisoners and the role of suffering in his ongoing transformation.

Links:

Refuge Ministries Canada

https://www.refugeministriescanada.com/

Refuge Freedom Stories

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/refuge-freedom-stories/id1524349333

Persecuted For Jesus' Sake (Gary Stagg interview)

In 1955, a Dutch Christian named Andrew van der Bijl began smuggling Bibles into Communist Poland. Through successive years he would enter Communist countries at every occasion to secretly bring God’s Word to places where Christianity was illegal. Brother Andrew began an organization named ‘Open Doors’, a ministry that tells the story of persecuted Christians around the world.

The Canadian director of Open Doors is Rev. Gary Stagg. In this interview we talk about the harsh reality of 365 million Christians being persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and even executed for their allegiance to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Link:

Open Doors Canada

https://www.opendoorscanada.org/

Youth At The West Edmonton Mall (Braden Brodeur)

Braden Brodeur is a youth worker at Marketplace Chapel at the West Edmonton Mall. The chapel is staffed by Christians and provides spiritual and religious care to shoppers, employees, and wanderers. He is in process to become a Mission Canada urban worker.

The West Edmonton Mall is the 2nd largest mall in North America at 5.3 million square feet.

West Edmonton Mall has over 800 stores and services including nine attractions, two hotels and over 100 dining venues in the complex, and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles. More than 24,000 people are employed at the property. The mall receives about 32 million visitors per year; it attracts between 90,000 and 200,000 shoppers daily, depending on the day and season.

 Braden currently interacts with 100 youth on a weekly basis.

Links:

Marketplace Chapel

https://www.lovedmonton.com/

West Edmonton Mall

https://www.wem.ca/

Mission Canada Profile

https://www.paoc.org/canada/workers/bradenbrodeur

Homeless In Toronto (Brad Sider)

On any given night in Toronto, there are about 9000 men, women and children that have no place to stay. Brad Sider spoke at the Our City Scarborough conference on the topic of homelessness his city.

As a veteran shelter and street population worker, Brad is currently a director with the Maxwell Meighen Centre, one of several Salvation Army shelters.

Previously he worked with the Mennonite Central Committee with men coming from prison and reintegrating into the community.

As a follower of Jesus, Brad brings insight into how the gospel interfaces with people on the streets.

Links:

Maxwell Meighen Centre

https://www.torontohhs.org/shelters/maxwell-meighen/

Mennonite Central Committee

https://mcc.org/

Brad Sider

Restoring Women At Risk (Julie Hunter Interview)

Julie Hunter is the executive director for Windsor Life Centre, a residential, faith-based treatment centre for women recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. The Centre began 10 years ago on the property of Windsor Christian Fellowship under the vision and leadership of Cathy Ciaramitaro.

Windsor Life Centre aims to provide healing to the whole person, giving them tools to live out lasting recovery.

Grounded in compassion, we are designed to empower every woman to reach lifelong sobriety. We help women with their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing so they can live healthier lifestyles after graduating from the program.

Windsor Life Centre understands addiction is complicated and unique for each individual. We provide customized treatment plans as a key feature of our program by examining each woman’s strengths, treatment needs, and coping abilities. Upon admission to Windsor Life Centre and throughout the treatment stay, our team evaluates their progress and adjusts the treatment plan as necessary. We also offer 12 step facilitation, social activities, life skills training, and multiple forms of therapy.

Link:

https://windsorlifecentre.com/

Red Frogs And Zoe Manor (Nelly Latchman interview)

At sixteen years of age, Nelly Latchman was on a youth group mission trip to New Song Church. The days in Windsor were an opportunity to experience God at work in an urban context outside of her own neighbourhood. That initial experience would eventually culminate in moving to Windsor after graduating from Tyndale Seminary.

Today, Nelly is a Mission Canada worker that serves as part of the national Serve Campus Network with her focus on the University of Windsor. She is also a young adult pastor at Parkwood Gospel Church.

Links:

Nelly Latchman - Mission Canada profile page

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/nellylatchman

Serve Campus Network

https://paoc.org/serve-campus

Red Frogs Canada

https://ca.redfrogs.com/

Parkwood Young Adults

https://parkwoodwindsor.com/youngadults

Asylum Seekers And Homelessness (Mike Morency & Ejay Tupe interview)

Our guests on this episode are Ejay Tupe, director of Toronto Urban Mission Hub in downtown Toronto and Mike Morency, executive director of Matthew House – Windsor.

We will be talking about a story that began unfolding this past summer when over 200 refugee claimants from African nations found themselves sleeping on the streets. Many were outside a homeless support centre at 129 Peter St. in downtown Toronto. There seemed to initially be a funding stalemate between levels of government.

Into the crisis, three churches got involved directly by opening up their buildings to provide shelter, food, and support.

·      Revivaltime Tabernacle

·      Pilgrim Feast Tabernacle

·      Dominion Church International

This story eventually leads to some of the asylum seekers ending up served by Matthew House in Windsor.

Links:

Ejay Tupe

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/ejaytupe

Oct 30th update from Ejay

https://youtu.be/-o4LVpanGmo?si=J11xqAhrKoEd_DPb

Matthew House - Windsor

https://matthewhousewindsor.org/

Our City Scarborough Conference

https://www.ourcitytoronto.ca/

News article:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/church-temporary-emergency-shelter-asylum-seekers-toronto-1.6927489

Ejay Tupe

Mike Morency

Vancouver Downtown East Side (Aaron White interview)

Today on the podcast we are taking a virtual walk on the sidewalks of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side and having a conversation with Aaron White.

Aaron is a pastor, justice worker and prayer instigator in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver for the past 20 years, where he lives with his wife and four children in a community home. He’s part of the team at Jacob’s Well, an ecumenical Christian centre of hospitality where his job description is resident theologian.

He is the co-author of Revolution and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Kingdom of God; co-creator of The Creative Way Down discipleship resource; and author of his newest book Recovering: From Brokenness and Addiction to Blessedness and Community.

Along with one of my previous guests Dave Carrol (Captain Kindness), he co-hosts the Two Wise Fools podcast, a light-hearted and sometimes emphatically, truthful conversation about all things sacred and profane.

Links:

Recovering Book

https://bakeracademic.com/p/Recovering-Aaron-White/41667

Jacob’s Well

https://www.jacobswell.ca/

Two Wise Fools Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/two-wise-fools/id1547557549

Musicians On Mission (The Extreme Tour)

For thirty years, The Extreme Tour have partnered with community groups and clubs, civic organizations, churches, schools, government agencies and municipalities that are working charitably to meet the needs of the disenfranchised.

Collectively they have been in hundreds of communities scattered throughout 20 countries bringing music, art, spoken word, etc. They are musicians on mission and people that want to serve.

In mid-September they spent a week in Windsor, Ontario assisting New Song Church and Feeding Windsor-Essex. This is our round table conversation about who they are and the unique work that they are called to.

Links:

The Extreme Tour

https://www.theextremetour.com/

Danyelle Speaks

https://www.danyellespeaks.com/

Idiomz Da Prophesayer

https://idiomz.bandcamp.com/

Manny Hubbard (Flamuel)

https://www.youtube.com/@MannyHubbardMusic

Samuel Kislow (Salmon Friends)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2CLfjEDGS4

From Fentanyl To The Soup Shack (Bobby Reaume interview)

Three years ago, Bobby Reaume walked into my office and said, “Hey remember me?” It took me awhile before I would remember that he and his wife Grace attended the church briefly a few years prior. When Bobby walked in, he had been released from prison, returned to addiction, and was living in tent city. He came to see me with John Button the founder of Launch Pad Recovery Centre as he was entering into a Christian recovery program.

Today Bobby is working full-time, sober, spirit-filled and serving the homeless population in our city of Windsor with the Soup Shack, a trailer set up to distribute food and basic supplies to people on the street.

 Links:

Soup Shack organized by Feeding Windsor-Essex

https://www.feedingwindsoressex.ca/

Launch Pad Recovery Center

https://launchpadrecovery.org/

Hope On The Streets Of Leamington (Jennifer Hyde interview)

In the fall of 2022, three Leamington entrepreneurs came together to establish the Leamington Community Hope Centre at the old Knox Presbyterian Church located in the downtown core. Their goal was to secure a community space where necessary resources would be available to people in need to help ensure their physical, mental, social, and spiritual health was prioritized.

The Centre is taking shape quickly with a surge of community volunteers getting involved, many from area churches. Jennifer Hyde is the executive director of a new organization known as the Leamington Community Hope Centre.

Links:

Leamington Community Hope Centre

https://www.leamingtonhopecentre.ca/

Feeding Windsor-Essex

https://www.feedingwindsoressex.ca/

Healed Of Schizophrenia (Josh Tamblyn interview)

When it comes to medical conditions and healing, Christians hold a range of views from the intervention of doctors and medicine, alternative practices and healing that comes from God. I am not a doctor, so I would never give medical advice but would always encourage people to take a threefold approach to getting help.

First, we ask God for help in all things. Secondly, we investigate and utilize good medicine and thirdly we look at alternative methods when the first two are not yielding a result. Some will try alternative before mainstream and that’s their choice.

I bring this up today as we consider that the spiritual life of a person may be affected by physical and mental conditions. I believe that God heals, and today’s guest passes the test in my mind for a verifiable miracle from God.

Josh Tamblyn was healed of schizophrenia. We’re going to hear his story and also learn about his present involvement in ministry.

Links:

Mission Canada Profile Page

https://paoc.org/donate/joshtamblyn

University Christian Ministries

https://www.joinucm.org/

Serve Campus Network

https://paoc.org/serve-campus

Ministry Spotlight

https://youtu.be/LtTXs724Fpw

Captain Kindness Lives In Brantford

Dave Carrol is the lead pastor of Freedom House, a community minded church in Brantford, Ontario. Through many years of working closely with civic leaders, the church has gained a reputation for serving with a great attitude.

There’s a good story here about the day that David donned leotards and a red cape and became Captain Kindness. The Kindness Project was launched to make Brantford the kindest city in Canada. Perhaps podcast listeners will be inspired to release their own inner superheroes.

Links:

The Kindness Project

https://freedomhouse.ca/kindness-project/

Freedom House

https://freedomhouse.ca/

Two Wise Fools Podcast (with Aaron White)

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/two-wise-fools/id1547557549

ABCD and the Lord's Table

I met today’s guest Doctor Jon Massimi when we were both presenting at the Anchor Ministerial Fellowship conference in Cambridge. Jon and his family live in the Kitchener/Waterloo area presently and has worked and ministered extensively in the community space.

 Jon is an Anglican priest and has developed his thesis on the relationship between Asset Based Community Development and the Faith Base.

Links:

Anchor Ministerial Session – 2023

https://youtu.be/bc1NwEcZq1c

Tamarack Community article

https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/latest/local-business-benediction?hs_amp=true

The Connected Community by Cormac Russell and John McKnight

https://www.amazon.ca/Connected-Community-Discovering-Health-Neighborhoods/dp/1523002522/ref=sr_1_1?crid=56Q0MVL3SEI5&keywords=the+connected+community&qid=1687455809&sprefix=the+connected+%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1

Community Exegesis (Ejay Tupe)

Ejay Tupe has served as an urban worker in downtown Toronto for sixteen years. In this session he shares stories and ideas about listening to the city. What can we learn by listening to the people, the values and the culture?

Recorded at Our City Toronto 2023 conference.

Links:

Mission Canada

https://paoc.org/donate/EjayTupe

Full Time Neighbours - Karen

After pastoring for 21 years at a large city church, Karen took the risk 12 years ago to live on raised funds as an urban worker, joining with what God is doing in East Vancouver, one of the most unchurched neighbourhoods in Canada. She lives a shared life intentionally in a 100 year old, six bedroom house,  as a base to seek the flourishing of her community and extend generous hospitality to neighbour and stranger.

Karen has experienced many 'conversions' in herself as she has rooted into her place, leaning into sustainable living practices, urban gardening, valuing the ordinary and simple and moved away from a busy and fragmented life (since you can't be busy and be present to others). After replacing her car with a bike, she now lives 90% of her life within walking distance. She has forged a slow lifestyle of radical hospitality to strangers and neighbours (vs entertaining friends and family) and her home - called Parker House - has become the primary gathering space for neighbourhood Soup Nights, House Concerts, etc. After living alone for most of her life, Karen wanted to live more deeply into her faith, intentionally living with others inter-generationally (over 200 people have lived in her home in the last decade). She organized her neighbourhood to sponsor Syrian refugees 7 years ago (who lived with her for a year), and seeks to join with anyone in the community seeking the common good. 

It has been a wild and wonderful ride - and she is having a blast at this stage of life.  Convinced that the Spirit always works in the particular and in place, Karen will share a bit of her story and wisdom from seeking to love God by loving neighbour...and enjoying neighbour as a way to enjoy God....and listening to our community as a way to listen to God.  

Links:

QUEST Conversation: Qualitative Neighbouring Part One

https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/qualitative-neighbouring-quest-conversation-part-1

QUEST Conversation: Qualitative Neighbouring Part Two

https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/qualitative-neighbouring-quest-conversation-part-2

Jesus In The Diaspora - Charles Hermelink interview

Charles and I work together with Mission Canada, a Christian ‘mission agency to reach Canada with the gospel in unique ways. There are many contexts where there is a gap; campuses, people groups, regions, and communities where Jesus is inadequately represented. Mission Canada is committed to identify and equip those who will pursue their calling to fill these gaps.’[1]

I am the urban ministry consultant and Charles is the Cultural Ministries consultant. As part of that role, he gives leadership to Neighbours & Newcomers Network National.

Links:

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/priorityculturalministries

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/nnnetworknational

[1] https://paoc.org/canada/about