Faith At Work In Canadian Cities
Joe Ritchie grew up with a history of trauma and abuse that nearly killed him. At age fifteen he was in a car accident that left him quadriplegic and without hope. After three times of dying and being resuscitated, it would be a vision of Jesus that would change his life trajectory.
Today Joe serves as part of the pastoral team at Windsor’s New Song Church. Listen as he shares transparently about his struggles with addiction and the journey to freedom.
Today, I’m talking with Doctor Meera Grover who works in Calgary, Alberta extensively in the field of addiction medicine.
Working in Vancouver’s notorious downtown eastside to pay for her theological education at Regent College, Meera Grover was faced with questions about whether or not providing people who use drugs with sterile supplies and a place to inject contravened her faith. She knew she wanted to care for people with addiction but did not know how to do so in a way that fit with her own moral code.
She wrestled with these questions over the years and through her transition, from nursing to becoming a fully licensed physician who specializes in addiction medicine.[1]
Meera has written a book entitled “Why I Help People Take Drugs”. In this interview we delve into the often contested practice of harm reduction and the importance of the human connection in addressing addiction issues.
Link:
Dr. Meera Bai Grover
[1] Benjamin Perrin, flyleaf of ‘Why I Help People Take Drugs’
Tim Fletcher is the Founder and President of RE/ACT (Recovery Education for Addictions and Complex Trauma). He used his skills as a pastor and counsellor to develop a program to help the people he cared for overcome addiction. He realized the need for individuals to first become equipped with tools, and then put those tools into practice in a healthy, safe and loving environment - and herein lies his unique skill.
During his early years, he learned that everyone has a loved one who struggles with addiction, and many people struggled with unrealized addictions and unhealthy coping techniques. He found that 97% of addicts also struggled from Complex Trauma (C-PTSD) - corroborating the research of Dr. Gabor Maté. After researching C-PTSD which was identified as, “A series of events that occur where a victim feels unsafe, and as such, develops mental disorders which inhibit them from coping in stressful or harmful circumstances”, he concluded that research was showing that there is a physical difference between the brains of those who grew up in loving and nurturing homes and those who didn’t – before any addiction became prevalent.[1]
Links:
Tim Fletcher Website
Theo Von Interview
(language warning. Theo is a comedian and a spiritual seeker)
https://youtu.be/K60u6ObDsrI?si=_Oc2yXE9OfWqS7lf
Timothy Meisenheimer has spent decades on the streets with beatitude vision, first in Ottawa and now in Windsor, Ontario. This was his session at the Our City Windsor 2024 conference. Tim takes seriously the path of Jesus in his sidewalk vision of the Kingdom of God.
Links:
Urban Cry School of Mission
https://www.facebook.com/urbancryschoolofmission
Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative
Capital City Mission
https://capitalcitymission.com/
The Ottawa Mission
Years ago I read Maury Blair’s autobiography ‘Child Of Woe’. I was shocked at the severity of the child abuse he suffered from his step-father. How could a man be so filled with contempt for an innocent child and more miraculously, how could a child of violence grow up to be so compassionate and well-balanced?
In this episode I visited Maury at his kitchen table in Cambridge, Ontario as we revisited his faith journey and ministry. We walked on the streets of Paris, Ontario to see the old homestead, the church and the streets he lived on.
This is part one of two episodes.
Link:
Breakthrough Ministries
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.
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/
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
Two Wise Fools Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/two-wise-fools/id1547557549
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
Manny Hubbard (Flamuel)
https://www.youtube.com/@MannyHubbardMusic
Samuel Kislow (Salmon Friends)
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
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
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
Serve Campus Network
Ministry Spotlight
Rev. Sileen Phillips is the children’s minister at The Church of St. Peter and St. Simon The Apostle Anglican Church in Toronto. In this session at ‘Our City Toronto 2023’ she brings her insights from working with the vulnerable sector in government institutions and the community.
Links:
The Church of St Peter and St Simon-The-Apostle
Our City Toronto
Bill Reilly and I shadow the team of Street Level Advocacy in Peterborough, Ontario. Scott Couper, Leigh-Ann Davidson, Chris and a growing number of people are spending their days on the streets, in the Overflow tent city, shelters and agencies that work with street affiliated people.
You will meet Joe, the Aboriginal man run over by a snow plow and Will the bicycle recycler. Join us as we find God at work in desperate places.
Links:
YouTube version:
Scott Couper Interview - Season 2, Episode 24
https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/scott-couper-is-a-bridge
Scott Couper Profile
https://paoc.org/canada/workers/scottcouper
News:
Erinn Oxford was born and raised in Toronto, a city that she loves. She has been working in Parkdale, a neighbourhood in the city’s west end since 2007. In 2012 she was invited into her current role as Executive Director and Pastor. Tasked with re-visioning the work, Erinn sought the feedback of the community and proposed a full reboot, one that would include giving up a building, spilling into the streets, creating a nomadic routine, and becoming The Dale Ministries. She longs for and pursues the building of community in which all people are welcome and those who experience poverty are placed at the core, seeking to nurture relationships where we can understand and learn from one anothers’ histories, experiences and hopes. Erinn is a Christ-follower, caregiver and advocate, mother to Cate, partner to Dion, a musician and lover of the arts, a self-confessed klutz, and an aspiring friend to many.
Links:
It is my honour today to invite a team of indigenous Christians from various parts of Canada onto the podcast to talk about what it means to be an indigenous or aboriginal person living in Canadian cities. Stats Canada uses the terms ‘aboriginal’ and ‘indigenous’ to refer to people that are First Nations, Metis and Inuit. It is estimated that about one-half live in urban areas as compared to those living on reservation land and non-urban areas.
Dan Collado, has been serving the Lord in full-time ministry since 1993. He initially took a step of faith and went to live and pastor in small isolated fly-in Indigenous communities in northern Ontario, and later in Nunavut. After some 15 years of pastoral ministry, while continuing to feel the burden for Indigenous initiatives, Dan accepted the role as Academic Director of Aboriginal Bible Academy (ABA) in 2009. Dan is part of the Mohawk nation and resides in Napanee, ON.
Jim Thunder is Director of Economic Development at Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg, MB. He is an adjunct professor of Indigenous Economic Leadership at University of Manitoba.
Levi Samson Beardy is the Oji-Cree pastor of Aboriginal Believers’ Church in Toronto.
Links:
Dan Collado - Mission Canada Indigenous Priority
https://paoc.org/canada/workers/priorityindigenouscanadians
https://paoc.org/canada/workers/dancollado
Aboriginal Bible Academy
https://www.aboriginalbibleacademy.ca/about
Jim Thunder MBA
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jimthunder
Levi Samson Beardy
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/levi-samson-beardy-9639537
Aboriginal Believers’ Church
https://www.facebook.com/AbOriginalBelieversChurch/
Part 2 of my conversation with Timothy Meisenheimer from Ottawa. In this episode we discuss some of the challenges for the poor brought on by pandemic restrictions.
Also, the spiritual formation that can take place when people experience grief and loss.
Links:
Ottawa’s Heart with Ears - Timothy Meisenheimer interview (part 1)
Capital City Mission
http://capitalcitymission.com/
Ottawa Mission
Links:
Capital City Mission
http://capitalcitymission.com/
Ottawa Mission
This is part 2 of my interview with Kelly Tallon Franklin.
As a young Torontonian living in an upscale neighbourhood, Kelly lived with the secrecy of sexual abuse. Fuelled by her insecurities she took to the street with a vengeance. Her associations would eventually lead to her being trafficked.
Today Kelly Franklin leads Courage For Freedom, an organization committed to ending trafficking in Canada and helping its victims find a new life of healing and recovery.
Learn more at www.courageforfreedom.org
Kelly is available to speak and can be reached through office@courageforfreedom.org
As a young Torontonian living in an upscale neighbourhood, Kelly lived with the secrecy of sexual abuse. Fuelled by her insecurities she took to the street with a vengeance. Her associations would eventually lead to her being trafficked.
Today Kelly Franklin leads Courage For Freedom, an organization committed to ending trafficking in Canada and helping its victims find a new life of healing and recovery.
Learn more at www.courageforfreedom.org
Kelly is available to speak and can be reached through office@courageforfreedom.org
