Outreach

My apologizes for taking so long to blog. I wouldn't exactly say this summer has been hectic.. but I haven't really had a chance to gather my thoughts together to actually write a post that is worthwhile to read, though I do have some ideas floating around in my head...

So, today's blog is about outreach. I think I've been learning a lot about outreach during the summer... and if you recall a previous post of mine, I had talked about spending the summer learning about service and outreach. To give you an update on that, I've had some ups and down throughout the learning process, but I feel like I've gotten to a place where I can articulate a vision about what outreach is to me and just how I can reach out to others.

Now, I've never really had the heart for outreach... it's almost too easy to be desensitized to poverty and homelessness in downtown Toronto, where you see it everywhere, or in suburbia, where you see it nowhere. It's not a very good excuse, but regardless, outreach was more or less an afterthought. What really hit me was when I was volunteering at the hospital one day back in April. A woman had came in with the paramedics, waiting for detox. I recognized her from a previous visit, after she was discharged, because she was hanging around in the waiting room and she and I had chatted for a while. People making repeated visits to the ED are not uncommon. But when I saw her that night, sitting in her wheelchair, head down, looking so worn out and tired, my heart just broke for her. I thought to myself, someone out there must not have wanted this for her. Someone must have had dreams for her, someone must have wanted good things to happen for her. She probably didn't want this for herself. And even if none of those things are true, God definitely didn't want this for her. Then I thought, the system isn't going to fix things. They'll take care of her, she'll be discharged and then she'll be back. At the end of it all, did anyone really care about her?

So from there, began my original vision to learn to see people as Jesus would have seen them. As Mother Teresa would have seen them. I wanted to volunteer at the hospital and really learn what it meant to love and serve them. I started the CCF Outreach Small Group to grow, learn and challenge myself with people who had a similar passion for outreach.

As I said, there were ups and downs. Tianne and I began with high hopes, writing out vision statement, planning a bible study and organizing with Sanctuary Ministries to begin volunteering there. Our vision was to learn "to do small things with great love" (c/o Mother Teresa), a love that came from abiding in God's love. I really respect and admire the vision that Sanctuary Ministries has, and it's really by God's grace that we ended up choosing an organization that was so well suited to our own vision. Sanctuary's focus is on community. They didn't see their place in street ministry to be feeding as many people as they can. They saw that what their street friends really needed was a community, a place of belonging. The stuff that makes life worth living for. Sure, they still feed the hungry, but it's not done in a soup kitchen style, where people come and get their food and go. Everyone, staff, volunteers, street people, pitch in to make a meal together. And share the meal together. And clean up afterwards together. Sure, people still come and go, but they hope that maybe after a little while, they'll want to stay and chat. And build relationships. Because after all, it's these little things, the extra bit of care that Sanctuary puts into understanding the people they serve, is what outreach is really all about.

So we started our small group, and to be honest, it wasn't a smash success. We had a regular group of people attending, which was good. But, the jobs we did around Sanctuary was more or less grunt work. I stand by that it was a good place for us to start, because we were new to the community and we could only commit to 7 weeks of the summer. Plus, it taught us that these jobs, no matter how unglamorous they were, they still needed to be done. Due to scheduling issues (it was somewhat of a nightmare), the 'small group' portion of this group slowly faded out. About 2 weeks, I was left feeling very unsatisfied. We were no longer an outreach group, but a volunteer group that came in once a week to clean the clothing room or paint some walls. After talking to the group as well as praying about it, I realized that this group needed a stronger vision in order to successfully outreach.

The new vision is to understand that outreach is A PART OF being a Christian. It's not for some Christians, it's for all Christians. Outreach is an outpouring of love, given by God, for one another and for a community outside of what we're comfortable with. For this small group, it means commitment. A commitment to showing up every week, to both the volunteering and small group components, regardless of what we're doing. A commitment to challenging your own faith and the faith of others in the group, by stepping outside your comfort zone and really caring about the people you're reaching out to. At the end of next year, what I really hope this outreach group can accomplish is transformation in its members. To seek opportunities to do more in every moment of our lives and to do it with love.

So that's what I've learned about outreach this summer. I'm really excited about going to Thailand and being able to put this to use. It's going to be a really good experience.

So, sorry for the very long post... in other news, I've just removed my wisdom teeth and it sucks. I also have some really good news and I'm so thankful to God for it... but I'll blog about it another time (soon, I hope ;) )