Page 19 - Presbyterian Connection

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WINTER 2021
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MISSION & OUTREACH
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Feeding the 5,000 in B.C.
wonder Jesus had people sit down in groups of 50!
As I write this, I feel awe and humil- ity at what the Lord can accomplish when we get out of the way of our- selves. I am thankful for the people we have met from the lineups who are now volunteers for the Don’t Go Hun- gry program. I am thankful for lead- ers who want to do more even while some are exhausted. I am thankful for the connections we’ve made with schools, social agencies and busi- nesses that provide our program sites with much needed items to help peo- ple feed and house their families (such as clothing, meal cards and infant items). I am thankful that the Don’t Go Hungry program now has a web- site (dontgohungry.ca) and policies in place to manage extreme weather and ensure healthy food, compas- sionate service as well as regular vol- unteer training. And I am thankful for the church community that prays for the program leaders, volunteers, peo- ple in the lineups and those who are isolated. Together, we are the people God loves. I can’t help but think God is smiling as we become the hands and feet of the living Christ.
By the Rev. Laurie McKay, Team Lead for the “Don’t Go Hungry” program and minister at St. Aidan’s Presbyterian Church in New Westminster, B.C.
The Don’t Go Hungry program started in May 2021 at St. Aidan’s Presby- terian Church in New Westminster, B.C., as a response to the food and economic insecurity that arose out of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the beginning, we accrued more volun- teers than people to feed with an initial response of only around 20 people coming to wait in line at St. Aidan’s weekly and food was distributed to feed seven households. Currently, the Don’t Go Hungry program is distrib- uting food to feed 368 households across four sites, located at three churches (St. Aidan’s and Knox Pres- byterian Church in New Westminster and Gordon Presbyterian Church in
Burnaby) and the Queensborough Community Centre in New Westmin- ster, with an average of 1,100–1,200 people coming to wait in line at one of the four sites weekly. In October, the program fed 5,860 people.
Our dedicated volunteers devote a combined total of 400 volunteer hours weekly to make this all possible. When I think of the incredible dedica- tion, grace and generosity of our vol- unteers, I think of the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Engaging people with compassion for our neighbours is essential to this work.
The Queensborough site, which operates in an area with a high home- less population, is managed by the New Westminster Soccer Club. On one rainy day in October, the Queens- borough volunteers were joined by 20 soccer players, aged 10-years-old, and their parents who came to “help.”
Managing the energy of 10-year-olds who were mainly interested in running around in the rain added an extra layer of happy chaos for our volunteers as they did their best to corral the en- ergetic children while serving a long lineup of hungry, rain-drenched peo- ple. Holding our grace amidst chaos and bad weather is a true challenge. These experiences show us how we can learn from Jesus how to have good humour and compassion when circumstances are not ideal.
The Gordon Presbyterian Church site in Burnaby, B.C., serves the bulk of our numbers with a wee army of volunteers, who typically feed over 700 people within a time span of two hours. Releasing people to lead
is key to growth. As in any thriving mission, one person cannot possibly keep track of everything that needs attention. As the program has grown, special teams have been developed so that we can confidently and effectively tackle any situation. For instance, as we live in a multicultural society, we sometimes encounter people in the lineup who don’t speak the same language. In these situations, people from the lineup have stepped forward to volunteer as translators to help calm anxiety and confusion. A vol- unteer came up with an effective way to manage the lineup of 200 hungry people. Over-crowding has have been averted as a result. Feeding the hun- gry is not for the fainthearted. No
Faith in Vaccine Campaign in Hamilton
By the Rev. Penny Garrison, minister at Knox Presbyterian Church in Dundas, Ont.
“What is the role of faith communities and their leaders in this pandemic?”
This was the important question posed to Deirdre Pike, a senior social planner at the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton, Ont., that got her thinking about the role of
faith communities in promoting vac- cination and would eventually incite the idea for the interfaith #faithinvac- cine campaign.
Deirdre recalled that, at the time she was asked that question, she pondered it at a table in which the City of Hamilton’s hospital Emer- gency Room heads, and industry and business leaders were all pre- sent: “It wasn’t clear to me yet, how
I could engage faith communities in building vaccine confidence, but that’s what I had been asked to do.” She noticed that there “wasn’t much happening” when it came to includ- ing local faith communities in the conversation about COVID-19 pro- tocols, vaccines and risk reduction measures in the city. The noticeable absence led her to researching pos- sible ways to fill it. She looked to other Canadian cities for examples of how faith leaders were getting in- volved in their cities’ vaccine rollout. The examples she found showed her that they had faith in vaccines. Deirdre said she talked to her col- leagues about her idea of faith lead- ers demonstrating their faith in the COVID-19 vaccine and #faithinvac- cine was born. “With the help of lo- cal vaccine ambassadors, I reached out to nine faith leaders in the area and received a ‘Yes’ nine resounding times.”
As the minister of Knox Presby- terian Church, Dundas, I was one of those nine faith leaders who said “yes” right away to participating in the #faithinvaccine campaign. As it turned out, 22 more local faith lead- ers got involved along the way in this interfaith project. Leaders from several different Christian denomina- tions, along with leaders from Jew- ish, Hindu and Muslim communities,
joined together to promote and en- courage people in their faith commu- nities and beyond to get fully vacci- nated against COVID-19.
When Deirdre asked if I would be willing to participate, there was no hesitancy on my part. I had already been actively advocating for the vaccine and encouraging people to be fully vaccinated for a number of reasons. It provides effective protec- tion against getting Covid and even stronger protection against serious outcomes from Covid. It is a kind, responsible, caring and wise action, not only for ourselves, but for our family and friends, and the larger community. For me, it is a very con- crete way to love our neighbour and it totally connects to who we are as Jesus’ followers.
The invitation to participate in this initiative took me back to January 20, 2021, when I, along with over one thousand other faith leaders from across Canada met with Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, via Zoom. In that meeting, Dr. Tam provided information about Canada’s vaccine rollout program and encouraged each of us as faith leaders to assist in the rollout by educating, supporting and promot- ing the COVID-19 vaccine within our faith communities and beyond. She stressed the vital role that faith
leaders had in helping people obtain credible information about the vac- cine and being available to them as someone they could trust to discuss the matter with, as well as assisting them in accessing the vaccine when it became available.
The invitation to participate in the #faithinvaccine campaign was an- other way to do my part. The cam- paign involved having each of the participating faith leaders provide a brief response as to why we had faith in the COVID-19 vaccine, along with a picture of ourselves. Our responses and photos were shared in the Ham- ilton Spectator as part of the cam- paign launch on Sept. 20, 2021. We were all provided with digital copies of the campaign images as well so that we could share them on social media and our websites and in our bulletins.
It was rewarding and satisfying to be able to participate in the cam- paign, particularly given Hamilton’s low vaccination rate over the past few months. It was also good to work with the larger interfaith community in a common effort. I trust and pray that we contributed to helping people take that step and get vaccinated, which makes this a valuable and im- portant team project. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to step up and make a difference.