QOTD

TOOLS, Part 3

Toronto Ontario Opportunities for Learning and Service

 

Day 3 - October 5, 2014

Sunday morning was a rather dreary time for the group. Not many of us had accomplished a lot of hours of sleep as the pipes persistently sang the song of their people. We were up a little earlier than Saturday morning and were not very excited about it.

We were essentially zombies as we dressed, packed our belongings and proceeded to the kitchen for breakfast. Pete, however, had apparently received too much sleep, he was rather annoyingly cheerful.

I thought, being up so early, that we would be "on the road" as soon as possible. Instead, we spent a while around the kitchen table chatting about everything that we had learned over the weekend, the things that surprised us and those that we had expected.

I definitely did not expect Pete to put us on Yonge Street and say "be free". He didn't even accompany us to visit with our street friends. I never would have imagined doing that. Most of the group hadn't been expecting that. We were all thinking we would be working in soup kitchens and volunteering all weekend. Fortunately, we were wrong because we learned a lot more walking down the street.

After our chat around the kitchen table, we started off to Queen's Park. I don't actually think that's exactly where we were supposed to be. We had been stopped by a wonderful police officer who informed us of the television show Suits filming up ahead. As we were on a street car, something from Toronto, with the show being based in New York, we couldn't pass by until they had finished the shoot. All this excitement led to conversations among the group about who had seen famous people and where. This led us to miss the stop that Pete had been planning to get off at.

Instead we got off at Queen's Park, right in the middle of some sort of breast cancer fundraiser run. We walked a little ways on the sidewalk beside the runners/walkers and came about part of the University of Toronto. The whole purpose of these travels was so that we could see a statue/sculpture of Jesus.

We had been told that we would be visiting the statue of homeless Jesus during our trip to Toronto, but I must be honest, I didn't not expect what I saw. I thought there would be a nice tall Jesus standing with homeless people or maybe Jesus caring for a homeless person. Instead, we find Jesus, actually homeless, curled up under a blanket, laying on a bench.

The statue is so much like a homeless person that I didn't notice it at first. When you walk down a street you aren't normally looking for homeless people, but when you see one sleeping on a sidewalk, trying not to be noticed, you usually pass by without disturbing them. We came upon homeless Jesus and I actually thought that this was  a homeless person sleeping on the bench. I had not expected that at all. What I had noticed, and what Pete pointed out is that the only place on the bench for someone to sit is at homeless Jesus' feet.

When we had finished visiting homeless Jesus, we got back on the street car and headed towards the place where we would be eating lunch.

There is a church (I believe it's a church) that cooks meals every day for poor people. Pete stressed that these people aren't necessarily homeless, they just don't have enough money to put a good meal on the table most days. For $1.00 a meal, per person, they can come to this church to eat. We were not there to help prepare the meal. Instead we were put into groups and had to eat with the rest of the people.

I sat with a mother and her three children. I had a lot of entertainment during the meal because two of her children are three year old twins. We needed to eat quick so that when we were done someone else could take our spot at the table. They were only open for an hour around lunch time.

After lunch we met in the chapel area of the building for a little prayer time. This brought us to the end of our time with Pete. He was praying for us, for the weekend and everything we had learned, and then sending us on our way.

We returned to our host church to gather our belongings and then got back on the street car towards the Eaton Centre.

Some of the youth in our group have family members who live in or around Toronto who came for a visit. We set up camp in the Starbucks in Chapters, piled all our bags in a corner and took turns shopping. In my case, window shopping, although I did buy a lovely new watch.

We took turns going to the food court to grab some supper for the train and then gathered our belongings again.

We arrived at the train station with about half an hour before our train left and were already getting in the boarding line. The train route that we took is usually a quite popular one so we were not alone in line. In other words, the line was very long.

I sat with the empty seat beside me again but not for very long. Before we left Union Station I was greeted by a lovely woman about the same age as me. After talking for a bit we found out that she was originally from Russia. Then I mentioned that my great grandparents came from Russia. I had to do a lot more explaining when she asked if they speak Russian. She was very confused that these people who came from Russia spoke mostly German. Mennonites, can't take them anywhere.

We arrived in Windsor about fifteen minutes after our ETA which was much less of a delay than I thought it would be.

With our bags packed into the back of the mini van we were on our way home.

It was late and everyone was tired but I think we were all very glad that we had decided to be a part of the TOOLS trip.

If you want to hear more about our trip, I suggest you be in church on Sunday.

 

Mennonites returning to the home front, this is t-bear signing off

TOOLS, Part 2

Toronto Ontario Opportunities for Learning and Service

 

Day 2 - October 4, 2014

On Saturday morning; five teenagers, one young adult just out their teenage years, and one adult were all woken a little earlier than is normally preferred on a weekend. Breakfast was at 9:00am; and if you didn't eat, then I guess you didn't eat.

We were on the road by 10:00am (by on the road I'm sure you know I mean walking) after a brief tutorial from Pete entitled, How to Approach a Person on the Street. We were all ready for some people meeting and coffee buying, and were definitely not sure what to expect.

With the help of public transportation, we were transported to Yonge Street which is a very busy place to be on a Saturday morning.

Pete split us up into groups; I led one, our pastor led the other, and then gave a very cheerful "this is where I leave you, have fun" smile and wave.

There we were. On Yonge Street with nothing to do but meet street friends (homeless people).

I have to say, I was nervous; and I told my little group of youth this, many times.

We got the "good side of Yonge Street", according to Pete. However, we had a great difficult time finding anyone to sit and have coffee with.

Finally, we came upon Jim who is a wonderful soul. He was playing the harmonica when we approached him. I must say, he played that harmonica much better than I ever could.

We sat with him for about 10 minutes while he told us his story. One of the youth immediately offered to buy him a coffee and it was helpful because we were conveniently situated next to a Tim's.

After we had heard Jim's story and gave him a little money for his excellent harmonica playing and wonderful story time, we continued down Yonge Street in search of more street friends.

It is rather interesting how many more people you see sitting on the street asking for money when you are actually looking for them. On some of my other trips to Toronto I had seen street friends but I was never really seeking them out.

We met a few other street friends and a lovely gentleman named Ross, who isn't homeless but a rather fine carver nonetheless. Some street friends were very friendly and eager to have us sit and talk with them, others did not want anything to do with us. We had to pick our battles and I think we came out on top in the end. I believe we brightened more days than dimmed, that is a success to me.

After we had met up at Dundas Square and had a bit of lunch, we travelled (via public transportation) to the wonderful street of Spadina where there is a town within the city. Chinatown was our goal and we sure found it, in abundance.

Pete dropped us off on Spadina and did his "this is where I leave you, have fun" smile and wave again. As one group this time, we travelled through the crowded but cheerful streets of Chinatown looking for the three things that Pete had challenged us to find.

In the two hours we were given to explore, we visited about four bakeries, one shop where some of the youth tried some mystery meat, a cheese shop, a café, a "pet" shop (pet in quotations because they only had sea creatures of small sizes), and a grocery type store.

We met Pete for supper at a restaurant in Chinatown. He must have been hungry because he ordered about ten different plates of dumplings and one dish of some fried vegetables and chicken. At first I tried a few of each but then I realized how many plates there were going to be and then only took one from each plate. I learned to use chop sticks which was quite easy until I got to the mushrooms. One of my favourite things and I couldn't even pick them up. After a few minutes of struggling, Pete was kind enough to lean over and suggest that I stab it instead. That was much easier.

After the wonderful dinner in Chinatown, we travelled on another public transportation route to a church called Sanctuary, where we met Patrick.

We went on a walk with Patrick through the streets of Toronto. He took us to see the Aids Memorial and gave us a few things to look for when reading though all the names engraved on the plaques around the park.

I was again drawn to the fact that this huge memorial had been build in a park area where people could pass by and remember those who lost their fight with aids; while the memorial created for those who died on the streets is a few pieces of paper with names typed on them in a glass and wood casing.

Our walk with Patrick eventually led us to Tim's where we all warmed up with a hot drink while sitting in the food court listening to Patrick's story.

I had a hard time listening to Patrick tell his story because it isn't about a young boy with a happy family and lots of hopes and dreams. He had it rough, and that changed him for the better. I was very glad to be able to give Patrick a big hug after he had told his story. I felt like he had shared a part of his soul with us so that we would go out and change the way we live our lives to help change someone else's.

The hour was getting late and we were getting quite tired after being out all day.

We arrived back at the church around 11:00 and took some time to settle down before bed. For the youth this meant playing Heads Up on an iPad. I must say, I was an enthusiastic participant.

Pete had told us many times that he didn't want us to be doing too much volunteer work on this trip because we weren't necessarily there to help change what is going on, we were there to hopefully change our views and opinions to be able to help our little community back home.

We sure learned a lot that day and were quite ready to rest our heads in preparation for our last day in Toronto.

So, with more heavy thoughts and the sounds of little men banging on heated pipes, we laid our heads down for the second and last time.

 

Mennonites in the big city, take 2, this is t-bear signing off

TOOLS

Toronto Ontario Opportunities for Learning and Service

 

The previous post was a sort of lead-in to what I'm about to tell you. The quote I put as the QOTD on October 3rd was said by Pete who was our leader for the weekend.

 

Day 1 - October 3, 2014

On the rainy, cold morning of October 3rd I woke with a less than excited mind about the day. The forecast was determined that it would be rainy and cold for the rest of the weekend; no matter where you were in southern Ontario. I was not going to let that ruin the weekend though.

After a lovely visit with Oma, while she was having her house cleaned, I returned home to pack the rest of my belongings.

Not five minutes before I was about to leave, Moma got a text from someone in Africa who wanted to Skype right then. While I hadn't seen this person for a little over a month, I was rather anxious to see their face. I left with just enough time to pick up my pastor from her house and then four of the youth and arrive at the train station in Windsor at the ETA previously discussed.

Our train left at 1:45pm from the Windsor VIA station.

We were seven people and were placed in the back of the car where there were two groups of four seats. I was sitting beside the empty seat. While we were first boarding the train and after each stop, we were constantly reminded that that route was sold out and every seat was to be occupied.

Each stop I waited and waited for all the passengers to board to see who would be sitting in our group. We were hoping for a lovely conversationer who would be glad to sit with a group of young people just on their way to the big city for a big city adventure. We also made sure to note that the person could be one of those grump-a-lots who just hate the exuberance and shenanigans of the younger generation. We were very happy to be greeted by the former.  

We arrived in TO around 6:00pm (I think) and were quite hungry by this point. We were happy to find our friend Pete and get some food.

I don't think I was the only one who thought we would be going back to our host church for a nice evening of quiet activity and then an early bedtime.

Instead, Pete took us for a walk.

Our first challenge was to buy breakfast for seven people with $28.00. Keeping in mind that everyone would need to enjoy it and it would need to last us for two days.

We bought two loaves of bread (that was Jojo and my task), peanut butter, strawberry jam, two packages of juice boxes (apple and orange), and two apples per person. All this came in at $21.00 which meant we had extra money for activities later. I was quite glad that the youth were able to choose a meal together and that it was a decently healthy meal.

After we dropped our food off at the church, we went out on a prayer walk. We visited some of the areas of the city that are less shiny and well-known than those that people usually go to Toronto to see.

We visited the Aids Memorial, compared it to the Homeless Memorial and even took a walk down Church Street. If you ever get the chance to take a walk down Church Street, make sure you enjoy the bright colours, the rainbow flags, and don't forget to understand what all of it means.

Around 10:20pm, which is past my bedtime, we stopped for a snack. Some people really needed ice cream, we found frozen yogurt instead, which is kind of the same thing. Pete and I went over to Tim's. I didn't think my tummy would enjoy eating frozen yogurt so late at night and then trying to sleep afterwards.

We finally started on our way home after our little tete-a-tete in the food court near the Tim's.

The evening walk and prayer time had given us all an idea of what we would be doing for the rest of the weekend. We were all glad to get back to our host church to rest our heads for the night.

I'm not sure if any of us were prepared for the next day, but we would have to face it sooner or later. So we attempted sleep with heavy thoughts and sounds of a dying smoke detectors batteries.

 

Mennonites in the big city, this is t-bear signing off

QOTD

That is a building.

You are the church.

Be the church.

this is t-bear signing off