By Elliott Shin, Acting Executive Director
On March 23, 2020 our provincial government ordered the closure of all non-essential workplaces in Ontario due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous week, Toronto City Mission made the difficult decision to cancel our March break day camps, and additionally suspended regular programs until further notice.
Over the past 7 weeks, we have witnessed many changes. The fundamental way we live our lives has been drastically altered. Political leaders and public health officials have advised us to get used to this “new normal.” Terms such as social distancing, incubation period, droplet transmission, asymptomatic, flattening the curve, quarantine, self isolation, personal protective equipment (PPE), contact tracing, immunosuppressed, and super spreader are now part of out daily verbiage as we attempt to stay safe and keep us informed.
The Outreach Workers have made every effort to continue to creatively and resourcefully love, value, and share God’s love to not only the children, youths, and families who attend our programs but the larger community as well. One of the pillars of our ministry is building strong and healthy relationships, but doing this at a distance has not been easy. We miss hosting children, youths and parents at our programs, we miss both small talk as well as deeper conversations with the youths, we miss praying with our participants, we miss running around with the kids and playing fun games with them, and most importantly we miss the face to face opportunities to share God’s love and be His witness through our daily lives.
However, in the midst of these impediments, we also have much to be thankful for. We are blessed by the continued generosity of our “Sparks,” those who support and partner with us through regular giving, prayer, and volunteering. Further we are grateful for our talented staff who have been forced to leave the comforts of their ministry sites to lovingly engage with our families from home. They continue to build deep and lasting relationships. We are also thankful for the discovery of copious volumes of online ministry resources and also to others who continue to share from their personal resource libraries. This has also been a time when many of our partner churches and new and old friends have stepped up to help us with provisions. And of course we have many reasons to thank God. We are blessed to look to Him for wisdom, refuge, and necessities. Moreover, we find abundant hope as we rest in God’s tender arms, and as we rest we raise our eyes towards heaven and have the privilege and honour to spend time with Him in prayer! We have hope in Jesus!
As we live through this season of COVID 19, we are blessed to discover that there are many reasons to be thankful! We hope you are keeping safe, and you are finding peace and hope through your faith journey.