July 2014 Update: Chiara House, Mission Adventures, Little Flowers

It's summer again here in lovely Winnipeg, Manitoba. The fish flies have come and (hopefully) gone,
matrices of dragonflies flit through the air strategically catching mosquitos making them my best friends. It's another season working with YWAM Urban Missions Winnipeg, a whole new round of ministry experiences and future adventures to get ready for.

Mission Adventures

This summer, it's been my delight to be staffing two Mission Adventures teams here in Winnipeg. Mission Adventures is a ministry of YWAM that is carried out in many locations in North America and abroad. When I was in San Francisco, it wasn't unusual to have even up to a hundred youth in and out our doors on week or weekend long short term ministry engagements. MA is YWAM's partnership with youth groups and churches to bring teams in to experience the ministry opportunities given them by their host YWAM base in the location they choose.

What I love about MA is that it's an opportunity for a ministry in YWAM's situation, who's typically been in their location for an established period of time, to show youth what it looks like to reach out to a location in need of God's love in a way that's relevant to their needs. When you go on a Mission Adventures trip, you're not just blowing in and out of a place you don't understand, you're working with a ministry who has the time and care put in to understanding their local makeup. You're not just getting a generic picture of what it looks like to do ministry, you're seeing real need and meeting it.

Setting up MA at Sargent Mennonite

This summer, we're hosting two teams. One from Chicago came early July, and one from just outside Winnipeg will come early in August. It's great to be a part of hosting these teams, not only to show others the great city we live in, but to see a picture of how people coming from a different context can show an aspect of Jesus to the city that others couldn't, and watch them gain insight into the dynamic world we're a part of as they experience ministry.

Little Flowers

A couple of months ago, we were both honoured to join the support team of Little Flowers, the community and house church we're both a part of. For anyone who didn't already know, Little Flowers is a community formed in partnership with YWAM and Mennonite Church Manitoba. The story is all detailed in YWAM's co-base director Jamie's book The Cost of Community. Little Flowers is a community of people who are committed to the practices of Jesus, and who aim to love the West End neighbourhood in downtown Winnipeg.

As members of the support team, we're able to be more of a support in walking through what it looks like to be a community, and what we want to look like when we meet together, and in our expression of Christ to the neighbourhood and abroad. We're both very excited to be able to dig deeper in this community and in our love for the West End.

Chiara House

And speaking of loving the West End, here's an update on Chiara House! Chiara House is a ministry in partnership with Mennonite Church Manitoba, Little Flowers Community, and Eden Mental Health. The aim is to provide a dignified affordable living situation for people, who because of mental health dynamics in their lives, would benefit more from living in community, for members of the community of Little Flowers to be supportive, and to provide additional low income housing in a city desperate for more housing. We will be living at Chiara House once it opens to act as the building's caretakers, responsible for discovering ways to live in close and supportive community together, understanding and imparting resources for people who need them, and all around being there for the members of the building if they need support, company, laughter, you name it.

The date that we're able to move into the building is swiftly approaching, and we're so excited to finally be living in the neighbourhood we've called our surrogate home for over a year now. You can continue to pray for all involved as this project finally reaches the stage where we see people move in and do life together. The renovation and planning part of starting Chiara House as gone on for over four years now, as this former crime hotspot has been completely revamped and transformed into a dignified apartment building. Thousands of hours of volunteer labour, from skilled craftsmen down to those just willing to hold a paintbrush or broom, have gone into this building. The infrastructure is beautifully done, and it's apparent that love has gone into each aspect of this building. With the foundation of years of care put into the physical building, we're so excited to see what kind of community forms in the everyday life of being together.

This past week we were able to work with a team from a local Mennonite church to do a deep clean of the top two floors of the building. Piles and piles of dust and sawdust went from trashcan to dumpster, and it's amazing how different it looks completely clean!

Prayer 

As we continue into this next season, we would love for you to be praying over all our actions and decisions. Please pray as Chiara House gears up, that we would be able to do justice to the needs of those coming into community, gain a good understanding of resources that people can benefit from, and build a community that is a light of Christ in the lives of its members and out to the world around us.

Pray for Little Flowers, as this summer has been a trying time. A pivotal member of our community and friend has recently passed away, leaving many to mourn for the loss of husband, father, neighbour, friend, and supporter. Pray for our community as we work through the hard process of grief, for those in our community where this reality has triggered trauma from the past, and for us all to have our eyes on the hope of the future. We're so lucky to be a part of Little Flowers and we love this community dearly.

Please pray in support of our ministry, both spiritually and financially. With moving in to Chiara House in the future, we'll have a few more things to budget for than now. Living with Joelle's parents for the first year of our marriage has been a great opportunity to save up for the future with its inevitable costs. Joelle will be back in school this fall for one more year, as well as working, and I'll continue to work with YWAM as we both will be involved in Chiara House. This will be not only a financially taxing time, but is sure to have challenges spiritually, as we settle into a new environment, and physically, as we tend to the many things we'll both have. Your continued prayers for us in our endeavours is always greatly appreciated.


Thank you so much for your continued support of our ministry, God bless you and keep you! Please feel free to write to us to tell us how you're doing, and always feel free to send us prayer requests.