Deep Winterpeg: The Peggonning -or- Our Winter Update!

Hello again from the West End of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada! Joelle and I have had a busy few months: transitions to new jobs, new studies, new positions, new roles, and a new place to live have made the months fly by. But now that snow is on the ground and our city is earning the nickname Winterpeg, we’re excited to be able to share all these changes with you!

Chiara House

Our Chiara House ribbon cutting!

In our last newsletter, We gave an update on a ministry called Chiara House that Joelle and I are involved with. In this newsletter, we're proud to announce, we are living there! After a few months of moving people in and working out the kinks, the apartment building is now open and full of tenants! We celebrated with a ribbon cutting event to celebrate and thank the many volunteers who put in thousands of work hours to make the project possible, during which I ate part of a cake shaped like the building I live in. A dream come true.

In case you don’t know, Chiara House is a partnership between our church (Little Flowers), Mennonite Church Manitoba, and Eden Mental Health Services. It is an apartment building dedicated to creating safe, affordable housing and a supportive space for people needing/wanting to live in community, and for those living with mental health dynamics. The building contains 8 suites and a community room that we are currently using for a weekly potluck with all the tenants in the building. Joelle and I function as the caretakers of the building, which includes being a liaison between the tenants and the management company as well as cleaning and maintaining the property.

As we delve deeper into what living in community will look like in this context, we hope not only to have more events for our building tenants but some outreach to the wider community of the West End as well. Pray for us and for Little Flowers as we reach out in new and exciting ways.

Peace and Justice Internship

In my work with YWAM, we are now gearing up for our third Peace and Justice Internship this spring. I have now completed the internship twice, once as an intern and once as staff, and have been able to see the amazing effect it has had. The program is a three month long look into justice and peacemaking issues that affect our city. Interns hear from speakers who are working in social justice issues in Winnipeg or around the continent, and get a chance to research and enact their own projects. The interns also participate in practicums with local organizations.

Past interns have gone on to work in the fields they proposed projects in, and the whole internship is immensely inspiring and empowering. As the applications begin rolling in, pray that God would use us to show his heart for peace and justice in the world, and that he would be lighting passions within our interns and us, as YWAM staff!  

If you want to know more about the internship check it out here.

What To Pray For

It’s been a busy few months getting Chiara House up and running, and in addition to that, our church Little Flowers (a church plant by YWAM and Mennonite Church Canada) has been blossoming! In the past few months we have had to multiply our little house church into two locations. While this is exciting, pray for Joelle and I and the other members of our church Support Team as we work to keep our community strong and supportive and work out the logistical details of growth.

We also ask that you pray for our neighbourhood. The West End is a vibrant, cheery community full of grassroots passion, but it also faces challenges. As one of the lowest-income neighbourhoods in Winnipeg, these problems range from over-ticketed streets and poor infrastructure to gang violence and high rates of domestic abuse. Pray as we work against injustice in our neighbourhood that we would have hope and find creative ways to help empower those in the margins.

Support

We thank you so much for your prayers and support! If you would like to support us financially or make a one time donation, please contact us by email.