How do we love others? That's the question we at Knox, Wallaceburg, Ont., asked ourselves. Motivated by our church's mission statement of Here We Grow In Christ, we were challenged by our minister's recent proclamation that church is "all about relationships — relationship with God, His Son, the Holy Spirit and other people." We informally adopted this new commandment, reflecting Jesus' thoughts on the most important call for Christians. Through this call to serve others, Christ opened our understanding to the truth that loving God and others is what gives life its purpose.
When one of our members described the impact of participating in mission trips at his home congregation of Knox, Toronto, our church's Christian education worker accepted the challenge. Ellen Sands organized a small inter-denominational team who travelled to Bixby, Oklahoma, to help construct a church/training college for aboriginals.
Experiences there led some team members to accept other short-term mission assignments. Four from the congregation worked with Active Christians with a Mission, an organization of the River City Vineyard Church, Sarnia, Ont. They teamed up with the New York School of Urban Ministry combining work in the soup kitchens and food banks with evangelism on the streets of Harlem.
ACWAM encouraged me as convener of Knox' Mission and Outreach Committee, to accept the position of sponsorship coordinator for two Christian schools and two orphanages in Haiti. Our entire church joined in to support these children. I am part of a team of four women (Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United) who provide photos and updates on these orphaned children to their sponsor families.
These families contribute $30 a month to provide food and daily care for the orphanage's 120 children until they are adopted by their "forever families" in Canada and other countries. Families at Knox support 12 orphans. Our church family supports a baby named Lovely through our Lenten offerings. Many of the children are delivered to the orphanages by their own mothers who realize that their children's only hope of eating depends on this mission.
Not content with this outreach alone, three women sought to provide clothes for the Haitian children and began meeting once a week to sew clothes, diapers and bed sheets. Out of that initiative, 13 women from several churches now meet as the Stitchers of Hope. People in our community donate money and fabric. It is not unusual to see a bag of fabric, donated anonymously, hanging from the church's doors.
As evidenced by our multi-denominational mission projects, ecumenism is alive and well in our region of southwestern Ontario. The daily vacation Bible school held as a half-day program during one week in the summer is a collaboration of the Baptist, Presbyterian and independent Pentecostal churches. We also held a March break camp this year, where the attendance was double our expectations. Our summer program will expand this year into two one-week day camps directed by Rev. Jason Cartier of U-Turn Ministries – our community's inter-denominational youth outreach ministry.
The Salvation Army Red Shield campaign and the collection of donations via the kettles at Christmas time are also supported by many different churches. Members of virtually every congregation in town, including our own, assist both of these programs. On top of these, one of Knox's members volunteers in the daily operations of the local Salvation Army Thrift Store.
Knox also helps the Salvation Army by providing meat for the food bank – an always-needed supply. Many families are struggling in this community of 11,000 which has felt the loss of about 1,500 jobs in the last 15 years. God has allowed the congregation at Knox to help where we can. Thanks to the generosity of a cattle producer in nearby Dresden, we have launched what we've dubbed our "holy cow project." The farmer donates the cow and our congregation pays for the cutting and processing which costs about $350 to $500. The meat goes to the food bank, as well as families we know who are struggling.
Through these various mission projects in our own community and in the world, we as a congregation pray that we honour Christ, living in the truth that life is about our relationship with God and the people He created.
