Between July and December of 2005, four international missionaries were stationed at one of Toronto's most troubled and racially diverse neighbourhoods, Jane and Finch. As members of a Joint Action Mission Team, which is sponsored by the Caribbean North America Council for Mission, the four lived, worked and played with the community. The Presbyterian Church is a member of CANACOM. The lone Canadian, Chelsea Masterman, is a United Church member from High River, Alta.
I am a missionary. I have some issues with the term, because it has connotations of foisting your views on others. My experience here, however, is expanding my definition of the word. You see, my group – LaToya Bonner, Dwight McFarlane, Jenifa (Jenny) Sinanan and myself – spent the first month of our time in Jane-Finch learning about the issues, meeting people and get ting connected with community organizations. The amount of love in the community – the hospitality, the church involvement and the community groups – overwhelms the problems of drugs and violence that exist. Rather than foisting, we were there soaking everything in as best we could.
Jane-Finch is incredibly diverse: There are about 115 nationalities speaking 70 languages. It is a popular place for new Canadians to settle, although the low-income housing is used by anyone struggling to make ends meet. Much of the population here has gone or is going through some degree of culture shock. Parents (often single parents) have to work long hours or shift work, the schools are packed and the children need attention.
Dwight and LaToya volunteered at Black Creek Community Health Centre's Teen Violence Prevention Project, a discussion and action project run largely by teens and facilitated by the adults involved. Jenny worked with Presbyterian congregations and a shelter for abused women and children in another community called Malvern, an area with a huge population and a relatively small amount of community or church resources. It is hoped that, along with serving the community, she may be able to help communicate some of the wisdom of Jane-Finch's organizations and solutions to the people she works with in Malvern.
I worked with the Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples, volunteering for the youth program, where I did some administration support. The main project is getting the tutoring program they run in cooperation with the Organization of Latin American Students re-started. I volunteered with the women's program there, running a spirituality program for the children who came to the centre with their mothers. This is not a religious program, but is intended to help the children get in touch with their spirit within.
The churches that take part in these initiatives are part of a coalition of five different denominations. While theologies in these churches may differ in some aspects, they are all aiming at the same prize: uplifting the youth of Jane-Finch.
In September, a commissioning service was held for us at the Pentecostal Shiloah House of Prayer (where Margaret Zondo, administrator for International Ministries, spoke on behalf of the PCC). Ephesians 4: 11-13 really spoke to me: "The gifts He gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ."
People keep calling me a missionary. I have a tendency to hide behind the word volunteer. Whatever you want to call it, the truth is that I am doing this because I feel the firm and gentle pressure of God's call in my life. God is doing things in Jane-Finch, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it. It can be humbling (and sometimes difficult) to face the fact that I was not there to do grand things and come to the community's rescue, but I was there to do what was asked of me – to listen and act upon the wisdom and experience of others, instead of championing my own.
For more information on CANACOM and the JOMAT program, please check out groups.msn.com.
