Toronto Mission Trip part one

Ok, where to begin? It is truly difficult to find a starting point to this great adventure. I guess that it really began months ago with the idea of a missions trip to Toronto which many of us at the time didn’t think was a trip for them. However, after a little time, people started to come forward with the willingness to go on this adventure.  After the first deposit we started fundraising and getting ourselves prepared. We both were and still are extremely blessed by this opportunity and the support that we have received for our friends, family, and community. We all are extremely thankful for all that everybody has done for us. So now I will start telling you about what you really want to hear. How is our trip going? To put it quite simply, it is awesome. There is really no way to just pick the best parts so I will just go chronologically and continue to post these every couple of days. I would post everyday but there is just too little down time and what we do have, we try to spend it sleeping. Also, bellow are quotes from a few of us. I will include new quotes with each blog. Lastly, Jeremy wanted me to say that even though this is being posted under his name, I, Josh Wilson, am actually doing the blogging.

So at 4:20 am we left WBC and most of us tried to go right back to sleep. But I mean come on! That is early! Anyways, by the time that everyone got up, it was breakfast time so we stopped at a McDonalds. It was a quick stop and then it was back on the road. Not a whole lot happened after that until we stopped for lunch at the Turkey Ranch. We were all extremely hungry and that is where we decided to go and as the saying goes, hind sight is 20-20. It was not the best of places but it did provide much needed food and we were all grateful for that. After that little escapade we continued on until we reach Odessa, New York. There, we met up with the Manning family and members of their church. We split up into groups and they welcomed us into their homes. They were kind and generous and all of us left there with a few good stories. We appreciated their hospitality. In the morning they fed us breakfast and we said our goodbyes. A couple hours down the road, we came across a Tim Horton’s where we stopped to get coffee and doughnuts. I must say that it was extremely good. Then, it was just a short drive to Niagara Falls. It was nice from the top but it was even more amazing when we saw it from the bottom while we were on the Maid of the Mist tour. Then we crossed the border (which was not bad at all) and traveled just a little ways into Canada until we got to Mrs. Marg’s house where we were fed the best taco salad that I have ever had for dinner. When we finished there, we went to Toronto (finally, right?). We got settled in, had a “ground rules” meeting, and took a walk down the main street of the city, in order to get a feel for what it was like, and then we went to bed.

The next day started off with us going to a Caribbean church where we sang gospel  music to a pipe organ and sang as a group to the church (which was only planned a couple of hours before). After the service, we were fed lunch by the church. Then we had a little bit of down time before we went to Sanctuary church in downtown Toronto. The two churches were like night and day to each other. This church was much smaller and most of the members were minimum to no income families. By this time, the events of the day had started to take an effect on the group but we knew that we were/ are doing the Lord’s work so we pressed on. We ate dinner at Wendy’s and then started walking the streets on Toronto and ministering to the homeless. We had water and mcchickens for them. Most of them were grateful and it was an eye opening experience for us as to how much these people need missionaries like us.

This morning we went to The Great Sheppard ministry in order to help them with any needs that they might have. We arrived with open minds and a readiness to work. We split into groups with different tasks such as: laundry, making beds, cleaning bathrooms, and various tasks dealing with the food. We ate lunch there during a work break. Then we had a little downtime which was used at the mall shopping and looking around. Mike (our program director) had pizza for us at the hotel before we went to the CN tower to look at the city from above and to pray for it. There are over three million people in Toronto and they all need God in their lives. Lastly we walked around town ministering to the homeless similar to what we did the night before. Internet connection here is not very good which makes posting this difficult. Now we are going to bed but, as promised, here are some quotes.

“My favorite part of today was seeing how, even though the people we were ministering to today were homeless it was amazing to see the hope and the pride that a lot of them had. It showed me that even though we can be going through hard times it’s always possible to have hope! “- David “Godfather” Buchanan.

“David…you are NOT a godfather. Anyways, my favorite part of the day was when we went to Sanctuary church. At the church there was this guy in an electric wheel chair praising Jesus like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This guy was in a wheel chair because he had cerebral palsy (he had small, skinny limbs) and he also had a speech impediment and it was amazing because he was jumping up and down in his wheel chair while spinning around!! It was pretty exciting for me. It reminded me of when Paul was telling the Corinthians about his troubles and his thorn in his side. And God told Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in you weakness” and this man in a wheel chair was a literal example of what Paul was trying to tell the Corinthians. Cool beans!!”---Elijah Inuwa

“ We met Henry and Grant last night with their sleeping bags and clothes spread out on  a cement bench and cement flower bed wall.  Henry used to drive trucks all across Canada;  he is hoping that he will not lose his leg to amputation and we promised to pray for him.   We did pray with both men and Henry was so appreciative of our time and prayers and the sandwich & water we gave to each of them.   If you would like, please join us in prayer for Grant and Henry! We go out again tonight and we are all looking forward to it!   The students were awesome in their enthusiasm last night and in serving at the homeless mission today.   Some of them will tell you more about that…”--Chris Daly