Every Sunday in the 1010 Tower, residents meet for Chaplain David’s Spiritual Care program where they come together to offer meaningful prayer, Christ-centered advice, and a listening ear from a non-judgmental standpoint. It’s a welcoming positive space that our residents have come to cherish.
One aspect of Sunday’s events includes a voluntary donation box that the residents mutually agreed should be put towards something special.
“The plan is that any time we have more than $100 in donations, we will select a charity to bless,” said Chaplain David, who helped orchestrate.
The neighbouring agency, Inn from the Cold (IFTC), was the suggested charity the residents wanted to put the money towards, as they decided children are the utmost important – and so the shopping began!
Residents Colleen and Michelle, alongside Chaplain David, set out to Walmart to purchase urgently needed items which had been expressed by IFTC. These included:
- baby diapers
- baby shampoo
- lotion
- and small towels
Once they hit the baby aisle, they filled the grocery cart with all the things they had on their list, in the meantime accidentally bumping into a woman named Wendy.
“She was a godsend,” said Colleen, a longtime resident of the 1010 Centre. “She was a prayer that showed up.”
Wendy happened to be a representative for the skin care products Cetaphil, and, after hearing about their mission, wanted to help! Next thing you know, she was loading baby wash, lotion, shampoo and wipes into the back of their van to put towards their gift, doubling its size.
A few days later, after a beautiful wrap-job, excited Colleen and Michelle, along with Chaplain David and a few other Spiritual Care guests, headed towards IFTC to give their long-awaited gift. There they met IFTC staff members and presented what they had worked so hard to give.
“When you live a life of poverty and rarely get a chance to give back, it is important to take advantage of these opportunities,” said Chaplain David. “It was important that this was completely done by the residents and there was no help from myself or The Mustard Seed as they really wanted to use their own money.”
The residents are very excited to do this again and have high hopes of doing something even bigger for Christmas time.
“It took me out of my pit,” said Colleen. “Helping those who are less fortunate than us – that’s what it’s about.”
