"The Meeting Place, Street Hope, & Insight Christian Fellowship joined ranks at Jubilee Park to feed the homeless on Sunday June 10. At 6:30am it was pouring buckets. We prayed for the rain to stop by 7:30 and it did! The day was great, even some sun with about 60 people showing up and approx. 12 church feeders and eaters. A great spirit of giving and inter-mingling with a couple of intimate situations."  

Jamie Syme
The Meeting Place  

"As we were serving breakfast one of the street girls was an old aquaintence of one of our church people and now we are helping her disconnect from an abusive relationship and hopefully Teen Challenge women's center...Please pray for Angie!!"  

Korky Neufeld
The Meeting Place  

"Several people came to church the next day, and will likely be participating in Alpha. Amen!!"  

Stacey O'Neill
Olivet Church  

"We met one family, when delivering their food hamper, that really touched our hearts... a single mom with three children. She is doing her absolute best to keep her family afloat, but seems that she needs a hand. Her vehicle was on fire on the highway the week before we met her. She also has a dream to get an education to become a Teacher's Assistant. This mom asked for prayers for her situations. I approached our church to see if we could brainstorm how we might support her in some way. I first called the food bank to see if this was okay. We will not be supporting her on a weekly basis, but are thinking about the larger things for her to get ahead. So we pray for God to lead us to being able to help her out in some way that will give her that hand up in life.   "We really enjoyed the 1/2 Ton Brigade. I think this was a very worthwhile project... and then meeting three families when we delivered the hampers was eye opening, especially for the teens that came along. I hope you do the 1/2 ton brigade again next year!"  

Marg Smith
Calvin Presbyterian Church  

"From my vantage point, Love Abbotsford was alive and kickin' this past Saturday. I had the Clearbrook corridor given to me to gather video footage and so I did catch quite a bit of action there, especially at Clearbrook MB church.  I met up with a middle-aged fella I had gotten to know from serving at the UGM in Mission in the past. He told me that two years earlier when he had his first encounter with Love Abbotsford he had ended up at the Clearbrook MB church parking lot and had a book given to him - said that the book was exactly what he had needed at that point in his life as he had just lost his job and was suffering from burn-out / depression and was all alone - the story in the book totally lifted his spirits as did the people of the church - so he made a special point of taking the bus over this past Saturday just to reconnect with these people and take in their love and hospitality. At one point he told me that maybe I better get on to my next location so I'd get enough footage for this video, when I told him that actually this is what Love Abbotsford was all about - people connecting with people and taking time to listen and encourage one another and that there'd be enough footage yet to be had. At that point I asked if I could pray for him and he said that he definitely needed prayer. So I was able to pray for him and knew that this had been a God moment in bringing the two of us together. We did include a short shot of him on the video - he's a dark haired man wearing a green jacket with a big smile on his face!   "My final stop was the yard make-over that our church did for this single mom with two older kids. The men who had worked there planted some fresh flowers in the garden bed up front which up til then had only seen weeds which she was very excited about!  She even talked about coming to our church... Again, a cool encounter that wouldn't have happened without the practical love happening first."  

Henry Zukowski
South Abbotsford Church  

And here are a couple of Love Your City stories from other places in Canada!:   "We had a lot of rain so we had our celebration/worship time inside. We told stories of the day and wrapped up by watching the video footage. We had to move the carnival indoors but that was fine. We cleaned cars, had BBQs, etc. in the rain and I think people were even more impressed because of the circumstances. Thank you for introducing us to this! Some of the new churches who came on this year found that it has energized their people for evangelism and generally encouraged them. Others want us to visit their churches to help them in the area of worship... so unity is growing!"  

Kathy Francis
Sackville, Nova Scotia  

"I just wanted to thank you again for the vision of Love Your City.  We had our event, Love Yellowknife, yesterday and it was awesome! Our weather was fabulous (which is a miracle in itself!) and everyone took the Kindness Explosion on with all their heart.  Every project went well but some did stand out that we would definitely do again, like giving out dog treats! Everyone took one for their dog even if they didn't want something for themselves.  We also used coupons for free ice cream cones and coffees and went into the business' downtown where retailers were busy working.  I believe they felt God's love in this act of kindness.
 
"May this be just the beginning of us getting out of our churches and going to the people God loves so much and sharing the Good News of Jesus with them. I could go on and on as it was a tremendous day but I won't.  Thanks again for all the ideas and allowing us to use your logos. We are looking forward to next year’s event already!"

Leann Woelk
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories  

"Love South Delta happened June 1-2 and was an amazing event. The unity of the seven churches coming together to worship, fellowship, and then to serve our Lord by loving and blessing our community had a very positive effect on all. We have agreed that next year we look forward to the 15 churches in S. Delta ministerial being part of this. Thank you for the vision and for all your help. God bless you as you continue to serve."  

Dawn Magee
South Delta, British Columbia