Cross Hills

The streets are named things like “Cross of Love”, “Christ the King”, “Hope Corner”, and “Joy Corner”. If you walked those same streets you´d see the irony of their names. More apt names might be “Garbage Hill” and “Crystal Corner”. So when a family who lived there asked us to do an evangelistic event, we readily agreed.

The logistics of the event were not that straightforward as we didn´t have a good place to do it and we really didn´t know how many people to expect. However, we did our best to talk to the neighbours, advertise with flyers and posters, and pray. Additionally, God blessed us with support from a nearby church, as well as from a short-term missions team from Mercy Canadian Reformed Church in Hamilton.

The day of the event we put up a rented tent, a bouncy castle, tables, chairs, and most importantly the music. And people came. And lots of them – kids, parents, even some teenagers. God answered our prayers!

Through music, drama, and a clown show, we were able to share the gospel. Many of our volunteers were also busy having gospel conversations and handing out New Testaments. There was a lot going on, and it felt a little chaotic at times, but you can´t complain when God brings you more people than you are prepared for.

Last Saturday was our first follow-up event – games, snacks, teaching the story of the Bible, and the gift boxes from Samaratin´s Purse. Around 120 kids registered to receive a box and almost all of them came to receive it. We had to put together a few extra boxes last week to supplement the boxes we received from Samaratin´s Purse. For these boxes, we were helped out by donations of clothing and shoes, some of which came from a Faithworks Team. It is always special to see how God uses so many different people to provide!

The real test will come this Saturday, and the following two Saturdays, when we will see how many kids and parents show up once they have already received their free handout. Hopefully we will be able to gauge the gospel interest in this community and have opportunities down the line to do more outreach and discipleship.

Our hope is that the street names in the area become realities in the hearts and lives of the people. For that we pray.