NightShift Street Ministries Blog

Mission Possible.

What’s the worth of a penny?

Leave a Comment Posted by NightShift on May 9, 2012

On Friday, the last Canadian one-cent coin was struck. As the good luck pennies start to disappear from circulation, we will never forget how lucky we felt on the day that Denis proudly presented to NightShift his jar of pennies.

Denis had stooped and collected in the only way he felt he could support our fundraising drive, but his contribution to the needs of NightShift on that momentous occasion was worth so much more than the monetary content of his jar. As a ministry relying on voluntary donations of time and money to provide for those in our community who have so much need, Denis came full circle in his relationship with the ministry, and as his note attests, with God.

As we continue to do His work in meeting the needs of our street friends, people living in poverty or without a home, people who have lost a great deal more than a lucky penny or two, we are truly humbled by the support the ministry continues to receive.

Christmas 2010 was approaching and we urgently needed help to carry on bringing sustenance to others. When Kent Sillars of Vesta Properties called to tell us about the $50,000 matching donation challenge he had issued on behalf of NightShift we were amazed. When he told us only a few days later that the challenge had been taken up so enthusiastically by so many local businesses and individuals, we were speechless. They ended up raising $67,500 from their partners – which came to $135,000 with Vesta’s matching donation – all in a very short time! We were floored. It was an overwhelming success and it made a huge impact in reaching out, feeding and sheltering the poor and homeless people in our community.

Traditionally, people tend to give more to needy causes at Christmas time. However, people are hungry and in need of consistent support beyond the holidays. In order to administer our outreach programs year-round, NightShift continually has to raise funds to provide our services to homeless people in our neighbourhoods.

Today, Vesta Properties is launching another matching donations program to raise $150,000 by June 15, 2012! We are expanding the challenge to people who are already involved with NightShift, providing an opportunity to double that donation. With your help, each dollar contributed now goes twice as far.

Please help us and pledge your support now!

Join us before June 15th, as people like you and me, businesses and individuals, all rally together to help bring unconditional love, hope and purpose to those less fortunate in our community.

On behalf of our friends: thank you and blessings,

MaryAnne Connor (Rev), RPC (Cand)
Founder/President
NightShift Street Ministries

Donations, Fundraising, Homelessness, Street Ministry pennies, supporting homeless people, Vesta Challenge

The INN Missions

1 Comment Posted by NightShift on March 24, 2012

This week we were truly blessed to have an INN Missions Group join us from Bellingham, WA.

Not only did we benefit from their willingness to join us and our street friends in the evenings, but we had enthusiastic support during the daytime, too.

Some of the students went to our new Care Cottage location, where we may not have had all the appropriate tools to make the most of their time (and hearts…these kids really came to work and do whatever needed to be done), but they got on with whatever needed their attention. They did some post-renno cleaning and pressure washing, and moved trash from the back of the property to the front so that it could be loaded on to a truck and taken to the dump. They helped move furniture and assemble a bed and and and… We enjoyed sharing our stories and passion for the work we do and a little about how God is working in our situations.

At the NightShift Centre the students there rolled up their sleeves and got stuck right in, cleaning and washing and organizing everything in sight! In the warehouse the cubbies and clothing bins were reorganized and the food shelves were inventoried and restocked with zeal. The team assisted with sorting clothing and stocking our mobile clothing truck, from which they later served our street friends with a clean change of clothes.

They certainly knew how to put in their elbow grease in preparation of the nightly servings.

In the evenings, the group joined our regular street outreach volunteers to provide sustenance to our street friends. It can be a bit of a culture shock the first time you step out and personally engage with people who are hurting, living in poverty and desperation on the streets, and so we split up the troupe into smaller groups so as not to overwhelm people who regularly use our services. There was an almost immediate knitting together, of ‘family helping family’, and an awareness that God used or drew on some real interactive gifting. Any preconceived notions and fears were wonderfully dashed and the group had a blast serving with us.

As one of their group put it so well, “We all need to be loved and cared for. This was easily revealed after having just a few conversations with some of these people on the streets. The difference between us is only a few circumstances, only a few different choices…” The full article and others are available on the INN blog.

It was great to spend time with these precious young people and we truly appreciated their hearts for Jesus.

Homelessness, Street Ministry, volunteering INN Mission, serving on the street, volunteering