Haymarket Baptist Church

Greetings!

We have arrived safely in Toronto Canada and are excited about the week ahead.  We must have left summer behind when we crossed the boarder because it has rained a lot here and has been quiet cool � mid 60�s during the day.  We hope the weather improves during the week because we have a lot to do!

            Sunday was a day to become acquainted with our surroundings and begin to look for differences in the culture.  In the morning we worshiped with Weston Park Baptist Church.  This is the church that sponsors Frontlines, a ministry to children and youth in the area.  Weston Park in celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year and has certainly gone through some changes as the community around it has changed.  It is a very culturally diverse congregation.  We noticed many Jamaican, African, Asian, and Caucasian church members.  Though the pastor is away this week on vacation, we met the associate pastor and hope to meet with him later this week to learn the story of Weston Park Church and how the congregation is responding to God�s call in such a diverse area.

            We were also able, despite the clouds and occasional rain, to walk around downtown Toronto.  We strolled along Lake Ontario, observed a south Asian festival, and walked through the �Sky Dome� and CN Tower area � two buildings that dominate the Toronto skyline.  Once the weather improves, we hope to ride to the top of the CN Tower which claims to be the world�s tallest building.

            We are including a few pictures of Weston Park Baptist Church, Frontlines ministry, and downtown Toronto.  We hope to keep everyone up to date as the week progresses.  Please keep our team in your prayers as we begin our work tomorrow.  John, Julia, and Marissa will be working at Frontlines.  Debbie, Jim, and Matthew will be meeting and teaching conversational English to new immigrants from Somalia.

God�s Blessings,

Toronto Mission Team

Giving and Receiving Hospitality

            Our first two days of mission work here in Toronto have been fast and full of new experiences.  Already we have encountered new people and traditions that have stretched us.  Already, it is evident to us that Toronto offers a wide array of cultures and nationalities to minister to and learn from � all within a nine hour drive from Haymarket.  Within one day we have helped kids from the Caribbean and Mid East build pinewood derby cars, rode the bus with this group for a special lunch outing to the Spaghetti Factory (a restaurant), welcomed newly immigrated families from India and Pakistan to Canada by teaching them English and other skills that will help them adapt to a new culture, and been welcomed into the home of one of our Baptist contacts, Jeff McCarrell for dinner.  Jeff is also hosting in his home a Rwandan refugee, Jewel.

            To begin to share the things we have learned and experienced in our first two days would take too long for the purpose of this update.  Yet one thing we are learning is that as Christians we are called to see others with Christ�s eyes.  That includes welcoming the �stranger� and accepting the hospitality of others too.  We are �strangers� in Toronto and there have been moments when we were unsure of what the next moment would hold.  We have learned to lean on those in Canada we have met and are working with � particularly our Christian friends and contacts. 

One example is Kristy Grisdale, director of Frontlines youth ministry, who has taken in our group and been wonderful to work with.  Her staff has offered us a warm welcome and been very enthusiastic about our wooden cars.  More importantly, you should see the kid�s reaction.  They are both curious and excited that they can make a car to call their own.

            Jeff McCarrell and his ministry best define the practice of Christian hospitality.  Their purpose is to welcome internationals who are generally overlooked by Christians and �westerners� to the Toronto area.  These people include overlooked immigrants - predominately of Muslim and Hindu faith.  By entering their homes, we have become some of the only people from this new place that have taken the time to welcome them and help their family acclimate to a new culture.  They know we are Christians and they are very impressed that our faith calls us to this kind of mutual respect and hospitality.  We may only be planting seeds with these people, but their first impression of westerners and Christians are hopefully warm and positive.

            In turn, Jeff McCarrell offered wonderful hospitality to our group last night.  We ate an amazing dinner in his backyard and shared many stories from our lives.  It was humbling to hear some of Jewel�s story and to learn how Jeff is ministering through his partnership with Toronto Baptists to make overlooked people groups feel welcome.  Walter McIntyre, a local Baptist minister and liaison between Virginia Baptist and Toronto Baptist joined us for dinner too.

            We look forward to seeing what the rest of the week has in store and how God will work.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers and visit the web page again for more updates!       

Mission Friends is the church missions organization of WMU for preschoolers ages birth through prefirst. The primary objective of Mission Friends is to provide a strong foundation for preschoolers in a Christian and missions lifestyle.

Mission Friends provides developmentally appropriate missions learning experiences to help preschoolers move from a self-centered focus to a focus on others, to become aware that not everyone knows about God's love, and to understand ways they can help others know about this good news!

To learn more, please visit www.missionfriends

What Is Children in Action?

Children in Action^sm is a comprehensive missions education organization, for boys and girls in grades 1�6, which includes praying for missions, engaging in missions action and witness, learning about missions, developing spiritually toward a missions lifestyle, participating in the work of the church and denomination, and supporting missions.
  

Through participation in Children in Action, children grow in their knowledge, understanding, and application of the Bible. They also learn from the example of missionaries, believers, and hands-on mission action what it means to actively engage in ministering to others with the compassion of Christ.