January 15th Outreach

On January 15th, we will working on our next outreach event to Hamilton's homeless.  We will be supplying sandwiches, coffee, blankets, and hopefully, gloves and toques to the homeless of Hamilton.  We quickly realized at our last event in December that many of the homeless do not have any gloves or toques to help with the cold conditions of wintertime. If you have any new or gently used, clean gloves, mitts, or toques,  please contact us at info@luke311.org.

Please pray for this next outreach event.

Homeless in Hamilton Event

A very special thanks to those who contributed and helped out with flooding Hamilton with blankets, coffee, sandwiches, and cupcakes tonight.  Many people we spoke to were spending the night, sleeping in below freezing temperatures.

About 40 blankets, 40 cupcakes, and 40 sandwiches were provided to those in need of warmth and food.

We have an abundance of extra blankets and coats that will be going to homeless agencies, as well as out on the street again at our next event.

One thing that we are in need of are gloves and toques.  Many folks on the street are without these items to keep them warm, and unfortunately, we met a mother with an 8 month baby boy, where the baby did not have enough to keep him warm.
 
May God bless the ones that received tonight, as well as those who contributed their blankets, time, and efforts in distributing.

That is the Icing on the Cake... Cupcake that is!

Saturday afternoon brings out cupcakes, icing, sprinkles, and packaging bags. These wonderful ladies are preparing cupcakes that will be distributed along with blankets, sandwiches, coffee, and coats, to Hamilton's homeless.

Hamilton Homeless - December 18th Event Information

For those assisting us in distributing blankets, coats, sandwiches, cupcakes, and coffee.. If you have any questions, please contact me at info@luke311.org.

December 18th : Hamilton Homeless

We will be distributing blankets, sandwiches, coffee, and cupcakes to Hamilton's homeless on Sunday, December 18th. At this time we are concentrating only on the Hamilton area (not Toronto) for the 18th.

For those helping us, times and locations will be posted soon!

Stay Tuned!

Baking for Food

From Simply Belle: www.shop.simplybelle.ca

Some of you may know I have been using 50% of sales for the past month or so to go towards supplies for feeding hungry/homeless people near to us... Our family felt pulled to do this months ago as I stood outside a beautiful hotel with our little dog and watch a man approach me, only to go AROUND me and scrounge through the garbage for food... Sad thing was, my family and I had JUST finished "complaining" about how stuffed our bellies were from our delicious Thanksgiving dinner... Also during our many drives last year from our home to the hospital for prenatal check ups, we saw sooooooo many people on the streets who were clearly without homes, and that has left us wanting to help... so to those of you who have supported this mission by buying cakes, etc.. thank you!!!

Flood of Blankets

Thanks to our friends from the band "Before The Flood" for helping us with obtaining blankets for the homeless for distribution on December 18th.

Come out to see the show on December 17th at the Moonshine Cafe in Oakville!

www.beforetheflood.ca

Band Aids and Starfish

In my workplace, I have placed a sign at my cubicle to ask people to donate blankets for the homeless for our distribution on December 18th.  One of my coworkers saw the sign, and commented "what you are doing is only giving them a band aid, it's not giving them a solution".  This stumped me for a while, then I was soon to realize that our mission is not in solving the homeless issues of our communities. What we are doing is serving a sector within the community with blankets, sandwiches, coffee, and most importantly, our love for our neighbour as directed by Christ.

Is what we are doing going to make a difference?  Probably not to the world, but to individuals, absolutely.
This is a quote by Loren Eiseley that reminds me of what it means to make a difference:

“While wandering a deserted beach at dawn, stagnant in my work, I saw a man in the distance bending and throwing as he walked the endless stretch toward me. As he came near, I could see that he was throwing starfish, abandoned on the sand by the tide, back into the sea. When he was close enough I asked him why he was working so hard at this strange task. He said that the sun would dry the starfish and they would die. I said to him that I thought he was foolish. there were thousands of starfish on miles and miles of beach. One man alone could never make a difference. He smiled as he picked up the next starfish. Hurling it far into the sea he said, "It makes a difference for this one."

Blankets for the Homeless - Request for blankets

Feeding Hamilton's Homeless - November 20, 2011

God placed on our hearts to feed the homeless of Hamilton, Ontario.  We prepared 30 sandwiches to distribute in the downtown core.  Along with some of our friends,  we served in downtown Hamilton 25 sandwiches along with pouring hot coffee.  The people that we served ranged from young to old in age.  Some were groups of immigrants in a park, some were men with a bottle in a paper bag.  Nevertheless, the needy were in need... not just for food, but spiritual nutrition as well.  One man told me that he was trying to take care of his ailing 80 year old mother, but he felt that she was taking care of him more, as he was so "down on his luck".  The kids that were with us, were soon to realize that they had it "pretty good" as most of the homeless would be sleeping on the sidewalk that night.  They said that they must be cold sitting on the concrete.  So on December 18th, we will be back in Hamilton, and possibly Toronto, to hand out blankets.

preparing sandwiches for the homeless of Hamilton