It’s hard to find good space.
Good space for me has no visible traces of mice, is warm enough, has floors that aren’t made up of cracked linoleum. Good space doesn’t smell bad or make me sneeze. Good space makes me feel safe and offers the potential to relax. Good space has comfortable seating and at least on first impressions appears cleanish.
I don’t mind being in places that don’t meet all of these criteria, it’s just not what I would prefer. It’s not what I would call good.
I am thankful every day that I have good space to live in, but lately I’ve been thankful that we have good space to offer others.
Trinity Church had been trying to rent out the 2nd floor of their administrative building. Last Spring we met with various groups to look at how to open up that space to the community. This was a sacrifice for the Church who had been hoping to generate income after extensive renovations were made. But they agreed to let us see what we could do.
Our Kitchen and eating area
We’ve slowly been moving in and welcoming more and more people to share this space. We now have our office here, joining the director of Inner City Youth. We also have an office for our Community Development Coordinator. She runs a Ladies’ group on Friday evenings. They have a short Bible study, chat, make crafts and eat together. Youth Connections which runs on Wednesday evenings now starts with a meal and then goes into discussions and activities. Stone Church’s weekly Bible Study is held Thursdays at noon, our ESL Café is every Friday at 10am, and we’ve just started a weekly Drop in on Thursdays from 4-6pm. We offer coffee and tea and muffins. Decks of cards are laid out, the backgammon board opened up, colouring pages are copied and readily available. People come to chat, get warm, relax, and take a break. There’s no distinctions of economics, or ability. Just the shared enjoyment of a good space.
Our sitting area. (The red couches were purchased thanks to a donation for some consulting work Terence and I did – again, God provides).
It’s wonderful to bring people together, to feel the room relax, to sense joy and fulfillment as conversations flow or as a missing piece in a puzzle is placed in its spot.
For this we thank Trinity Church, we thank Inner City Youth for sharing, and we thank God for providing.
“Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything.” 1 Peter 4:8-11 (from the Message)
By Jasmine Chandra