For Rent

A few weekends ago, we took our adult leaders to Detroit to a Urban Youth Worker Institute day. We love Today's Teens and The Core and other Adult leader training days but we really wanted some training more directed to our situtation.

I have to say the closer we got to the church the more I felt like a country mouse. There were SO many boarded up houses. The picture is of a row of houses (there were at least 10 of these). The one at the end had no boards or windows, but it did have a sign that said, "FOR RENT". I kept having these 'what have I gotten us into' thoughts. That didn't go away even after we had parked our car on the street and gone into the church. In the past 4 years, this community has had ONE high school graduate versus our high community dropout rate of 30-40%.

The seminar speakers were bang-on for me. Relevant, insightful and God-reliant, we were all encouraged to pray & put ourselves out there for our youth. If you'd like to check out some similiar seminars http://www.uywi.org/index.php?do=resources&id=12 .

One interesting thing that came to me throughout the day was our situtation at Toronto Alliance Church is very different. You see that church in that rough neighbourhood...it was nice, really quite nice. Comfy...really comfy chairs, a big gym/auditorium, more than 3 classrooms...good sized ones, multiple washrooms, a foyer, a big kitchen, etc. We simply don't have that here at TAC...the big facility and personally I'm more than cool with that...building can equal a departure from first loves...it just means we have to be more creative and build community relationships with organizations that can help us out. We're a poor community living in a rich area. Interesting, no? The entire Detroit experience made me love our little Queen Street West community and its residents all the more.