Sonja sensed the Holy Spirit promoting her let the man know that someone cared. “I just sensed he was very lonely and upset in this difficult time,” she said, referring to the pandemic. She had just dropped off a hamper to him and she did something she doesn’t normally do. She gave the man her personal cell number for prayer and help if he might need it in the future.
The man was so touched by Sonja’s compassion that the next day he called. “I’m scared,” he confided. “I just need to talk to someone.” Sonja provided a listening ear as the man shared about his long, challenging journey and his emotional distress. Part way through the conversation Sonja asked the man if he knew Jesus.
“I don’t, but I would like to know more about what Jesus is all about,” the man replied.
That day Sonja shared with him the joy and truth of Jesus and led the man in a prayer to accept Christ.
“Since COVID-19 more people are coming to Centre Street Church in emotional distress,” says Pastor Steve noting that it is no longer just traditionally marginalized populations in need of food, but families and individuals who have experienced hardships due to layoffs.
YOUR CALL TO ACTION: WRITE A NOTE OF ENCOURAGEMENT
As a church, our heart is to not only serve and feed communities in need, but to impact people in a deeper way. That’s why we are calling on everyone to contribute notes of encouragement to people receiving their meals.
“We want to demonstrate the love of Christ while we increase our capacity to serve more people in need,” says Pastor Steve. He is referring not only to the launch of the hot meals program, but the construction for the Centre for the City which has just begun as part of the BUILD more room for God campaign to expand Central Campus.
To learn more about how you can touch a life by simply writing a note of encouragement, visit www.cschurch.ca/notes/
Social distance has not prevented our church from being on mission to impact our community for Christ. Throughout COVID-19, we have been able to increase the amount of food distributed to people in need. In fact, since March we have distributed over 1289 hampers and 95.5K pounds of food! Plus, thanks to emergency food security grants, we have been able to launch additional food distribution programs such as our lunchbox program, launched at the end of May. Since then we have distributed over 3288 lunches. On July 22 we will launch our hot meals program so we can help even more people in need!
And all of this is happening while we BUILD more room for God. Construction at our Central Campus has begun. To learn more about how we are making room to serve more Calgarians going through hardship, visit www.buildmoreroom.ca/why-build/campaign/central-campus/compassionate-ministry.