January 13, 2010

Hi everyone,

Have you ever tried to teach a very young child the meaning of sharing a toy? It is really tough to coax little Joshua to play with his Hot Wheels with little Noah.  After a while, little Noah goes home but the car remains  and little Joshua is happy, relieved and hopefully has learned a valuable new concept. Sharing. He hasn’t lost anything, he has just let somebody in on a toy.

 “Thousand of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Buddha  

At OOTC, we are constantly sharing our experience.  Volunteers are bringing friends and family to experience what we have. I received an e-mail today from a lady who has begun volunteering at the new group at McNab. “I attended out of the Cold on Saturday! I would like to thank you for the opportunity to do so.  It was very uplifting to be in the presence of goodwill people. I love to serve, and believe I am being called to do just that!  As yet unseen...I know in some way...I have somewhat changed direction ....and maybe... I am now, on the very path I have always been seeking. Peace and blessing,”

As we get older, we understand that sharing sometimes means revealing or disclosing  something to another person. Lately, some returning guests have said that since the weather is colder, they find themselves struggling to afford food and heat. How sad to have to make a choice like that.
A homeless guest last week shared his wish for a permanent job with one of our security guards who works at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Lo and behold, our guest has had one interview for the laundry department at St. Joe’s and is going for another.

Last night, I asked a lady what her name was. She just smiled.  Her husband shared with me that, even though she is on medication, his wife can’t remember her name at times, or conversations she has had, and she sometimes finds it frustrating to cook, so now they come to OOTC.

Our group made dinner history yesterday. Not Guiness World Book history, I mean the food was totally GONE. Miriam made everyone’s favourite: Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup. So many of you and our guests wanted me to share the recipe so I’ve attached it for all of you and printed copies for our guests. Then we served 8 trays of pineapple chicken, 2 trays of meatballs, rice, cold marinated cucumber salad (a NEW and LOVED addition to our repertoire), hot veggies and apples and clementines. There were 117 dinner guests.  Earlier today, a friend asked me how many overnight guests were there?  I replied: 12. She said, “Oh, that’s getting better. There were only 8 last week.” I replied, “No, it’s getting worse.”  We’re still plugging away.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, thanks for your shared enthusiasm every week.

Cindy