Vancouver 2025 Day Eight

By: Abby

Hey everyone! I can’t believe that we are already on day eight, time is just flying by. This morning we all split up into 3 groups.

The first group in the morning was Olivia, Charlotte, and Wade. They had the chance to head over to the local food bank to do some general cleaning and organizing. Their job was to take all of the food off of the shelves, wipe and clean them down, and then put everything back onto the shelves. They also were doing some other cleaning and odd jobs.

The next group was Tymon, Kathryn, Adeleecia, and myself. We headed up to a beautiful property with a stunning view. There we met with Chris and got to work. He had us create a flat path on the side of a hill by digging, pic axing and raking. About halfway through our time, we had a coffee and snack break and got to know more about Chris. We were so great full for his hospitality and the gentleness shown towards us.

After our lunch, we all headed back out to do some more work!

To start off the afternoon, 7 of us hopped into the trucks and went off to Brinkworthy, which is a small community of elderly living. Once we got there we broke off into smaller groups.

Wade and I started by cleaning some exterior windows. We finished up there pretty fast and then we got to another house and helped with some general house work such as pulling up kale and Swiss chard that have gone to seed, moving some plants to outside, and putting the cover on a light in her hallway. After that we went 2 doors down and helped out with some gardening. All three of the ladies we went to were so so kind. They were chatty and loved to get to know us and what we were doing here.

Olivia and Adeleecia went to Norahs house and did some sanding and painting. While they were working away, they got the chance to talk to Norah about her past and she said that she grew up in Roman Catholicism, but didn’t like the church because she thought it was full of negativity and hypocrites. She was confused at how she was supposed to confess her sins to another human and not God and so she left the church. She said she would be open to going to church for the community. She recognizes that church community is one of the strongest kinds but as she owns a vet business on the island, she already knows lots of people and had great community. Adeleecia did invite her to church tomorrow, so let’s pray that God can give her a small push to come and get to know him more!

Charlotte, Tymon and Kathryn were all helping a lovely lady named Renée with some gardening, weeding and yardwork.

Jacob, Randy, and Matt were helping out a man named Julien both in the morning and the afternoon. During the time they got to clear out and clean a big area of his backyard and move all the stuff to his sister‘s backyard. Throughout the work, they got to talk to Julien and find out that he is a very selfless man, always putting others before him and values helping other people greatly. He runs a paper route that unfortunately runs during church service times but he did tell the team that Jesus and prayer are a part of who he is and his heart. As a parting word of advice for the boys, Julien said to “be true to yourself”.

As our final full day of work came to a close, we got to spend time in our devos and had a great conversation as a team. These past days both on the island and on East Hastings have been so impactful. There has been highs and lows, mountains and valleys, but throughout it all, we’ve been able to see God working through it all. He has been our rock and foundation as we grow closer in unity under His name and bring His kingdom glory.

Thank you all for all of your help and support. Our time has flown by and we’ll see you all soon!!