This Week at the Tables — Wind, Hail, Hotdogs, and Hearts Learning Together
This week was cold.
Not “grab a sweater” cold — the kind of cold where the wind cuts through your jacket and makes your eyes water.
Welland gave us high winds, sideways hail, and a whole lot of “why do we live in Canada again?”
St. Catharines wasn’t much better. It was one of those weeks where you seriously question your life choices while handing out hotdogs with numb fingers.
Speaking of hotdogs — we tried precooking everything ahead of time and not bringing any heat source at all. Let’s just say… we won’t be winning any culinary awards for that one. But it worked. Sort of. And navigating bylaws while trying to keep people warm and fed is still an ongoing dance.
It’s a weird tension:
wanting to respect the community, wanting to follow the rules,
but also knowing that the people who need warmth the most are the ones outside in the cold with us.
Our First Presentation to a Church
Another “first” this week:
we got to present the ministry to a church body.
That was… interesting.
Good, encouraging, even humbling — but also interesting.
How do you explain the cold reality we see every week to people sitting in a warm room, with warm coats, drinking warm coffee?
Not because they don’t care — they do — but because they genuinely haven’t seen what we see.
Trying to describe:
- the level of need,
- the desperation,
- the mental health struggles,
- the addictions,
- and the sheer chaos some people live in…
without sounding dramatic is harder than you think.
When you say, “Some of our guests don’t even know their own date of birth,” a few people look at you like you’re exaggerating.
But we’ve lived it.
We’ve seen the government systems that are supposed to help — and often don’t.
We’ve seen people turned away because they don’t have ID… or an address… or a phone…
or the mental stability to navigate endless paperwork.
And then you try to explain that some guests would literally rather sleep in the snow than risk being robbed, assaulted, or abused in certain shelters.
That’s not something you can say lightly.
But it’s the truth.
The Tension We Live In
If I’m honest, the hardest part of the presentation wasn’t the content — it was trying to make the reality relatable to people who measure life by:
- results,
- efficiency,
- structure,
- “just try harder,”
- and “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
That mindset works in business.
It even works in most of life.
But it doesn’t translate well to the street.
You can’t “bootstrap” your way out of:
- untreated schizophrenia,
- childhood trauma,
- sexual abuse,
- fentanyl addiction,
- a lifetime of instability,
- or being too terrified to sleep indoors.
Those aren’t moral failures — they’re human wounds.
But here’s the beautiful thing:
even if the church didn’t fully grasp the depth of what we see — their hearts were open.
They listened.
They cared.
They asked questions.
And that’s a huge start.
We’re not trying to shame anyone.
We’re trying to bridge a gap.
Another Battlefront: Understanding
If serving on the street is one battlefront,
helping the wider church understand why we serve is the second one.
And honestly?
Both matter.
Because when you’re standing out there on a bitterly cold night,
handing out hot chocolate to someone who hasn’t slept in days,
and talking to them like a human being instead of a problem —
that is the gospel in motion.
Relationship.
Presence.
Love in action.
Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated.
Just being there.
Sometimes the smallest acts — standing in the cold with someone — speak louder than any sermon.
Winter Is Here — and So Are We
Winter doesn’t slow us down.
If anything, it shows us why the tables matter even more.
This season, we’ll keep:
- serving,
- listening,
- praying,
- and doing our best to be good neighbors —
to businesses, to bylaw officers, to the city, and to the people freezing on the sidewalks.
We’re not perfect.
We don’t have all the answers.
But we’re trying, one cold night at a time.
So please keep praying:
- for wisdom,
- for strength,
- for open hearts,
- for unity,
- for safety,
- and for the spiritual battles that happen quietly,
on street corners in the middle of winter.
We’ll be out there — with our guests, with each other, and with God walking right alongside us.
And honestly?
That’s enough to keep us going.
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