On June the 23rd at Cafe' Suburbia, Lambrick Park Community Church, you have a unique opportunity to expand the Kingdom on the city streets of Victoria. Its about local social justice, restoring realtionships, human dignity...and love. Through an evening of dessert, music and art money will be raised to fund this very unique ministry.
Come and bring a friend...or lots of friends
What is the Street Cafe' all about? I'm glad you asked, this from the folks at Lambrick Park Community Church and The Place...
Street Cafe’s mission has been to feed and love Victoria’s poor and homeless, and this April we celebrated our first birthday! With continued support from Lambrick Park Church and the Mustard Seed, our team of volunteers is consistently serving 100-150 people per month. Street Cafe is a restaurant-style dinner for the needy and homeless in Victoria that happens every second Friday. Each week, cooks from our community prepare two entrees, one of our musicians plays for our guests, and our team acts as waiters and waitresses to serve a meal and specialty coffee drinks, and then many of our guests enjoy a movie after dinner in the sanctuary.
This ministry evolved out of an initial desire to take action on the social justice issues, and it took shape around the goal of creating a ministry unlike any other in the city. The format of Street Cafe focuses on creating an environment in which dignity is restored, relationships can be fostered, and openness and conversation is encouraged. Our motive is not expressly evangelistic; we set out to find a need and meet it, to create a place that is less institutional and more centered on encouraging and blessing each individual that comes through our doors. The overwhelmingly positive response we consistently receive from the people we serve has encouraged us to continue to pursue and improve this ministry.
It has been truly inspiring to see the relationships that have formed between our volunteers and the regulars, as well as the conversations that we have had with passers-by and the help we have been able to give our guests (e.g. food-to-go, blankets, finding a shelter for the night, etc.) We have experienced Victoria’s homeless community to be one filled with friendly faces, hilarious stories, incredible experience and inspiration. While many stories are filled with tragedy and troubles, we have found Street Cafe to be a really positive and uplifting place in which many of those can be at least momentarily put aside. Your continued prayers are a blessing to us: please pray for the homeless community, the ministries throughout the city that reach out to them, and the volunteers who work with them; for Street Cafe, pray for continued strength for our team, continued impact on the community, and God’s hand in all that we do.
I have heard bits and pieces about the Street Cafe over the past few months, and I'm terribly impressed! I think what really hits me is the concept of dignity, and how the cafe accomplishes that.
I've been involved with CARTS, another street-level ministry for about 3 years. We also 'do our thing' on Fridays, and often hear our street friends talk about what you are doing.
The more I get involved in issues of justice and mercy, the more I see Christ's heart for people. All people. He affirms, builds up, loves, and stands against injustice. And He invites us to join with Him.
God bless you for not only recognizing the equality of all of God's children, but your extra effort to give extra dignity to those who usually don't see much.
Posted by: Al | June 16, 2009 at 10:13 PM