Summertime reflections
The next couple posts will detail some of the exciting stories from the fall, but before I get there, here are a few of my Summertime reflections:
After a semester full of new vision and ministry; and a rapidly growing community; I spent the summer resting, planning for the upcoming year and embarking on adventures!
I started the summer a little hectically, as I quickly bid farewell to the interns, and packed up my room to make space for the Toronto Urban Partnership to inhabit our house during the month of May. While my house was occupied in May, I was in Bangladesh with 3 Ryerson students and 11 other students from Queens, McMaster, Western, Waterloo and Ottawa University. I had a blast with this fun group of students and an amazing staff team, and though Bangladesh wasn’t quite what I thought it would be, it definitely left an impression on me, and I came back changed!
After Bangladesh, I hit the road on the Greyhound and spent 6 days in rural Pennsylvania setting up and standing in my best friend’s wedding! It was a hoot, and I learned a whole new set of life skills, as I encountered “roughing it” in ways that were vastly different than my “roughing it” experiences in Bangladesh! After the wedding, I hopped on the bus and went down to Florida to visit with Sasha before she headed out to Kolkata on a Global Urban Trek. I remained in Orlando for a few days and rested and met up with friends; then headed to North Carolina for the Wild Goose Festival! An experience like no other, I enjoyed the time there and found rest in God despite the lack of many of my usual comforts. After the Wild Goose festival, I headed to Washington for a few days, and caught up with my good friend Crystel and was cared for well by her and her family. After being on the road for 3 weeks, it was nice to have South Asian parents take care of me. After Washington, I slowly made my way back to Toronto, to embark on the next new thing.
The next new thing being my household being filled with new housemates, we welcome Dan and Joy in at the end of July (Sara moved in while I was in Bangladesh). The rest of July was spent sorting out new household rhythms and planning for the new year of ministry with my new staff team and my new exec leaders. The new exec consisted of 4 women that I had invested in over the past year, Lauren, Bethany, Amber and Sandra; I was excited to see how they would work together and the vision they brought to ministry on campus! We met as an exec team a number of times over the months of July and August; first at Dan’s parent’s cottage and later at our house. There were a lot of great ideas and new vision for the ministries we would pursue this year.
All of the GTA campuses made a commitment to have the Gospel of Luke be the main teaching text for the year, so there would be an excitement building as students prepared for Urbana (where Luke would be taught) as well as so there would be consistency as we did GTA wide ministry and conferences. The exec students were excited about this possibility, and coming out of bible study of Luke, we wanted to model how we engaged people and relationships after Jesus’ interactions as well as pursue issues of justice as an expression of our faith and from these desires we shaped ministry for the upcoming year.
Prom Gone Wrong
“Our aim was to throw a really fun party…as we celebrated good things about prom and poked fun at some of its tired traditions”
At #conferencewin, we spent time brainstorming themes. We had 1 minute to think of 3 different themes. One of our themes was Prom Gone Wrong. Something struck us about that theme, as we talked more we realized we had a wide range of experiences of formals and proms. Almost immediately we began to think of ways to throw a party called “Prom Gone Wrong”. Our aim was to throw a really fun party, with good food, games and merriment as we celebrated good things about prom and poked fun at some of its tired traditions.
We decided we would try this as our first outreach event. As we planned for this event, we thought about food, music, games and prizes. We also hired an RIVCF alumnus, Ainsley to set up a Prom Photo booth. We also offered to take interested students out shopping at local thrift stores to find their perfect prom outfit.
We encountered a few setbacks: too much food and too ambitious a meal that we set out to prepare ourselves took us out of some of the intentional inviting process; the room booked wasn’t entirely conducive to our vision for the party; and perhaps the most surprising setback was that the Ryerson Student Union had paired up with a course union and threw a Prom party on the same night as our event! But, despite the setbacks, we had a great time! Friends who hadn’t previously come to an IV event came and had a great time!
One of my highlights was when Serena* and her boyfriend came to our event. Serena is one of my childhood best friends, she is not a Christian nor is she a student at Ryerson; however, her boyfriend worked for the Oakham House (where the majority of our meetings and events are held). I ran into her boyfriend one day when I was on campus and invited him to come to our event, he said he had to work, but mentioned Serena might be available**. I asked Serena if she’d be interested in coming, and she was! She came and had a great time. And though her boyfriend was working he kept coming by and checking in on her and our event; suffice it to say, we received the best service from the Oakham House staff that evening! It was such an unexpected blessing to share my work with this good friend, and also to build connections with the staff of the Oakham House; two things I had really been praying for!
Another added blessing was that a couple of my intern housemates came, and were a great help in welcoming people and inviting them to participate in our activities for the evening!
We learned so much in the process of putting on this event. Though in some regards it didn’t go as planned, we were blessed and surprised abundantly throughout the all aspects of planning and putting on this event. Following the event, we had some time to debrief as a team; and also have some great follow-up conversations with our friends who came to the event.
*name changed
** A little sidenote: Serena and I had a wee falling out in high school when I first became a Christian. Since then, we have reconnected, and she’s asked questions but on the whole, she is baffled by my work with IV.
Intern House
[Our house] “…at any given time can be filled with students, friends and ministry”
I found out Toronto would be having an internship in December, and almost immediately began dreaming of the possibilities of living in community with interns. Officially, I was invited to live with the interns in February. I, along with my good friend Dave Stone, staff at OCAD University chose to live with the interns and welcomed them to Toronto in late August.
We live together in what was known as the downtown staff house or “McGill House”. In addition to this amazing experience of living in community, the house is less than 2 minutes away from Ryerson.
Our house has become a hub for parties, meetings, and at any given time can be filled with students, friends and ministry.
The interns are supervised on campus by the campus staff who primarily cares for their campus (York and U of T St. George); and the overall internship is supervised by my supervisor Jamie. My role with the interns is one where I walk alongside them as they navigate life in community and in Toronto. At home: we meet, have meals together, work out conflict and pray and care for each other and host one another’s students when they are over. This is done in addition to my responsibilities on campus, and as much as I enjoy the immersion of ministry; I have had some struggles being able to find good rest this semester.
The Toronto Interns: Kyle, Vanessa, Veronika, and Tate
The Arch 