Toronto

Common Ground has a three day vision trip to Toronto that Larry Mitchell, the director of Training School, leads a few times a year. I have felt called to go on this trip for a few years, but it never really lined up with my schedule. But last May it did, and I was able to go on the trip.

It is billed as an intentional walk with Jesus. I didn’t have real concrete expectations for this trip, but I was excited and the unpredictable nature is what drew me to it in the first place.

Larry likes to walk, and walk a lot. We spent most of our days and most of the night walking and listening to the stories of the people of Toronto. People that didn’t have places to live, people that didn’t have people to love them, it was very sobering.

One of the people we met was Patrick.  Patrick was abused as a child and moved to Toronto to live on the streets to escape that abuse. All he found was more abuse in the city.  He was able to get off the streets and now spends his time helping kids avoid some of the things he had to endure. Patrick's raw honesty really struck a chord with me and I realized that my life could have been drastically different if I had endured some of the abuse that he endured.

Everyone is fighting their own battle and a little bit of compassion and kindness can go a long way.

Jesus acted many times before he ever spoke, the people he helped often didn’t need a sermon; they needed help. What does it mean to shoulder your cross daily? Larry asked us that question on our first evening there, I didn’t know how to answer that question then and I’m not sure I can fully answer it now. But I have to put aside my selfish ambition in order to shoulder my cross, to walk as Jesus did.

For this we are Thankful.