Gateway Church Arnprior

The Big Give 2018

At Gateway Church we doubled our crowd from last year. We gave away approximately 478 hotdogs and 150 loot bags and balloons. We really came together as a church family with 25 volunteers. It was so much fun showering Arnprior with God’s love.


St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Arnprior

The Big Give 2018

Again this year we served breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs, toast, jam, tea, coffee and juice. We prepared for 200 and served in the area of 225 to 240. We found we had some left over bacon from a previous breakfast in the freezer and reheated it to add to our menu. When the sausages and bacon ran out, people said they did not care as long as they had something to eat. We had 1 dozen eggs and a few loaves of bread left at the end of the meal, but not much else. It was steady from the time we opened at 8:00 am until we finished at 10:00 am. There were a few people came in between 10:30 and 11:00 but as we had cleaned up all we had we directed them to Grace St. Andrew’s United church for coffee and muffins or The Gateway Church for hot dogs.

We had a great team working on this breakfast and we enjoyed working together and meeting with our community. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful day, beautiful weather and not too hot, and many people to enjoy our meal. We look forward to doing this again next year.


Lindsay Ontario Big Give 2018

What a great day! So happy to be part of The Big Give. We served over 500 hotdogs, 240 cups of coffee, 16 dozen donuts and muffins, plus over 500 beverage bottles (peach juice, OJ, AJ, Water).

We gave away a tonne of stuff too!

Kathy – thanks for starting this movement. We made so many connections today with people in our community. We were blessed by a local Tim Hortons owner who donated ALL the food and beverages! What other Big Give was giving away free Timmy’s!

Churches: Church of the North, Calvary Fairview Church, Jennings Creek Church, Salvation Army

Looking forward to #biggive19!


Arlington Woods

Here at Arlington Woods we did a movie night for kids and parents with free popcorn and drink.  It was well attended, made some wonderful connections with neighborhood people. Looking forward to next year.


Woodvale

As the gate opened, it was incredible to see the people start to gather up things they needed. One lady in particular went directly to the children’s / infant section and filled her arms with baby items. I was able to talk with her only to find out that her 15 year old daughter was pregnant and she was in shock that she was able to find things for her daughter at no cost. It was a great moment.

Another story happened where Myriam was offering free hair cuts. One of our friends from Morrison Gardens was sitting waiting and she told the CTV reporter that her last hair cut was last summer when we offered free hair cuts in their community. She was so excited to be able to get it done free once again.

One little boy came up to me so very excited about a game he had picked up. He told me that he had no games at home. Imagine.

I watched as later in the day we were able to go and pick up some mattresses from someone in our church who we were unable to get to during the week. As that truck drove in with the mattresses, people were waiting beside the truck to take them. Incredible to watch.

One picture I can’t get out of my head was seeing people backing up their vans in the loading area and watching our volunteers fill up the vans – helping, encouraging, kind.


The Bridge

A family came to the Big Give having just moved from the Maritimes. They had to sell most of their belongings before coming because they couldn’t afford to have them moved here. Since arriving they have had a tight budget, and no funds to even purchase a table and chairs for their kitchen. Through an invitation of a workmate who attends the Bridge, they come to the Big Give, and not only do they find a table and chairs, but a bike for their son, and several other household items they were in need of. When they discovered that we could deliver them, overwhelmed, the father, with tears in his eyes, comes to Pastor Dave and says, you’ll never know how much this means to us. Thank you!

A teacher of special ed children finds several games that will help the autistic and special needs children she teaches develop and grow.  She expresses her appreciation for such a wonderful way that we are serving our community.

A recent immigrant to Canada comes with a neighbour, she finds two bicycles she would like for her sons and a much needed kitchen table so they have something proper to eat off of.  She has no way of getting them home and then discovers we will deliver them. She could not stop thanking us for being so kind and considerate. She only lives 2 km from the church, but it was her first time here!

A family with six children find a sofa and several items for each of their children.  They too are so grateful, and thoroughly enjoy the hotdogs, train ride and bouncy castle, while Dad takes a van-load home a returns later to pick them up.