Sunday, July 15, 2012

The Week Ends the Week Begins


Hello friends!

Can't believe our time in Toronto is half-gone! Which means we leave for Japan in exactly 3 weeks! As we mentioned before, we spent Saturday, our day off, at Niagara Falls.

We took a greyhound from Toronto to Niagara (well, eventually...they had to grab a second bus they had overbooked so many of us!) and then walked to the falls (about 2km). The day was filled with sunshine and “rain” :)





Today (Sunday), we split into groups and headed all over Toronto to worship with different Christian communities: San Lorenzo Anglican, St. John's Evangelical Lutheran, Assemblee Nouvelle Alliance, Toronto Chinese United Church, Church of St. Stephen Anglican, and Friendship Community Church. Doug and I went with a few others to Friendship Community Church, a reformed community that is incredibly diverse and welcoming. 

We met people from Jamaica, Nigeria, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and also native Canadians, all who have formed this faith community and consider one another family. They welcomed us with open arms and invited us to their potluck after the service (potluck...reminded us of Arkansas!). The food was, of course, delicious. The experience as a whole was a great way to begin thinking about encountering people in a different place that tell their story in a different way.

Tomorrow we will be hearing even more diverse stories. We are going to be visiting Cham Shan (a Buddhist temple), and the Islamic Foundation of Toronto. We are very excited to begin a practice of stepping outside of our own religious boxes to engage in what we hope will be a two-sided, inter-religious and inter-ideological dialogue.

Fellow servants in Christ,

Doug and Jenny

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