Blessing 131 Communities this Christmas!

In our last update,  we were so excited to share that we have received over $300,000 worth of Christmas gifts! Well, the giving continued until November 5^th and our total donation of products came to $552,000 in value, which is almost double what we had anticipated. The warehouse at Canadian Bible Society was packed to the rafters and three skids high in some places! We shipped 45,000 items to 131 communities across Canada. That is nine more communities than last year. With a 40% increase in shipping costs this year, we were already anticipating costs to be close to $60,000 based on $300,000 worth of gifts! Although we don’t have the exact amount as it takes weeks to manually calculate the costs for each box, we are estimating the costs to be around $80,000. Please pray that the entire amount comes in. 

This year, we are grateful for the partnerships Crossroads has with the Canadian Bible Society, Joyce Meyer Canada, Life Light Ministries Winnipeg, Kids Against Hunger, ShareWord Global, SEW on Fire, and Paul Weigel.  

With the help of volunteers from Melrose Community Church, Hamilton Christian Fellowship, and Crossroads, we were able to complete the task three days ahead of schedule on November 25^th.

On December 3^rd, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, our champion Jai Lall rallied volunteers from her church to open, sort, and repack items into Christmas bags for Montreal Lake, Sandy Bay, and James Smith.  Now you can see what was in those boxes!

As Ambassador to the First Peoples for Crossroads, I have been invited to participate in an all-day Christmas event for the families impacted by the mass murders by stabbings in thirteen locations at James Smith Cree Nation a few months ago. Many families are still living in hotel rooms as they can’t face returning home to where they may have lost their loved ones. This kind of event needs lots of support to effectively heal a broken community. Praise God for the ‘Bird Culture Camp,’ Canadian Revival Centre, Jai Lall’s Team, and singer Yvonne St. Germaine, for coming together to love on these people this coming December 17^th where Crossroads’ First Peoples Voices are sponsoring the dinner for 300 people in the community centre, thanks to Crossroads’ supporters. I will also be part of a special prayer team that works with ‘collective/community grief.’  I have previously worked with Kevin and Theresa Tabuchi in other Indigenous communities.

Prayer Points

• Traveling mercies for me from Dec. 13^th to 20^th.
• Psalm 34:18 ‘The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’
• The timely arrival of all gifts to the 131 Indigenous communities across Canada.
• That these gifts will be a sign of genuine Truth & Reconciliation offered in love and brotherhood.

Once again, thank you so much for standing with us in prayer and financially. We honestly couldn’t do this without you. May your Christmas be a blessed time.