It is indeed wonderful to be able to announce that there are two pieces of great news to begin 2017!
First, our Leaside United Church (LUC) Syrian refugee family shall be arriving in Toronto later in January 2017. This shall be almost exactly 13 months after the Leaside United Church Community Refugee Resettlement Committee (LUCCRRC) was first formed and church sponsorship was formally initiated.
The family consists of parents, plus their three sons – twin four-year-olds and a six year old. They are very excited! We have been blessed that the dad works as a translator of English and he has been teaching his wife and sons this new language during the long wait. Together, we have all learned great patience!
The committee members are searching for suitable accommodations. We are looking for a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment and hopefully it will be close to the Thorncliffe / Flemingdon area. The family’s safe arrival shall be a wonderful New Year’s gift!!
Second, during October and November, LUC embarked on a special one-time fund-raiser for a Congolese refugee family of seven, now living in Calgary. The sponsoring group-of-five Canadian families wanted to find a way to pay back or greatly reduce the family’s approximate $10,000 government loan for their medical, administration and travel expenses. This debt was a heavy burden to the New Canadian family and the father worried greatly about paying back this loan.
Through the donations of a number of people and $1000 from LUC’s Outreach Committee, a total of $6960 was raised. Over 50% of this amount came from non- Leaside Church members, who had heard the story and responded with great generosity.
We had the privilege and absolute joy of presenting this totally unexpected Christmas gift to the family in mid-December.
Their repeated words of thanks, smiles and hugs, filled us with tears of joy!
Thank you to all who responded.
So. 2017 at Leaside United Church begins with much for which to give thanks.
Blessings,
Bob and Lis Lister for LUCCRRC
You must be logged in to post a comment.