Soup kitchen

Yesterday was my first day volunteering at the soup kitchen in downtown. So I thought I give a little update on how that went. The soup kitchen took place in a Baptist church in downtown. It is probably the oldest, most run-down church I've ever been to. When you walk in, it's actually bit shocking how run down it is, but at the same time, it is probably one of the warmest place I've ever been to. Every Tuesday, the church opens its doors and operate the soup kitchen, cooking and serving food to the poor and the needy. Each night they serve food to 120-150 people. Then at night, its doors are open for people to sleep in a safe and warm environment. The most amazing thing is, the church has been doing this for 12 years! I truly understand today that the value of the church really isn't defined by it's appearance, but by what it's doing for the kingdom of God.

As for the volunteers, it was quite diverse. There were Canadians and international students, Christians and non-Christians, and people of all age and backgrounds. The only common thing between the volunteers is that everyone is there to serve. The evening started with everyone pitching in to prepare the food and to set up the dining area. After everything is set up, everyone gathers into this viewing area where the pastor puts on a video and gives a little message. The message last night was on happiness.

The video shown was of a Harvard professor presenting his findings on his research about happiness. In his research, he compared the level of happiness people experienced from the onset of the event to three months after. The two groups of people he interviewed were people who won the multi-million dollar lottery and people who became paraplegic. Of course in the beginning, the level of happiness the two groups experienced were the opposite extremes of the pole. The interesting thing was that the level of happiness the two groups experienced were almost exactly the same at three months. The pastor then used this example to remind us that happiness placed on material things is not everlasting. A lot of people say, I know I'll be happy when I'm rich, or I will be happy when I'm married. What happened when we obtain these things? What's next? We will always want more because we are dissatisfied with what we have. The pastor reminded us that true happiness is from God. We can obtain happiness from Him because it arises from His love for us.

Finally, I want to leave a little note about the people we served at the soup kitchen. These were homeless people of all ages and you can tell from their appearances that they've been through a lot. A lot of them were quite sick, HIV, cellulitis, liver cirrhosis, various amputations, you name them. Seeing them, it just really made me thankful for what I have... All in all, this was a great experience and I praise the Lord that I take part in serving the community in this way.