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“Dana on Queen St. West”
December, 1999

“Good Night Young One”
December, 2000

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Interactive Workshop for children on homelessness… 

Have you ever encountered someone who is homeless while with the children in your care? Have you ever tried to – or wondered how you would explain homelessness to a child? Perhaps you are a teacher or church school leader and would like to do a unit on poverty and homelessness but are not sure where to begin.

 In April 2007, The Cardboard Shack Beneath the Bridge, the children’s book I wrote and illustrated, was released – with the by-line Helping Children Understand Homelessness. The author’s proceeds from the book go to four charitable organizations: Youth Unlimited (Toronto YFC), The Daily Bread Food Bank, The Ladybug Foundation and Frontlines.

In response to an overwhelming interest (by parent groups and educators) in taking it a step further, the Light Patrol team has created an interactive workshop to complement the book. The teaching session includes an actual life-sized cardboard shack for children to sit in, wet socks to try on as they climb into a sleeping bag, a DVD photo album depicting life on the streets, an opportunity to respond through art, and a unique chance to interact with experienced street outreach workers in a child-friendly and age-appropriate setting.

Because the interest has been so great, and the requests to come and speak to school groups and Sunday school classes continue to come in, we thought it would be helpful to post an outline of the full children’s program here on the site, for those who are interested.

For more information on Light Patrol’s interactive children’s workshop, please click here. 

All the best,

Tim Huff
Director of Light Patrol and Homelessness Initiatives
Youth Unlimited (Toronto YFC) 

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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: ONE PURE MOMENT

Loving Father,
to you who created all things and who loves all creatures,
we ask that you might fill our hearts with gratitude for lollipops and little children and beaming smiles and playfulness and hope and healing and every good blessing you bestow upon us;

Humble Son,
to you who said, “unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,”
we ask for the innocence and naivete of a child to see the world as you see it, and the poor and the hungry as you see them;

Powerful Spirit,
to you who strengthens our resolve,
we ask for greater courage to defy convention, to share our blessings, to smile at strangers, and to bring joy and flavour and colour and grace into the lives of others and to allow them to do the same to us.

Amen.

Michael Frost is the author of several best-selling books, and one of Australia’s most widely recognized contemporary theological speakers in his own country and around the world, having spoken at some of the largest conventions and events throughout Australia, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Michael is the Founding Director of the Centre for Evangelism & Global Mission at Morling Theological College in Sydney, and is strongly committed to leadership development, serving on the board of the Australian Arrow Leadership Development Program and as co-director in the establishment of “Forge” – a missional training network for young leaders based in Melbourne. Michael has also planted a missional church on Sydney’s northern beaches called “Small Boat, Big Sea.”

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: FIVE DAYS OF BOTTLED CLAWS

We build shells. All of us. Tough exoskeletons designed to shield and protect. Some loud, flashy exteriors, filled with bravado, false confidence and foolish pride. Defences designed to distract and confuse… draw attention away from the great woundedness inside.

Some shells are dull, plain… camouflage almost. Designed to keep us hidden, imperceptible, to draw as little attention as possible in the hopes that no one will notice us. No one will hurt us.

Some are like armour. Hard, thorny – “keep out” signs. Angry and intentional about keeping others at arms length, or further. Don’t hurt me… I will hurt you first, because I’ve already been hurt more deeply than you would guess or could imagine.

And some of our shells are spit-shined and polished to look perfect, holy, spiritual – so very… together. Designed to hide our failings, our doubts, our questions, our frailties… our humanity.

The tidy and untidy, showy, subtle or off-putting ways we package up our hurt,
bottle our pain to keep it from being visible or exposed.

You see past all of these, God, don’t you?

You who created us, who calls each of us precious, child.
You see what it is we try so hard to conceal within our shells.
The soft, fleshy, tender parts kept hidden deep within that we guard so carefully, so diligently.
Hearts that have been broken, battered, disappointed, betrayed, torn apart, and beaten beyond recognition.
Hearts that question, doubt, fear, and struggle.

And you are not distracted. Not fooled. Not put off by our clever disguises, or repelled by our armour.
You see us.
The hidden, innermost parts of us.
Who we really are, where we really are, what we really feel.

Gentle Jesus… Prince of Peace, Good Shepherd, Healer.
Healer? Can there be healing?
Can you make right what feels wrong? Mend what is broken? Restore what’s been ruined? Redeem what seems lost?
Can you reach through our shells and make us whole?

Can we trust you? Hope in you?

Are you who you say you are?

Yes, Jesus, I believe it. It is the only thing that makes sense.

Unseen God – restore the parts of us that are unseen.

Let it be so.

Julia Beazley has been actively engaged in social justice issues around domestic poverty and homelessness for over a decade, in her hometown of Ottawa, Ontario and across the country – at every level, from direct street work to governmental advocacy. Julia is the full time Coordinator for StreetLevel: The National Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness, and the point person for the work of its advocacy committee and the tri-annual national StreetLevel conferences. She has also served as Tim Huff’s part time assistant since 2005. Most of all, Julia is the proud mother of a wonderful little boy.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: NO ONE TO TOUCH

Abba

I need to feel your arms around me.

I am surrounded by people
but feel so often alone
I long for intimacy
but carefully perch
where I can scrutinize every approach

The older I get
the more I feel I am a child
aching for the warm security
of your embrace

The stuff I had thought would fill me up
has sucked the life out of me
people I hoped would save me
have failed
and though I have tried
I have saved no one

Strange, this:
the weaker I become
the more child-like
the more clearly I hear you
calling me
to become also a parent

You have fixed nothing in my life
but you have held me
and I am learning
that this is all I need

Help me then
Abba
to place my arms
(as I rest in yours)
around another orphaned soul

and trust
that it is enough.

Greg Paul is the founder and Executive Director of Sanctuary, a Christian ministry dedicated to establishing holistic, inclusive and healthy community that welcomes individuals who are homeless, involved in the sex trade, or suffering with addictions or AIDS, among many other issues. Greg is Chair of the Advocacy Committee of StreetLevel: The National Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness, and has authored two books, “God in the Alley” (Shaw Books), which was released in December 2004, and “The Twenty Piece Shuffle: Why the Rich and the Poor Need Each Other,” to be released in August, 2008.

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CHAPTER TWENTY: THE BOY I HATED

Grace. God, grant us grace;
enough that we can see the beauty and value in individuals, even when their outward appearance obscures it completely;
enough to see their honour, however deeply hidden
and to grant respect, even when we think it is undeserved.
Help me to recognize the wounds and understand the shame that lies behind each act of rejection and moment of repulsive behaviour.
Grant me grace to believe that most of us are doing the best we can in the midst of our personal brokenness.
God, grant us grace.

Grace.
God grant grace to a dad who cannot love;
to a man crushed by the weight of his own neglected childhood and facing a son who spends his wealth and spits his name.
Grace to a parent who gives up, and who drugs the pain by choosing vacation over children.
Grace when the weight of failing, and of being failed, overwhelms.
Grace to dads and grace to moms who, having no grace left to give, receive little in return.

Grace.
God grant grace to the orphans whose parents, preoccupied in busyness, abandoned their children in castles of plenty.
Grace to the prodigal who will not be loved, who rejects every overture and spews abuse at all who draw near,
and to the child whose mind-numbing pain breaks out in a whirlwind of violence.
Grace to the child who turns their hostility inward, poisoning their soul with self-loathing.
Grace, to the children who, never knowing grace, have none to give.

Grace.
God grant grace to the caregivers who over-spend every loving emotion, and who, finding themselves empty and void, act out love through sheer strength of will and commitment to justice.
Grace to all, who having poured their lives into others, discover that love is not all you need, and who live to see those in their care self destruct.
Grace to those who so freely give themselves to others yet sometimes forget to grace their selves.

Grace.
God grant grace to me, when there is no place in my heart for a wounded child;
when my life is so consumed with me and mine that I have little love to give.
Grace to me when I pretend not to see, or turn away in fear from the ugly, untidy, or strange.
Grace to me when I am so absorbed in my own life that I forget to be grace to others.

God, grant us grace.
Enough for all we have experienced, and all that we have become, and enough to be all that you desire.

Rick Tobias was born in Saint John, New Brunswick and began his ministry as a church planter in Coldbrook, Nova Scotia. He later launched and coordinated Baptist Inner City Ministries, a church agency serving impoverished people in Saint John. In 1983, Rick moved to Toronto, Ontario, to become coordinator of Yonge Street Mission’s Evergreen location, which he refocused to meet the needs of Toronto’s street-involved youth. He was appointed Executive Director of Yonge Street Mission in 1989. Rick is a member of StreetLevel: The National Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness.

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CHAPTER NINETEEN: NEVER AGAIN

God, we need your help to make sense of this world – to find hope when everything around us is unreliable and corrupt – to feel love and acceptance when we have been hurt and rejected. 

Please help us. Heal us. Forgive us. Restore us.

Lord, we confess that when we witness suffering and injustice, it is hard to believe you exist. Help us to see that we as humans keep messing up, but that you are a constant source of love and truth. So often we look to other people to save us and then they harm and betray us. Help us to realize that you are the only one who will never let us down and that you will never abandon us, or trick us.

God, please heal the broken pieces of our lives. We place our pain, our shame, our anger and our heartache at your feet and ask that you transform it and change us. Help us to believe your promises and experience the love you feel for us. Help us to know that regardless of what life has done to us, we are beloved, accepted, and valuable to you. 

Lord, forgive us for judging people and ignoring their suffering. Forgive us for seeing the needs of our neighbours and walking by. Give us the courage to respond in practical and respectful ways. Thank you for those who have reached out and offered hope at great cost to themselves. Help us to see that even small gestures of eye contact, a smile, or a gentle touch offer dignity and show people that they matter.

Oh God, please restore each one of us to the person you created us to be. We long to thrive, but our dreams have been shattered. We so want to belong, but never feel safe. We desire friendships, but are afraid to trust. We crave peace, but our hearts are restless and filled with self-hatred. Help us to reach out to you and begin to know you.

Thank you that when we can’t find the words or are too afraid to talk to you, you understand our tears and know the deepest desires of our hearts. Thank you that although we feel misunderstood and isolated you are always there beside us assuring us that our lives have meaning, and that we belong. Thank you that by drawing close to you we will never again be alone. Father, please fill us with the healing joy that comes when we have a relationship with you.

Please come God. Come and help us, heal us, forgive us, and restore us.

Amen.

Adrienne Grant is passionate about young people, a passion deepened by her role as mom to her own four young children. As a public speaker, administrator, fundraiser, or on the front lines, Adrienne has worked with youth most of her life, especially those who are struggling to find self worth and a place to belong. Adrienne holds a Masters degree in Social Work and has had the privilege of working for World Vision, Sketch and Meet the Street.

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: SHADOW JUMPING

To the only good Father,
who dwells with us even in our shadows and who jumps to us when we fall.
To the Saviour,
who is well acquainted with suffering and who understands the true reasons behind our actions.
To the Spirit,
that brings peace in chaos. Who, unbeknownst to our futile minds, comforts us in our helplessness.
We depend on you and ask you to grant us rest, hope and understanding towards ourselves and our brothers and sisters whom you walk with on our shared journey of life.

Rev. Colin McCartney and his wife have been involved in ministry to high-risk youth for over 20 years. Today, Colin serves as the Executive Director of UrbanPromise Toronto, a ministry originally founded by Dr. Tony Campolo that is active in various North American cities. UrbanPromise Toronto is committed to creating holy places where low income children, youth and their mothers experience the love of God through friendships formed incarnationally within the various programs offered in targeted communities.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: ON RAMP ANGELS

If a friend is someone who will be silent with me in a moment of despair or confusion,
who can stay with me in an hour of grief,
who can tolerate not knowing,
not curing,
not healing
and face with me the reality of my powerlessness – as Henri Nouwen so powerfully suggests -
then is it so wrong Lord if I don’t want you to be my friend?
I want you to take the pain away.

But if not my friend, then who are you?

Who are you?

Do you hug?

Steve Bell is a two-time Juno and multi-award winning singer-songwriter whose life has revolved around music from his earliest years. He is also the co-founder of Signpost Music. His celebrated career has yielded many highly-successful solo albums, concert videos and an extensive touring schedule throughout North America and the world. Steve has a deep concern for issues of poverty and injustice, which is reflected in both his songwriting and his personal involvement in, and endorsement of, several poverty reduction and awareness campaigns and community-building initiatives.

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