I have a riddle for you. When is a Cariboo a sheep? A Cariboo is a sheep when it serves God by serving others. Here at Cariboo Hill Temple we are sheep when, as Matthew in Chapter 25 says, we see someone hungry and we give them something to eat, we see someone thirsty and give them something to drink, we see someone we don’t know and we welcome the stranger, we visit the sick and spend time with those in prison... We know this parable, right? Two groups of people call Jesus Lord: the sheep and the goats: To the sheep who do all this, Jesus says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” The goats, who called Jesus Lord too, but did not do all this, they do not inherit his kingdom.
Cariboo Hill Temple has a long, great history of being sheep. You do amazing things. You really do! It was 20 plus years ago that I first came to CHT – when Jamie and Ann Braund were the Officers here. Susan and I were soldiers with Danielle, Stephen and team who were starting 614. I remember even back then you had so many interesting outreaches. I even joined the CHT soccer team. There were 2 of them back then, I can’t remember which one I joined – maybe the silver team. I also remember your food truck ministry.
Every week soldiers and members of this congregation would make food for those in need in Vancouver. Those of us from 614 would walk around the streets praying with people and conclude at the CHT food truck. From that ministry in a little over a year, the 614 corps went from 1 or 2 cell groups to more groups than I could fit on business cards that I would hand out to people I met. People were being saved, lives were transformed. We were serving God by serving others, we were feeding Jesus’ sheep - we were Jesus’ sheep. There are so many testimonies from that time.
In the time since then I have seen many transformational ministries in community. Powerful outreaches from courtroom to prison ministry, shelter ministry, EDS, more street outreach, lots of food ministry: community meals, soup kitchens, food trucks. In our most recent appointment (on the Island) we were feeding between 700 and 1000 people each day – but that wasn’t the exciting part. The exciting part was people were joining the ministry from seeing the truck, then serving on the truck; eating at the soup kitchen, then serving at the soup kitchen. They would see the work the team was doing in the community and want to join the team. They would move from receiving food to serving food; from receiving prayer to offering prayer; from no Bible study, to attending – to leading Bible study! We have seen lives transformed; people delivered from homelessness, addiction, fear; we even saw people delivered from human trafficking. God has raised up people from their lowest point to be eager to serve and then as they offer their lives to Him, God has transformed their entire lives from the inside out.
Now I am blessed to be able to return to this area, a couple of decades after I left the lower mainland to become an Officer. I notice now that Burnaby and New West Salvation Armies are starting to work very closely together. This is excellent! We have been serving people on the streets, in the community, and in our buildings.
I have been blessed to be able to be tasked with part of the food outreach here in Burnaby and New West. God is calling His sheep to do His work here; and I have been asked to let you know of some of the different ways you, we can serve Him in that area.
God and the Army are bringing food here –in this building- every Thursday morning. Who is free Thursday mornings? There is an opportunity for a small team of people to sort the food to go people in need
Maybe you are a driver and want to pick up the food with us
Maybe you are a cook and want to make something creative out of some of the food that come in before it goes bad
Food ministry is powerful way to see lives transformed – to actually see how we are before during and continuing in transformation
Do you have an hour or two on a different morning (other than Thursday) or a different evening. Major Bill and I went out on the food truck at 6:30am one morning last week, we handed out water, food (cake), and prayed. It was a real blessing. A week ago Saturday, I was on the food truck with Captain Carlos and his team from New West handing out fruit, sandwiches, coffee, etc. at Recovery Day.
When I was in Port Alberni, at every community event and every weekday evening we had the food truck delivering food to vulnerable people – and you know what? Lives were transformed. People were fed physically and spiritually. People were saved both now and forever; lives and communities were transformed. If you and one or two friends would like to take the truck out once a week with me or someone else, let me know. I guarantee you it will be a blessing.
There are many other ways to serve as well – you can talk to majors Bill and Debra Blackman about that but if you want to join us in serving on the food lines on the front lines like this, you will see God’s miracles, you will be transformed and as we continue to serve God in the amazing ways He calls us, we will all be sheep.
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