There’s that word again. Hope! It seems to keep cropping up these days. To see what I mean you’ll have to check the link.

Our alarm rang at 6:00 this morning and an hour later we were on the road to Edmonton with about a dozen others from our church. We were bound for Hope Mission where we prepared and served brunch to almost 300 of the city’s impoverished and homeless people.

In 1929, a young pastor with a heart for people struggling with life on the street at the onset of the Depression opened a soup kitchen. With the support of his wife and a concerned community, a simple meal was served to hundreds of people each day. Since that time the services provided by Hope Mission, a non profit Christian care agency, have grown to include basic and emergency care; shelter beds; counselling and referral services for men, women and youth; after school hot meal and recreation programs for children; summer camps for inner city children and youth; and faith based addiction treatment programs in addition to the hearty meals that are served three times a day during the week and twice a day on Saturdays and Sundays.

Under the capable direction of a cook who has been employed by the Mission for 18 years, we worked side by side with several men from the addiction recovery program to prepare a hearty meal of eggs, sausages, hash browns, toast, porridge and coffee. Muffins and fresh fruit were also available to anyone who wanted them.

I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently we were able to prepare such a large volume of food. We arrived at 10:00 a.m. and within minutes we’d all been given tasks to do. After helping load hundreds of eggs into large metal bins that fit into a big steamer, I helped fill tiny plastic serving containers with margarine. The doors opened at 11:00 and for the next hour, I loaded hash browns onto serving trays as the hungry men and a few women filed by to pick up their hot food. There was a steady flow of people but as we passed the trays down our line and loaded them with food, we had a few moments to offer each person a smile or a quick greeting. Some were quiet but many greeted us and thanked us graciously. A few joked with us or wished us a Merry Christmas. The doors closed at noon and when everyone had had time to eat, they were sent back into the cold and clean up began. Again, this was accomplished quickly and efficiently. In no time, we were sitting down with the fellows we’d cooked the meal with to enjoy some of the leftovers. We’d been so busy that we really hadn’t had time to realize that we’d worked up an appetite!

With Christmas just around the corner, we’ve been reminded once again how very fortunate we are to have a warm home and more than enough to eat.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Jesus     Matthew 25:40