Author: Manna Admin

Back to School

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There is a popular expression, “You’re never too old to learn.” So maybe there is hope for me learning Pickle Ball. With Manna, we’ve been applying this adage forever. Each year, we’ve been approached by local schools to assist with needs witnessed in the families whose children attend them. Through the generousity of our community, we’ve been able to supply children’s coats, gloves, and toques, breakfast and lunch supplies, food coupons and specialized assistance. In one school this year, we’ve been able to help provide over 100 weekly meal supplies – fruit cups, soup cups, breakfast bars, KD cups – and additional help with their weekend “Backpack Food Program,” by offering soups, peanut butter, chili, pasta with sauce, and granola bars. In another school, we were able to offer QF coupons for a family suddenly unemployed and nearly homeless. This has been possible from the continual support we receive from our community – Thank you!

Casey: A Man Who Returned ‘Home’ to Oceanside

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‘Casey’ was a tradesman who moved to Oceanside in November from out-of-province and found a camping spot at Rathtrevor. He told me, ‘This is home. I grew up in Parksville as a kid and now I’m moving back to be closer to family.” But his family was skeptical. Casey had used drugs, abused alcohol, drifted, lost jobs, and become homeless. Casey’s trade was as a bricklayer and carpenter. He’d been ‘dry’ for a couple of months and was now trying to start on a new path.

Manna was able to help provide some articles for his campsite – camp stove, fuel, flashlight, sleeping bag, tarp, mattress, and we even had a frying pan to give him along with cans of stew and soup. I spent about an hour talking with Casey encouraging him to keep going on this new path of courage and I hoped to see him again at the Soup Kitchen. Sadly, he never showed. When I went back to his campsite, his tent was gone with all his stuff. I haven’t seen Casey since the end of November.

I’m not sure what happened to him.  I just know that sometimes the challenge to change is overwhelming. It isn’t easy ‘going clean’. “Just get clean,” we hear so many say. It’s not like changing socks. Getting clean means a shift in identity; it means confronting the ‘voices’; it means confronting the internal chaos once the external chaos is controlled; and it means becoming vulnerable and saying “I need your help.” Homeless people often ‘take’ our stuff – the food, clothing, sleeping bag, tarp – we offer, not because they ‘need help’ but because they are in crises and chaos – they are in ‘survival mode.’

When you see piles of stuff on shopping carts or piles of stuff beside the road – you see someone who is suffering, often lonely, always fearful, in chaos, usually with mental health concerns around addictive issues, often physically sick with untreated wounds, and always with a poor self-image – feeling unloved, unnoticed, unwelcome, and forgotten.

We can help! We don’t need to ‘save the world’ – we just need to show honour, respect, acceptance, love, and compassion to someone when they welcome us into their life, trust us with their story, and allow us to comfort them so they can find the courage to live freed from the chaos that controls them and more with the Peace and Love that God can provide. 

In Honour and In Memory of a Son Who Helped Others

Manna Admin Donations from Our Community

This past week, Manna was given fourteen pair of boots to distribute to those who need winter and rain footwear. But the story behind the boots is most valuable.

Jerrold was able to meet a woman Home Care apprentice last week tag teaming with his mother-in-law’s Wednesday Care Aid. Dorothy, Jerrold’s mother-in-law, explained about Manna and the work we do, so the woman was interested in finding out more information.

In the course of the conversation, she revealed that her son, living in Ontario, dealt with mental health issues, had been clean but OD’ed alone in a hotel room about five weeks ago. She wanted to do something special in honour of his memory because her son had been helping people live with him off the street as they sought to overcome their issues.

The woman’s classmates joined the cause, and together purchased the boots to be handed out to those in desperate need. Fourteen people will appreciate the boots and we’ll tell the story in memory of a son who loved others.

Manna Wednesdays at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen

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Each Wednesday, Manna Homeless Society is able to offer our friends at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen an opportunity to stock up on weekend groceries and a chance to socialize with volunteers who believe in them. Our morning begins with a Blessing – a brief example from the Bible that highlights God’s amazing love for all of us. Then, we offer food and clothing – for all to ‘take what you need’ – with the chance to ‘catch up’ with each other on a week’s worth of activity. Pinky has spent some time in the hospital, and each week our friends are concerned for his health and thankful when he’s back. For many, our Manna Wednesdays at the Soup Kitchen is a time for forming a community of support – we worry about our friends and they worry about us – and together we know that God loves us.

Update on Manna Happenings

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Good evening all,
 
It has been far too long since I’ve last given an update on what is happening. Honestly, it seems that the dark cloud of covid has forever over-shadowed what we’ve been doing.
 
So, in an attempt to help realize that there is stuff happening that is not covid related – I’ll let you know some of the things that are happening with Manna.
 
As you know, we’re not meeting on Saturday – in response to our government’s leading and health directives. We have been invited by Major Norm to set up at the soup kitchen – initially on Wednesday, and expanding into Friday as well. Major Norm’s goal was for us to host a gathering where people could explore issues of spirituality and  connection with God, thus, on Wednesday, we had been seeking to lead conversations into areas that helped people recognize the ‘spiritual aspect’ of poverty. This was short-lived when the new regulations required fewer gatherings – so Wednesday became the day we focused on providing clothing – coats, sweaters, pants, toques, scarves, gloves – and in the midst of that, seek to chat with people. Friday, then, became the day when we provided groceries for the weekend. And we have been regularly seeing 50-60 people come through over the course of 2 hours and request groceries. We have also been going to Smithers RV park once a month and providing food and clothing options for 12-20 people. ‘who is we’ – that would be Pinky and me, and we’re loving it.
 
On the ‘chaplain side’, I conducted a wedding today for Rod and Karianna, down at the beach – it became rather wet – but the 10 people scattered around enjoyed themselves and celebrated. Even Joe [Rod’s dog] got a hair cut, flowers, and a new collar for the big day. Next week, I’ll be conducting a memorial service at Orca for a resident who ODed this past week – this will be my first time back since the gov restricted church gatherings – and it will be an outdoor coffee with a blessing. I hope to resume Orca visits after mid Jan when the restrictions [I hope] are lifted. 
 
I stopped off at Springwood school today, as it was their last day prior to Christmas, and enquired about their breakfast program. They mentioned that it had been stopped because of covid [bagels, muffins, toast], but that there were still kids in need. I mentioned that we could potentially provide lunch/snack supplies – fruit leather, fruit cups, granola bars, juice boxes and lunch bags [all self contained and individually packaged] if they would like – so they will talk about it and get back to us in the new year. I also asked about needy families, and left them some Thrifty coupons. They mentioned that the ‘kid’s winter coat project’ wasn’t happening this year – and that some kids need jackets [this may be something we could advertise].
 
We’re also helping with the breakfast program run by Oceanside Church for Errington School – this has been warmly received and appreciated. 
 
For the month of Dec. we’ve purchased almost $8,000 of groceries and $2,000 of coupons – it is also a ‘long month’ for welfare cheques [they come out this week and not again until the end of Jan – almost 7 weeks], so we’re anticipating a huge need for help early Jan. Christmas is on a Friday – and the soup kitchen will be closed [and so will our grocery distribution], so we’re hoping to get enough out on Wednesday this coming week.
 
I’ve been in touch with Kelly, and she is inviting Manna to participate with the ’16 bush camps’ that she is familiar with in our area. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to gather a bag of socks and toques and give them to her so that she can ask the ‘campers’ if Manna can come out regularly with food and clothing items. This will start up after Christmas, I’m hoping, and will offer us greater contact with people forced out of town and finding shelter in vulnerable situations. 
 
Robin was able to help Al and Amy move their trailer and get to a place with regular water and power hook-up, this has been a huge benefit for them. Robin continues to go out regularly to deliver food; Pinky and I are also busy making pick-up runs or deliveries; and we’ve been blessed with favourable monetary donations. [just a side note – QF has been very generous to us; allowing us to order food wholesale and than further reducing the amount we pay – this means, it is better for us to purchase food [we get more for our buck]. 
 
All to say, things are going well – we have a good working relationship with the Soup Kitchen. 
 
We miss the community building aspect of Saturday [as do many we see at the Soup Kitchen], and we hope that we can get back to some form of community building in the coming year. 
 
trust all is well,
Jerrold