The First United Listening Ministry team is honoured to support the lives of community members in our small way. There are many challenges we witness - homelessness, addiction, poverty, mental health issues - sometimes all of these and others too. But as we pay attention to what our community members tell us, we can also share joyfully in their gifts. In the past few weeks, for example, one of our members treated me to poems by W.B. Yeats and Nobel prize-winning Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz - all memorized and quietly shared. Another quotes passages from the Bible, an even more remarkable feat in a second language. One of our members has an incredible facility for word puzzles - she turns scared into sacred. Another is a colourist - she draws intricate patterns and fills them with all the colours of the rainbow.
Perhaps the greatest gift we encounter is the gift of courage. We see it in the quiet determination to make it through each day often, it seems, from a place of deep faith, despite the hardships endured. As one of the members said to me last week, quoting his favourite poet, "God gives people a reason not to give up." As a Listener, I am very grateful for this opportunity to experience and honour so many gifts within the First community.　 　　

Please consider donating the following items that are always in need:

Men's and women's underwear, Shampoo and Toothpaste.