Blast from the Bridge St. Past

I received this lovely email today from a long-ago member of Bridge St. congregation. I responded by letting the writer know that we continue to live out Christian mission through our three meal ministries, our Syrian refugee sponsorships (23 in total) and the ongoing work of the Bridge St. Foundation. I could inform her that the "First Adventure Child Development" organization her late mother helped to found has received funding from the Foundation a number of times.

Dear Rev David Mundy,

      I have been meaning to contact someone (Mission & Outreach team?)  at Bridge Street United Church for a year or so to thank Bridge Street United church members  for supporting me in the mid-60’s in a community action project in Halifax.  I so very much appreciated the kind support of your church membership.

Around the time of  the “Selma March” in the USA  (February  1965),  there was a  HUGE, peaceful, civil rights “sit-in” at the American Consulate in Toronto in support of the civil rights movement in the US.  That summer,  I was invited to Halifax by Rocky Jones (originally from Truro, Nova Scotia) to  help build a community action project there.   I  boarded with a black family in a very poor area of Halifax while working with a small number of other community activists to bring poor white & poor black people together over common issues and to help find/build solutions. One of the things we accomplished was the building of a community centre we named “Kwacha House”. (In Zambia, “Kwacha” means “freedom”.)  I understand this Kwacha House is still active today.    It was a very special time for me!   As I recall, the money sent from Bridge Street United Church  contributed to my lodging and maybe even some food.

A few decades have passed since my time in Halifax . Two years ago,  in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, I started attending Brechin United Church and joined the Mission and Outreach team.  I had to laugh when last week I was given the Minutes for Mission print-out (“Quinte Deaf Fellowship”) to read this coming Sunday – January 29^th.  I have only read the Minutes for Mission 2 or 3 times so it was really fun to see Bridge Street United Church spoken of and that it was me who had been asked to read this…some kind of synchronicity for sure since connecting with Bridge St. United Church to express  my gratitude had been very much on my mind J.         

Again, thank you for your church’s supporting my “mission” so many years ago.  With its encouragement, Bridge Street United Church’s support started me down a path of community concern,  involvement and activism that have stayed with me all these years.   Your  initial support & encouragement has multiplied greatly!     I hope that my letter will encourage your Mission and Outreach team to support other young people in such empowering ventures.