“Wisdom is knowing the right path to take. Integrity is taking it.” I have no idea where the above quote comes from, but whoever it was hit the nail on the head. Many of the staff in our shelter system have that same kind of wisdom and integrity. Last week I had the privilege of […]
Integrity – Part Two Read More »
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. – Proverbs 10:9 Well it’s officially September. Summer is mostly behind us, the kids are back in school and we’re ramping up for yet another year. Strategic planning, budgeting and goal setting will be big topics for the coming days. We
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. – John 15:13 How about them Blue Jays? Things sure are heating up on that front! The Jays’ management has gone ‘all in’ this year in hopes of making it to the post-season playoffs. Maybe, just maybe, Toronto will have a
Expanding on my last post, I wanted to share a letter from a resident at our Maxwell Meighen Centre. This letter gives us a glimpse into the potential we have to impact others when we work together as a team. Let’s keep trying our very best to be “the hand of God in the
Teamwork, continued Read More »
Some of you may recall a summer in the early 2000’s when the power went out in large sections of Toronto for several days. I was at work at Gateway when that happened, and once we figured out how to operate the shelter with no electricity, I needed to go home. The problem was, no
As you know, this year we have been focusing on one of The Salvation Army’s ten core values each month. TSA’s ethics center, based in Winnipeg, has led the way with these and I have been following their lead with ‘(the) Mission Matters’ newsletters. Since there are only ten core values, yet twelve months of
Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. – Ephesians 2:9 It’s often the little things that make all the difference. The Gateway outreach team first met ‘Frank’ while he was living in the Don Valley. At that point in time, Frank
Salvation – Part Two Read More »
We are The Salvation Army, so it makes sense that ‘salvation’ is one of our core values. However that word, ‘salvation’, is often misunderstood and unfortunately narrowly defined as only related to one’s ‘soul’. The word ‘salvation’ is far more holistic, as the narrator shares in the above video from our ethics center. The Greek
Salvation – Part One Read More »
“It’s always been a mystery to me how people can respect themselves when they humiliate other humans” – Mahatma Gandhi Aretha Franklin belts it out, as only she in her brilliance can: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find out what it means to me” as she pleads with her partner to treat her with just a little respect (or
As we continue with our monthly focus on our core values (as a reminder, January’s focus was ‘celebrate’, February ‘excellence’, and March ‘holiness’), this month we hone in on the value of compassion. The Greek word for compassion, used 12 times in the New Testament all in relation to Jesus, is splagchnizomai which means ‘inward
