This morning, the chapel leaders led the pledges, “Notre Père” and O Canada. This was followed by the Land Acknowledgement. One of the leaders read the first Bible passage, taken from 1 John 3:17-18. Mr. Bailed then asked the audience to show their love for God by singing and doing the actions of the song, “Love the Lord Your God”, which is also is our theme verse for this school year.
The second Scripture passage was taken from Romans 10: 13-14, and is a call to share the Good News of Jesus. Mr. Bailey used it and the second song, “God of This City”, to prepare our hearts for today’s message.
The guest speaker, Mr. Luke Goh, was introduced by four of our Grade 4 students. Luke is a graduate of Wesley from the class of 2015. He is currently working at Toronto City Mission (TCM).
Luke began with showing the students four slides that had two pictures each – two celebrities (Simu Liu & Drake), two sports buildings (Scotiabank Arena, Markham Pan Am Centre), two shopping centres (Pacific Mall, Eaton Centre), and two housing complexes (Asquith Park and a condo building on Birchmount). After some discussion with the students, they realized that all of these photos had one commonality – they are all related to Toronto. From that connection, Luke shared that he is also from Toronto and actually attended Wesley and then Bur Oak Secondary School. He spoke a little bit about his time at WCA but refocused on his current role as an outreach worker at Toronto City Mission, where he spends most of his time doing after school programming for families impacted by poverty. His work takes place at The Stone Church at Bloor/Yonge. He shared that a missions trip to Honduras in 2018 with Water Ambassadors impacted him greatly. However, he also realized that one does not have to go to a foreign country to share the Good News. TCM gave him the opportunity to be an urban missionary in the city he grew up in. Luke then spent some time describing the three programs that he is involved with at TCM:
- Kids in Community (KIC): A Mon-Thur after school program that cares for 30 students at Jesse Ketchum Public School.
- Education Provided in Community (EPIC): A free tutoring service for math, English and sciences.
- Youth Extreme (YX): A sports program that is geared towards students in grades 7-10 that allows them to enjoy a meal together each week and foundational lessons about Jesus through the Alpha Program.
He also shared that the students he works with come from low income families that live in community housing, diverse backgrounds, refugee situations, etc. and many of them had never heard of Jesus.
Prior to working at Toronto City Mission, Luke explained that he never associated poverty with the city of Toronto. He admitted that he grew up in a middle class “Asian Christian bubble” but God opened his eyes and helped him realize that poverty is not just financial; it is also spiritual. Furthermore, poverty does not only exist in the media; it exists in real life.
Luke concluded by reminding the audience that Jesus calls us to share the Gospel and we do not have to do it by being an overseas missionary. We can do it right in our neighbourhoods, our communities and in our families. He ended in prayer, thanking God for the opportunity to share at Wesley, asking Him to grant each of us courage to share the Gospel and to have strength and perseverance to be a light for Him in our communities.
After Luke’s message, Mr. Bailey prayed for him, thanking God for Luke’s kindness and inspiration through his words and actions to share God’s love at TCM.
This month’s Care & Share event will be to support Luke Goh (WCA Class of 2015) in his role as an outreach worker for Toronto City Mission. More information will be shared at next week’s chapel service.