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A plea for help...
It's kind of ironic that as I write this post I'm reminded of the parable of the talents. Volunteers, strangers, business, churches have all invested financially into CARTS. We are sorry to inform you that financially your investment has netted you nothing. But that is the reality of inner city ministry, it is throwing money away. In the parable where the guy yielded no return at all, he was basically ripped apart by the boss. But what CARTS has done over the past 13 plus years, has been to invest in lives. It's more than just handing out food, clothing or a drink. It's the human connection, face to face, conversations, laughter, hugs, prayers...the simple yet profound words, " God bless you. " It has been the slow and evolving community of brokenness, us and them, all of us. Truthfully, we are in need of the same thing...LOVE. Together we will search, and find it in each other. You can't put a price on LOVE. It's grace, it's humility, it's beauty, it's compassion all have the power to reveal the God, who is simply LOVE. At the moment the CARTS piggy bank running low. We are hoping to have another BBQ in September, but, will need help in pulling it off. If might consider a donation here is some information on how to help CARTS is a federal registered charity that issues tax deductible receipts. We are a small group of compassionate minded friends captured by the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of Jesus. We are all volunteers who contribute our time, and resources to serve the inner city community. Every cent donated goes to helping out the marginalized on the inner city streets of Victoria. We have no paid staff. We have relied on the gracious donations of volunteers, supporters, friends and strangers. We have managed for almost 13 years on faith, a shoe string budget...and God who has faithfully sustained the love, compassion and hospitality which is the heart beat of CARTS. You can find the details on how to support CARTS at the following link... /donate.html 
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"What if salvation has everything to do with how we respond to poverty, homelessness, racism, and systemic injustice? What if your 'personal relationship to Jesus' is informed not just by how much you pray or whether you have the proper view of the trinity, but by how you treat the people Jesus had a nasty habit of hanging out with — you know, the folks on the fringes … the ones on food stamps, the ones who get fired for being gay, the ones whose children languish in jail cells on non-violent drug possession charges?"
Derek Penwell Jesus mused " God is love ", those who do not love, do not know God. If anything could be a CARTS statement of faith, that would be it. Simply, but yet profoundly difficult at times...it is love. You could say our BBQ's are a love fest. It is the wild scandalous stories of love in the gospels coming to life. It's the the King sending his servant out to the inner city streets, the gutters, the back allies, store fronts, campsites in parks. The servant bringing the broken, the poor, the marginalized, the mentally ill, the addicts. He brings this parade of broken profound beauty, every child of God in need of love...just so his table is full. It's the prodigal son and daughter, knowing in the realm of Jesus' unending love and radical and scandalous forgiveness. That they are more than just welcomed, " they belong." They arrive, and the tables have been set, food prepared. It truly is a feast in their honour. The pictures are from our first BBQ in the courtyard of the Downtown Community Centre. It's said a picture is worth a thousand words. It's CARTS hope that they all say the same thing. Love. Jesus mused, " God is Love." If we love, we profoundly know God. And if we love, we make God present and known. CARTS is simply about LOVE. It's simply serving LOVE...not because they deserve it. But because they are children of God, and they belong as much as you and I. Love is so much concerned with why, it just does. 
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