Back on December 11th Al, Charon and Ron had the opportunity to visit Victoria Full Gospel Fellowship and share about CARTS. It was a great to share a bit about our journeys...and to give folks a glimpse of what a Sunday afternoon looks like on Victoria's inner city streets, with our precious friends...in the midst of this beautiful community we call " CARTS."

You can listen to our time with VFGF... HERE . Just scroll down to recent sermons, December 11th, CARTS Outreach Ministry. If you think your faith community might be interested in hearings about CARTS, and Victoria's inner city please contact us...we'd love to come and visit.

For more than a decade the Rainbow Kitchen has served up hot lunches to those in need. It had a rent free home in St.Saviour's Church, but the building has since been sold to a private investor. One of nine buildings the Anglican Diocese liquidated after falling enrolment and debt troubles.

The non-profit group now finds itself searching for a comparable space, so it can continue serving roughly one-hundred and twenty-five patrons a day. Most who use the kitchens services are homeless or on social assistance. And while donations are accepted they are not necessary, making it a free meal for many.


We all recognize the familiar face in the video the guy ( Al Lindskoog ) who sort of steers CARTS, and who is involved in so many ways with our marginalized friends in the inner city. Al shares about the Rainbow kitchen, and also in the mix of the video are ordinary people who are impacted by this ministry. Lets, all pray for those involved in the Rainbow Kitchen Community for a smooth transition to a new location.

"If we want to develop meaningful connection with people we must be willing to go where they are .  This is something deeper than the practicality of good marketing. While in our building during our programs we have authority and power to set the terms of engagement- in other words, the ‘rules’. It would not be honest to pretend otherwise .  Whether we acknowledge it or not we have power in that situation and that power shapes our relationship with the people who come. It is vital that we are willing to reciprocate- to make regular contact with our street community on their ‘turf’ or home, in the places where they have the power, authority and credibility.  We become the ‘guests’ in their care and acknowledge their elevated status in that context. Like the Jesus we seek to follow, we must be willing to recognize that whatever power we have been given is not ours to cling to. We must seek to find ways to give that power away ."

"One way we seek to consciously practice this is to make regular time to be on the street, in the neighbourhood, connecting with our friends and deepening our relationships with them."

t's time for our CARTS Annual General Meeting. Because our year runs from August to July, our AGM happens in the Fall.

Our AGM will happen on Friday, November 25 at 7 PM at the St. Barnabas Church Hall. St Barnabas Anglican Church is located on the corner of Belmont Ave. and Begbie St., by Stadacona Park. It is easily accessible by bus: Take a 27 or 28 bus to the top of Begbie St., or a 2, 11 or 14 to Oak Bay Junction and walk a block north on Belmont Ave.

Our AGM will contain all of the fun stuff you look forward to at an AGM...and more. I'm sure if you've been a part of CARTS for awhile you know, and if you're new...you sense it, where the Psalmist says " where deep calls to deep. And that is " community." And the AGM is part of that , it's a time to celebrate the past year...and a time to envision the coming year. It's time for conversation, a time to bring your questions. it's a time to bring ideas...it's time to get to know one another.

SO PLEASE COME EACH AND EVERY ONE IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF CARTS...like a beautiful collage each person brings their beauty to what CARTS is. SEE YOU THERE.

About a few years ago I was involved in Victoria's Homeless Awareness Week wich usually happens every November. I was organizing a table down in the Bay Center building for the Mustard Seed Church and Food Bank. There were many other social non-profit agencies occupying the lower floor of the Bay Center; Our Place, Cool Aid, Salvation Army, Youth Empowerment Society, Street Link and many more. It was a chance for all of us to engage the Greater Victoria public, to let them know what we were about and to answer their questions. But what I discovered through out the week was that, " WE ", all these different non-profit social justice agencies were sort of aware of each other...but, we really don't know a lot about each other. I'm not saying we don't care, or that we somehow create our own little empires. It's that some times we can just get consumed with " mine " and miss what's going around " Us ".

Rather than have the reality of social justice in Victoria be a piece seamless fabric, it can be sometimes more patch work...a little ragged...or occasionally a hole in it. The idea of seamless means we communicate more, network more with one another...get together and talk about what's happening at street level. That way we are duplicating services, stepping on someone elses toes...and we can share resources. And, maybe we need find the space to pray more together be bring into concsiousness that the same Spirit fuels, and guides all " WE " do. This will make us mindful that social justice should be a seamless fabric...in which we cradle and support all the marginalized in Victoria. No one falls through the "holes".

There is a group that makes up part of the fabric of social justice in Victoria that needs our prayers and support, and that is...The Rainbow Kitchen. Situated on the border of Victoria, and Esquimalt is Vic West, it is here on the corner of Henry and Catherine Street that the Rainbow Kitchen serves the marginalized community of Victoria. ( You can read their history... here ) They have been serving the poor, the addicts, the homeless, the working poor, seniors and handicapped since 2001.

The Anglican Diocese of British Columbia acouple of years ago started to down size, re-structuring the parish model of doing church in Victoria. The outcome was closing churches...and placing them on the real estate market. St. Saviours the home of the Rainbow kitchen was one such church with a " for sale " sign on it. This reality has been hanging around the neck of the Rainbow Kitchen for awhile. Like a dark cloud, it does cast a shadow which has been hard to avoid. Now in the midst of the clouds there is thunder rumbling through the Rainbow Kitchen that it has been sold. There are still somethings that need to fall into place...but, the reality...the Rainbow Kitchen's future is fragile at best. " We " all need to be praying for the future of the Rainbow Kitchen. If lost, its ministry will have a huge impact in the marginalized community of Victoria.

It is not just the loss of a meal, which is huge when it may be your only meal of the day. But, think about this reality...since 2001, five days a week, even on holidays...lunch has been served. There is something profound when people gather around a table and eat a meal. It is the " miracle " of community. It's where conversations are kindled, walls come down, borders are crossed...community happens. There are some people who have eaten together here for 10 years. People with in the community have passed away...there loss is very tangible. And in the midst of it, yes...God does show up.

So please pray for the future of the Rainbow kitchen...with out the Rainbow Kitchen there will be a huge hole within the fabric of social justice in Victoria.

It's time for our CARTS Annual General Meeting. Because our year runs from August to July, our AGM happens in the Fall.



Our AGM will happen on Friday, November 25 at 7 PM at the St. Barnabas Church Hall. St Barnabas Anglican Church is located on the corner of Belmont Ave. and Begbie St., by Stadacona Park. It is easily accessible by bus: Take a 27 or 28 bus to the top of Begbie St., or a 2, 11 or 14 to Oak Bay Junction and walk a block north on Belmont Ave.

( Here's directions )

Our AGM will contain all of the fun stuff you look forward to at an AGM...and more. I'm sure if you've been a part of CARTS for awhile you know, and if you're new...you sense it, where the Psalmist says " where deep calls to deep. And that is " community." And the AGM is part of that , it's a time to celebrate the past year...and a time to envision the coming year. It's time for conversation, a time to bring your questions. it's a time to bring ideas...it's time to get to know one another.

SO PLEASE COME EACH AND EVERY ONE IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF CARTS...like a beautiful collage each person brings their beauty to what CARTS is. SEE YOU THERE.

I think I may have shared this a while back. I't worth sharing again because it does reflect a lot of what CARTS is. Anyone who has been involved in CARTS for awhile have heard our inner city friends call this " Their Church." Some people may not get it. but, Sunday on the streets is a profound worship experience. It may not be the worship of " Christ " before an altar, but it is the worship of " Christ " in the faces, in the touch of the poor, the hungry and the broken. There is also a sense of community that is deeply profound, and deeply tangible. There is offering, and servant hood. It is where sacred and secular merge into something profoundly divine. CARTS, in the deepest sense is church...something, radical, scandalous...something we incarnate, pull around the streets with a very tangible and visible Jesus in our midst.