Snowy Commute to the Open Door Drop in Centre

It's a known fact that winter can be pretty harsh here in Montreal. The coldest months are generally January and February. However it can start snowing as early as November and end as late April in some cases. This is officially my second winter here. I am getting more accustomed to the cold and snowy conditions. My winter clothes still fit but not as snug as before.

Here is photo journal of my commute to work in the snow. I hope you enjoy it.

 

My Limousine arrives

(Bus #24)

 

I actually have a couple of options when it comes to commuting to work, I can either take the Metro (Subway), or I can take the bus. I normally take the bus, unless its the wait is too long. It generally takes less than 20 minutes for me to get to work by taking the bus and walking which isn't that bad.

 

 

After departing the warm bus, the cold walk down to the Open Door.

(roughly 8 minute walk)

 

Don't forget your coffee, too expensive for my taste. Coffee is free at the Open Door with the possibility of having donated Starbuck pastries.

 

 





 

The end is near as I trek through the snow.

 

 

Here we are, the Open Door, operated out of St. Stephens church.

(Monday - Friday, 7:30am to 3:30pm.)  

 



 



The Spirit of Christmas

 

This past weekend, on December 20^th, I celebrated my one-year anniversary of living in Montreal! As I have been reflecting on all that has happened since arriving here, it amazes me how God has provided for all my needs since starting to serve at The Open Door.

 

Since I first arrived in Montreal, I have been astonished by the graciousness of others. Amy, a friend of Sarah’s, allowed me to stay at her place for the first few weeks while she was away visiting her family in another province for Christmas. Then I was able to rent a fully furnished apartment for five months from Nathan and Sherri, other friends of Sarah, who were living in Berlin, Germany but still had an apartment in Montreal. And let’s not forget my best friend, Sarah, who has helped me immensely to get settled and acclimatized to the French culture that surrounds me. I now realize just how important it is to be fluent in French, since it’s the primary language spoken here in Quebec.

 

One of the most amazing things that I have seen in my first year of serving as a missionary is the development of my abilities to deal with the chronic issue of homelessness. God has definitely been involved in teaching me love, patience, kindness, grace and mercy when it comes to serving those who have been forgotten by society as a whole. I know I can’t personally end homelessness all on my own, but I do know that I have helped The Open Door become more accessible for those who are living on the streets to find a safe place to rest, eat, and access the services that they need in order to help make their lives a bit easier. It takes a team to accomplish what happens every day at The Open Door and, as I have talked about in previous updates, I am grateful to be working alongside a great team of fellow workers and volunteers.

 

In the true spirit of Christmas, The Open Door is going to be open during the entire Christmas holiday week. Since we are one of the only day shelters/drop-in centers that will be open during this time, we expect to see an increase in the numbers of clients served each day. Each day this week, a different church or group of volunteers will come in to prepare, cook, and serve our homeless friends. Both of the churches that I attend, Vineyard Montreal (www.vineyardmontreal.com) and Emmaus Anglican Church (www.emmausanglicanchurch.com), will take their turn to serve the needs of our friends at The Open Door. What a blessing it is to be a part of such a demonstration of love to those who don’t have families or homes during the Christmas season.

 

As this year draws to a close, I am grateful for how God has provided for my financial and spiritual needs by using everyone who has given financially and prayerfully. God has definitely had His hand on my life over the past year, and it is evident by how I have grown personally and how my relationships have developed with those who surround me both here in Montreal and abroad.

If God is calling you to share His love, don’t hesitate and I challenge you to trust in Him with your whole heart and let Him direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). I also ask you to consider sharing and partnering with me in my mission to help The Open Door serve Montreal’s homeless. It’s never too late to give and all year-end gifts will be tax deductible.

For more information on what I do at The Open Door, please check out my most recent video:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqk80yvd6agb2ix/Hal%20Bell%20-%20Update%20on%20Mission%20Montreal%202014-15.mov?dl=0

To all my supporters and your loved ones, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2015.

To Christ be all the glory!!

Thankful to Serve at The Open Door

 

 

As Thanksgiving Day in the United States is tomorrow, November 27th, it will be my second opportunity to take inventory of how much I have had to be thankful for in the past year (Canadian Thanksgiving was on October 10th). I have been reflecting on the fact that it’s been nearly a year since I have been in Montreal as a missionary with The Open Door. During that time, I have been surrounded by a great community of friends, co-workers and fellow believers.  With the help of all those people, I have learned much and grown spiritually during this past year.

Volunteering at The Open Door, and living in a different country, can certainly be a very draining yet rewarding experience. God’s grace, mercy and hope have given me the motivation to stay the course, and the support and love of good friends has made it all possible.

I am certain that in one blog post I won’t be able to name all the names of those who have walked alongside me during my time in Montreal thus far, but here are some of those people who have been impacting my life in one way or another.

I am thankful for Caleb Clark and Brennan Huard for giving me the opportunity to come and serve at The Open Door. I am learning a lot from both of them on a continuous basis. Caleb’s leadership, on both a spiritual and personal level, has made quite an impact in my life. I still have a lot to learn and soak in from his leadership as Director of The Open Door. Brennan and her husband, David, have taught me about the importance of building community with our friends of The Open Door (our homeless clients) as well as those who volunteer their time to serve. Many of our friends who visit The Open Door don't have a home or family, so they come to The Open Door for their community. And in my October post, I wrote about David Chapman (Assistant Director) and Josiah Henderson (a fellow co-worker), both of whom are teaching me the art of patience, forgiveness and love for the homeless.

I am thankful for the two churches with which I am the most involved in Montreal: Eglise Vineyard Montreal Church (www.vineyardmontreal.com) and Emmaus Anglican Church (www.emmausanglicanchurch.com). Both of these churches have helped me with my spiritual growth and are also supporters of the work of The Open Door. It takes a community of believers working together to help the poor and needy, and being a part of both of these congregations has allowed me to see two different denominations of believers demonstrating the love of Christ in tangible ways.

I am thankful for the generous financial support of each one of my donors who contribute on a monthly basis to support my mission here in Montreal. Along with the stipend I receive from The Open Door, each of my donors make very precious contributions to the payment of my living expenses each month. It is because of my supporters that my mission is possible, and I am so very thankful for how God has supplied me with faithful donors and prayer partners to help me serve the poor and needy of Montreal.

It is a blessing working with these two at the Open Door

David & Josiah

 



 

This past summer, the City of Montreal closed down a number of public parks in the downtown core, including a nearby park called Cabot Square, for rejuvenation and renovation. The Cabot Square renovation is slated to last one full year, which greatly affects our homeless population because this park was a gathering point for them, a place where they knew that they could find friends.

As a result of the closure, our homeless friends would have had nowhere else to go, so The Open Door united with other non-profit organizations that serve the homeless in a project called the “Cabot Square Project”. We are collaborating with local outreach workers, social workers, street nurses, First Nation groups, neighborhood security, the City of Montreal and Station 12 of the Montreal Police Department to help fill the need for the homeless to have a safe place to stay during the closure of the park.

The Open Door’s collaboration in this project helped us to get the funds needed to extend the hours of the shelter. In order to facilitate the extended hours, we hired an Assistant Director David Chapman ( on the left) and a few summer interns, one of whom was Josiah Henderson (on the right, in red).

In July’s update, I wrote briefly about David, as he had just been hired as the Assistant Director. David is an ordained Anglican Priest and he has experience working with the First Nations people. He has leadership skills and is also a great example of serving with patience. David fits in perfectly as the Assistant Director.

David has taught me personally a lot about patience and has mentored me on how I can become better at relating to those who live in Montreal. He has also taught me some French along the way. David’s signature saying is “C’est bon, c’est bon” which translates to something like “it’s good, it’s good”. He says that it was one of the first French sayings that he learned as he was shopping at a local grocery store.

Josiah was hired on a short-term basis as one of the summer interns, but was then offered the opportunity to keep working part-time once the internship was over. He learned the different aspects of his position very quickly and has also taken initiative in other areas as a leader. Josiah’s attitude is one that is very humble and he is very diligent about serving the needs of others before those of himself. He is currently studying theology and puts what he learns into practice at The Open Door.

Personally, I have learned from Josiah how to be more humble when working with our clients who can sometimes push our limits of patience. I also really enjoy working with him, as we share the responsibility of coordinating the shelter’s volunteers and workers.

Both David and Josiah are great assets to have at The Open Door and we truly wouldn’t be able to operate the longer hours without them. They have both also been a great support to me when I have been in need of a break. I truly appreciate both of them and am very thankful to our Lord that they work alongside me at The Open Door.

 

 

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." Hebrews 10:24-25         

 

Summer Camp with the Open Door

 

 

Every August, the Open Door organizes a Summer Camp for the clients. It is an opportunity for our homeless friends to get out of the city for a few days to relax and get away from their lives in the city. In the past, the shelter has been closed during summer camp; this year, however, there was enough staff to operate both the shelter and the summer camp, which meant that those who were not going to camp could still access the services at the shelter.

 

It was my first adventure with my homeless friends outside the setting of the shelter. Caleb, the Director of the Open Door, describes summer camp as a great opportunity to interact in a more personal way with the clients and to build better relationships and bonds with them. For me, I was able to connect with those who I have had difficulties reaching at the shelter. It gave me a better understanding of some of their stories and their need to get away from their daily lives. It was also a time for them to share with me their struggles as well as their visions for the future.

 

The summer camp is held at a location called Camp Weredale, which is situated on Lake Achigan in Saint Hippolyte, Quebec, about an hour north of Montreal. It is surrounded by water and nature and is primarily a camp for children and youth from the Batshaw Youth and Family Centers. It is available to the Open Door after the last week of their regular camp schedule. For the past four years, it has been a great place to connect with our homeless friends on a more personal level.

 

The men shared the cabins, with some sharing rooms with two beds, and the women stayed in a house that normally houses the camp staff. There was plenty of food and coffee to go around, and we had access to the lake and activities such as kayaking, canoeing, swimming and fishing. And of course, the chance to relax, rest and enjoy the peace and quiet that the wilderness offers.

 

For me personally, going to summer camp gave me a chance to reflect on how my mission is going so far and how I have been interacting with the clients at the Open Door. It also gave me opportunities to listen to and understand more of the hardships experienced by the homeless, and to build stronger relationships with those who were there. In the peace of the wilderness, I reflected on how God is working in and through me to reach the lost and brokenhearted.

 

My ministry to help the homeless of Montreal is supported by generous gifts and  donations of individuals. If you feel moved to help please contact me at halbellcbm@gmail.com.

Shoes for Santiago

 

I recently made a trip back to Denver so that I could reconnect with the organization that sent me as a missionary to Montreal, as well as my church community there and some of my supporters. The visit was great and it was a good opportunity to update everyone on how things are going so far in Montreal.

During the visit, one of the people I met up with was my friend Michael, who lives and works at Christ’s Body Ministries, the organization I worked for when I lived in Denver. We met early one morning to have breakfast together and, as we were walking to the restaurant, we passed a guy who was asleep on the steps leading up to an apartment building. I thought to myself that he looked familiar but I wasn’t sure at the time exactly who he was.

On our way back from breakfast, we passed him again and this time he was sitting on the steps with his head down over his crossed arms, showing his tattoos. I recognized the tattoos but I still wasn’t sure who he was. After walking a little further, I felt an urge to see if he was okay and ask if he needed any help, so Michael and I walked back to him.

I gently touched his arm and asked him if he was okay. When he looked up, I immediately remembered his name… Santiago, a regular client of Christ’s Body Ministries. He also recognized me right away, got up to embrace me, and asked me where I had been.

Santiago explained that his sister who is disabled was just recently displaced and needed to find shelter. He also said that he needed to go see his parole officer but had no way of getting there. Michael offered Santiago two bus tickets and I asked him if he was hungry. Santiago gratefully accepted the bus tickets and said that he hadn’t eaten for a while and would love something to eat.
 

As Santiago and I were talking and sharing our mutual faith in God, I noticed that he was wearing flip flops and that his feet were very badly beat up. He told me that it’s hard to find his shoe size in any of the shelters that provide clothes. So I stopped walking and said that we should pray for shoes in that exact size to be provided for him that morning. He agreed with me in prayer as we asked the Lord for a solution to Santiago’s need for shoes in a specific size.

 We continued walking and, no more than half a block further, we came across a pair of Nike running shoes sitting on some steps. We were astonished to find a set of car keys, a wallet, and a cell phone inside the shoes. Santiago handed me the personal belongings. I looked inside the wallet for an address and it appeared that it belonged to a guy who lived in a different county. I pressed the alarm button on the car key pad, but no car in sight responded. The phone was locked. I decided to bring the personal belongings to Christ’s Body Ministries so the staff could contact the owner and make sure he got them back.

As for the shoes, they were the exact size that Santiago and I had prayed for, so I told Santiago he should keep them. I didn’t think the owner of the shoes would mind as long as his wallet, cell phone, and car keys were returned. Santiago praised God for the provision and it built both of our faiths to see how quickly God provided for the needs of one of his children.

Michael from Christ’s Body Ministries contacted the Denver Police and they were able to reunite the owner with his belongings.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

God Opens the Doors which Man Closes

In my previous update, I wrote about how caring for my homeless friend, Dan, has impacted me. I would like to continue the story, as it continues to be a situation that is deeply impacting me. The names of most of the individuals in this update have been changed to protect their identities.

Dan was eventually admitted to the hospital so that the doctors could determine what was ailing him. However, in the middle of the week, while the hospital was in the process of conducting the tests, a doctor decided to prematurely discharge him from the hospital, without notifying anyone. The Director of the Open Door, Caleb, received a call from a patient rights’ advocate, Amy, who has been working with Dan for several years to get his welfare and pension in order. She informed Caleb that Dan had been discharged from the hospital but was disorientated and possibly lost in the hospital, and Caleb notified me right away of what had happened.

At about the same time that we received the call, I was radioed that I had a visitor. I went to go see who it was and it turns out that my visitor was a guy named Derek. I had first met Derek the day before in the hospital while Dan was visiting with his sister. Derek told me that he had felt God calling him to go to The Open Door and meet me, but really didn’t know why. I quickly realized that God was instrumental in sending Derek to meet me so that both of us could work together to find Dan and ensure that he was in safe place. I was given permission to leave the shelter early, and Derek and I left for the hospital.

The dilemma we had on our hands was that it was already late afternoon… most shelters are filled for the night long before evening comes around and we had to find a suitable place for Dan to spend the night. I have only been in Montreal for 7 months, so I haven’t yet gotten acquainted with all the overnight shelters and their admission requirements… I think this is why God sent Derek to meet me. Derek has been lived in Montreal for most of his life and he is very involved with feeding the homeless through an outreach run by his local church, River’s Edge (http://edger.ca/serve/community-kitchen/). Derek is also familiar with all of the resources available for homeless people in Montreal, and he has a contact at the Old Brewery Mission. We called right away and a staff member at the Old Brewery Mission told us that they might be able to give him a bed as long as we got him there before 7:30 pm or that they would, at the least, give him a mat to sleep on.

Once we arrived at the Old Brewery Mission and introduced Dan to the front desk worker, we were surprised to find out that Dan’s niece had worked there for over 10 years and that, because of his niece’s loyalty to the shelter, they would make sure that he had a bed and was well taken care of. What an amazing blessing from God… man may close a door but God surely opens doors!

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receive; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8

The very next day, I received a call from Dan’s sister who let me know that Dan had had a diabetic attack that morning and that he had been readmitted to the hospital. I called the hospital and was able to speak to the doctor who was overseeing his care. It was ironically, or not, the very same doctor who had decided to discharge Dan prematurely just the day before! Fortunately, he realized that it had not been a good decision to discharge him and I was able to advocate once again for Dan’s care during that conversation. In the words of our pastor, Dean Downey, who gave the message this morning at church, I realized the wisdom behind “defending the underdog without attacking the attacker”. I am thankful that I was able to weigh the words I used in that conversation so that the focus was kept on how to help Dan from this point forward, instead of focusing on the doctor’s actions.

We are now praying for and working to get Dan admitted into a respite facility once he is discharged from the hospital so that he can continue to receive the medical care that he needs and that an overnight shelter is not equipped to provide.

Will you continue to pray for Dan’s health and welfare, and that we will be able to help Dan find a safe place for him to stay where his health problems can be overseen on a daily basis?

Thank you for your continued support of my mission!