Over the last few months of summer, I have had the opportunity to serve in our Innercity Veterans Outreach and Support (IVOS) program as the Operation Safe Haven Outreach Worker. The focus of my role is to find homeless veterans and enable them to get housing and invite them to join our Wednesday lunch group. Since I am going back to school in the fall, we have a new person, Trent, stepping into this position. Below is just a little interview to help introduce Trent: Lydia: T

Here we are in September. Fall is upon us. Everyone looks forward to the fall for different reasons. Some of us look forward to long walks with the crunching of the leaves beneath our feet. Some look forward to the various spiced pumpkin treats you find at all the coffee shops. For me, it’s the changing of the leaves and watching God’s masterpiece unfold. However, not everyone enjoys the fall. With the onslaught of fall, that means that Winter is around the corner. That means

Every time I go out on Street Outreach, I’m amazed at how God opens my eyes afresh to recognize one of his attributes or mercifully convicts me of sin in my heart. This time, I was reminded of God’s incredible love and was convicted of my lack of love. On the downtown streets of Ottawa, drug abuse is overt and unmistakable. Week after week, street outreach teams encounter people who are so caught up in addiction they struggle to stand, struggle to speak, struggle to even tak

Over the past three months in my role at OIM, I’ve been continually amazed by the level of need we see every day. When I first started, the volume of supplies we distribute daily, weekly, and monthly felt overwhelming. More than twenty loaves of sandwich bread can be handed out in just two days. Granola bars, socks, and bottled water are handed out by the hundreds. I felt a constant pressure to make sure we always had enough of everything, but I quickly realized that I couldn

Street Outreach can easily be measured in numbers—sandwiches distributed, clothing provided, or people encountered. These practical needs matter, but some of the program's most meaningful outcomes cannot be captured in statistics. How do we measure the significance of remembering someone’s name, listening to a person who feels forgotten, or offering prayer and reassurance to someone facing an uncertain tomorrow? Homelessness can carry a profound sense of invisibility. People