Caring in a Crisis | Trinity Talks Podcast

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode

of Trinity Talks. My name is Kyla, and I'm sitting

down here with two folks from Trinity's congregation

to talk about something that at Trinity we call

the Care Fund. And this is a sort of ministry

that extends from Trinity's Care Ministries,

where we provide support for people experiencing

all kinds of different challenges. So we're going

to talk about what the CARE Fund specifically

is and how we use that to help serve our community.

So thank you so much for joining me, folks. Pleasure.

Yeah, so maybe I'll just get you to start by

doing a little bit of an introduction for yourself.

Yeah, do you want to start us off here? Sure.

My name is Anne, and I'm a parishioner here,

and I've been coming to Trinity for about four

years. Okay, great. Thank you. Great. My name

is Andrew. I've got two daughters and a wife,

Adrienne, and we've been attending for about

three years. Okay. Very cool. And so maybe just

starting off, really basic, what is the CARE

Fund? Sure. So the CARE Fund, I'll kick it off,

is a fund that's been established by Trinity

to really provide financial assistance to individuals

or families that have a specific financial need.

And it's not directed at just members of Trinity,

but the broader surrounding community. And it's

really meant to address a very specific need,

not a longer -term need, but to meet people.

where they're at with maybe a financial obligation

they have that they can't meet. And as you mentioned,

Kyle, it's... part of a much broader care ministry.

So, uh, we do like to think of, of, um, you know,

whether other areas within the church they can

get connected to, to, to provide broader support

and care to what they might be going through.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it is, it's part

of the care ministry. So it's, it's a financial

piece that sort of partners with, you know, like

Stephen ministry or like meal train or things

like that. Exactly. Sort of give a holistic sort

of level of care. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Um,

and. And how did the CARE Fund come about? Sure.

Trinity has a long history of benevolence where

we... as a congregation, give to people in need,

help them in times of crisis. And I think over

the years, it's been in a variety of ways, some

formal, some informal. Perhaps the longest standing

sort of benevolence ministry that I know of at

Trinity is the Christmas Wish Fund, which I think

has been going for decades, which is really a

delightful opportunity to bless people at Christmas

time when they might have some extra... Maybe

it's difficult to meet sort of the needs of the

season where you may want to buy a small gift

for your children and whatnot. So the Christmas

Wish Fund has been supporting, not supporting,

just been generously giving without strings attached,

small sums of money to people around Christmas

time. But a couple of years back. Jan and Brent

Serson, who were involved in a variety of ministries

and very aware of the particular needs of a lot

of people, suggested that we formalize additional

benevolence opportunities where we would give

to people in particular times of crisis. And

I just have to say that... giving at Trinity

in these sorts of ways has been going on for,

you know, probably as long as Trinity existed.

But to have a formal structure allowed us to

sort of pool together the church's, you know,

the collective financial resources that people

might want to use and then give that to people

in need as times of crisis have arisen. So we

make an appeal to the congregation once a year

around Christmas time. and ask that people would

give to the CARE Fund, which now includes both

the Christmas Wish as well as any of the other

opportunities that we take to give to people

throughout the year. And so with that appeal,

in the last... Three seasons, three years, we

have actually received almost $15 ,000 in generous

giving from people within the congregation. And

then we use that money throughout the year to

support both Christmas Wish as well as any of

the particular needs that arise. Right. Okay.

So it sort of started as this like... seasonal

thing right because we know obviously christmas

is a time where there's lots of financial need

and a time where people are sort of thinking

about giving generously right um but then saying

okay well people don't just have needs at christmas

right right so how do we continue to support

those needs year round exactly okay yeah Um,

so how exactly does that work? How does, yeah,

how does the care fund work? If someone has a

need, um, or like what kind of needs does it

support? How do all the pieces come together?

Yeah. So the, the, the requests come in through

a really a variety of ways. Okay. Sometimes individuals

themselves might, might come to the church or

another ministry leader might bring forth a specific

request. Um, and, and they, they come directly

into it really into the church office and the

church staff. Um, Reflect on it and find out

if there's other ways that might be better served

to meet their need. As we mentioned, there's

a lot of care offered through Trinity. If it

is a financial need, they might be addressed

right at the office. Things like meal cards,

if it's food insecurity or transportation services.

If it happens to be a larger financial need,

then that's... That's where the CARE Fund committee

comes into play, and there's four or five members

of this committee that would reflect on it, pray

over the request, and really look for ways that

we can help meet them where they're at. Unfortunately,

there's obviously a lot of need out there, so

we can't say yes to everything, but thankfully.

The church has been blessed with many generous

donors, and we've got financial resources available

where we can extend support and care and provide

that assistance that people are looking for.

Yeah. So it sounds like there's like also then

a variety of different kinds of needs and like

things that are being met through this care fund.

Right. So you mentioned like, you know, sometimes

it's like meal cards or like grocery gift cards.

Sometimes it's help with transportation. Sometimes

it's larger things. So things like, you know,

helping with rent or helping. I think we have

done like replacing like an appliance, like a

washer dryer situation. Yeah. Yeah. Like so whatever

expenses that might not be covered by someone's

plan. Right. Yeah. So a lot of extending. circumstances

that we just want to be open minded on and really

provide that holistic care. Yeah. And then you

mentioned also like the process of the committee

is sort of, you know, coming together to like.

look at you know what are the situations around

this fine this financial need and like praying

over it um but then i think sometimes people

are like oh we'll pray about that and then not

do a thing but but i think often we are we're

we're we are prayerfully thinking about how we

support people in in action right yeah it becomes

a reflective process too where you start maybe

even brainstorming thinking what other services

are available right there's a lot of support

in the community. And, uh, you know, I don't

know what they all are, but you know, the, the,

there's a lot of connectedness that, uh, we can

be thinking of either government support programs,

uh, food banks. So, um, yeah, it starts with

a request and, and hopefully through that process,

we're able to help more and more people. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. And getting them connected to some

of these other services. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So in the care fund so far, like

what, what has that sort of looked like? Are

some stories or examples that you can share.

Sure, I'd be happy to. So I could even mention

that over the course of the past couple years,

we have been able to give Christmas wish to about

30 different individuals or families each season.

And with respect to the specific needs that arise

throughout the year, on average, maybe about

15 individuals or families. So it's quite significant.

Yeah, per year of what we've been able to do.

And a couple interesting stories there. One family

who are newer to the country, but permanent residents,

been here several years. And one of the family

members was undergoing heart surgery. And that

member was also kind of the... key supporter

and, you know, transportation, driver, et cetera,

et cetera. And, you know, there's a lot of needs

in the family. And so for this person to be having

surgery and away, there were going to be some

significant needs that we were able to help them

with, giving some like Uber gift cards to be

able to support transportation. And food was

going to be an issue too, though they do access

community and government supports. You know,

typically we might have, well, we did suggest

that this family could make use of the meal train,

another one of our ministries here at Trinity.

But there were some significant reasons why that

wasn't going to work out very well. So in the

end, we were able to support with grocery gift

cards, right? So it's just an example of sort

of, adjusting the services that we offer according

to the need. Another interesting story, another

family that was new to the country An individual

was taking school to be the training to be a

personal support worker and doing all of her

schoolwork on her phone. And it was causing a

big commitment, right? So it was causing eye

strain and some difficulties and it was really

hard to get through. So we, you know, first we

look at other opportunities to see if there was

maybe a computer that could be gifted to her.

But in this case, we ended up giving a gift card.

that was specifically for Best Buy, and the individual

was able to buy a basic laptop and was so grateful

to be able to do her schoolwork and her studies

on the computer. And so as a result, we're really

helping people to establish themselves in life

in moments of crisis where... Like Andrew said,

we're sort of looking to help people with sort

of one -time needs or unexpected needs. And the

two stories I mentioned were people sort of new

to the country, but there's been lots of occasions,

too, where people within our community. have

come up against a crisis. And so could we support

in that moment in order to kind of get them through?

And what we found by doing this is not only does

it meet that practical need, but it gives people

hope, right? Like, you know, someone's listening

to my story and they're going to actually help

me to get through it. And that even if it doesn't.

address all of the needs that we have in life.

Just knowing that in this moment, someone was

there for me, I think it's been a powerful way.

We've heard really tangible appreciation for

what we've been able to offer here and there.

Yeah. Yeah. Because it is like, obviously the

financial support to get the practical, tangible

thing is super important to like help people

get that through, get through that moment. But

it is that like wraparound support that I think

is, is equally important. Right. Right. That

it is not just, okay, here's a laptop or here's

some food. It's like, okay, no, here's people

who care. There's people who like want to walk

with you. That's right. And I think we, Like

we talk in our sort of committee group about

how relationship is most important. And so we're

not trying to just give some money to attend

to a need. At the same time, we want to connect

people to the other ministries and opportunities

and services and supports, both within Trinity

as well as beyond. the relationship is even more

important right for sure for sure yeah and i

think that connecting people to the other systems

and support networks and that sort of thing also

sort of ties in with what you said about like

a one -time need in a crisis situation right

that it's not the care fund is not there to be

a like monthly top up right right which is totally

needed in some situations but that's just not

a thing that this fund is able to provide right

but we can connect people with food banks or

with like osap or like whatever it is that they

need to be able to get that support right yeah

it's not purely meant to be just transactional

we don't think of it just as okay here transaction

done it is about you know establishing connectiveness

and making sure that That we expand the areas

of care that people, ourselves included, look

out for different types of support throughout

our life journey. And that's the key, developing

relationships and building community in the way

we minister to one another. Yeah, for sure, for

sure. Yeah, so we've mentioned a couple of different

sort of support systems. So one, we've talked

about the meal train a couple of times. So maybe,

Andrew, can you just explain what it is? is the

meal train. Uh, sure. Yes, I can. Um, yeah, the

meal train is, is, is similar in nature of kind

of a, a, a temporary lift to a situation and

maybe someone has a new baby or they're, they're

in the hospital and, and, uh, it's a community

of, uh, people that attend Trinity that sign

up to be a part of the meal train. Um, and so

if you have, uh, a need, you'd flag it to the

office staff. And it would be directed to the

coordinator of the meal train who has a number

of volunteers that will make meals or source

meals or come up with maybe gift cards for a

meal. But another very tangible way to... to,

to, to show care and support people in a, in

a meaningful way. Yeah. Okay. So we got this

meal train. Um, I don't, I don't know that we've

mentioned it, but one of the other things that

I think comes up in the committee meetings often

is like Stephen ministry. Um, and yeah, they're

providing like counseling and peer support and

that sort of a thing. Um, but then also we do

have done some connections to like outside services

and stuff as well. Do you want to like talk about

sort of how that piece has worked? Well, it's

not uncommon that people come, with financial

need around rent, paying for their housing. And

so we have worked to become more aware of the

community and government services that are available

to help people through that. And so... You know,

we we will do what we can to connect people into

the public system so that we're not filling in

a need when in fact there's a government support

for that. And then if there's maybe a gap or

a moment of crisis that can bridge someone, then

we can try to fill in between. So that's another

area that we've tried to connect community wise.

Yeah. And I think like one of the pieces that's

really important for me and all of that is that

like it's really partly about. but like expertise

as well. Right. That like we. obviously care

that that's, that's kind of our job as Christians

just to care, but like, we can't, I don't know

how all of the social systems work. I don't know

how to get somebody housing support, like the,

or like what, even what is the best time to sort

of help people in that process. Right. But like

other people, this is their whole job. Right.

Right. And so getting them connected to those

experts. Yeah. So we've tried to actually find

some people who are experts in some of those

other areas to support us in making our decisions

well. But, you know, there may be congregational

members watching this podcast today. And if they

have expertise in some of the social issues that

are challenging for our community, then, you

know, to identify your skills to the office,

you know, that our office staff might be able

to help. Our ministry staff can help in using

your skills to identify how we can best support

people. That would be a really big help to us

as well. Yeah, for sure. So we've sort of talked

about the what, how all of this works, but why?

Why should Trinity have a care fund? What is

so important about this? Yeah, we really see

that this is an opportunity to follow. in line

with what Jesus desires of us as believers, right?

You know, scripture says that we should bear

with one another our burdens and that this fulfills

the mission that God has for us. And also, you

know, in another place it says, you know, if

someone has need and we say, be blessed, go,

you know, we'll pray for you and do nothing about

it. Well, what is that? And so, you know, that's

a really challenging statement, right? And so

again, gives us sort of an awareness that there

are needs that we can actually physically help

with. And sometimes there are many ways that

this congregation individually connects with

people in need and just... Just, you know, they

give a coat off their back. They pay for something

for the kids. They do. They help out. But there

are other times when an individual isn't connected

to someone who is in the position to help them

and they may come to the church. And so then

for the church to sort of pool our resources

together in a way that we can then collectively

support people who may not have other connections

or means, then it's actually an amazing gift.

Like it's an exciting opportunity that we have

that every year we have. resources of this congregation

to support people in our community who are in

need. It's really, it's quite exciting. It is.

And it, you know, and Jesus also says, um, if,

uh, if you do something for one of the least

of these for anyone and you do it in my name,

then you're doing it for me as well. And so that's

a real joy that we have, you know, sometimes

to see how a small gift has generously helped

someone. It's a real delight. Yeah. Yeah, for

sure. And it certainly ties into values and the

mission of Trinity, right? Values being community

and generosity. This really helps bring those

together and, you know, living like Jesus and

leading others to Jesus. I think this really

fits in well to the mission of not just Trinity,

but the broader church at large. Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think, yeah, sort of like you said,

it fits so well with, Yeah, what it means to

be a follower of Jesus. That Jesus was someone

who cared for the least of these. That Jesus

was someone who saw people and was like, okay,

let me bring you along. Let me help you in whatever

situation you're in, right? And doing it with

no strings attached. Right. Jesus wasn't like,

I'll only heal you if you then become my disciple.

He was like, no, no. You need help. I will help

you. That's right. Right. And then, you know,

sure. Sometimes people came along and became

disciples. Right. But like it was. Yeah. There's

a moment of crisis. Let's like do something about

that. Yeah. Yeah. That's really what it means,

I think, to be followers of Jesus. Yeah. Which

is to say there are people that we have helped

that are not members of this congregation. Sure.

And nor is that an interest of theirs. But that's

not something that's a criteria for us. Right.

Yeah. Because, you know. they are beloved of

Jesus the same way we are and we want to help

people. Yeah. So it's a really great opportunity.

For sure. For sure. Yeah. Anything else that

sort of comes to mind for you as you think about

the like why of the care fund, like how this

connects with our mission or with our calling?

also maybe say not more about the care fund as

much as recognizing that what we're doing with

the care fund is actually an opportunity that

we all have as believers as people who want to

follow Christ so we don't have to wait for the

fund to help someone we can do it in our own

life and in our own way however if of an individual

from the congregation potentially wants to participate

with us then um they can identify potentially

someone that they know is in sort of a crisis

moment that we might be able to help with. But

also if someone is wanting to make a donation

to the fund in order to help us help more people,

you know, we, we welcome that too. You know,

that's an opportunity for people to participate,

you know, collectively in this ministry that

we have together, but also individually in their

own way and recognizing that Jesus sees it all.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, I think that just makes me

think that like the Care Fund is a particular

ministry that is like operated and managed by

particular people. But it's not the ministry

of Anne and Andrew. It is the ministry of Trinity.

Absolutely. That like as a whole church family,

we are all part of what is happening there, even

if people never know that. Right. Like most of

our congregation will never know that. we don't

even know the names and the particular stories

of all of the people who have been helped through

this. Right. But like, it's the work that we

are all doing together. And I would want the

congregation to know for those who have given

at Christmas and other times to this ministry,

that it's a really powerful impact that their,

you know, contribution is making, you know, that

the gift is really significant in the lives of

many people. So that's really appreciated. For

sure. yeah so if folks are sort of listening

and thinking you know maybe they would like support

of some kind like how how can folks learn more

about the care fund how can they get in touch

Yeah, I think the easiest way would be if you

do see a need or you yourself have a need to

bring it to a staff member or a ministry member

and someone you feel comfortable raising the

issue with, right? Because a lot of these are

deeply personal. And connecting with a staff

member is a good way to go about it because they're

going to be in touch with not only just the financial

support that might be available, but the broader

care fund ministries we have. You mentioned Stevens

Ministry, Mealtrain, because there's a wide variety

of needs. It could be emotional, spiritual, mental,

financial. So they'll be able to direct and think

through the best way forward. here um and um

yeah no i think it's phenomenal that we have

this this this this care fund and um it's it's

great to you know build awareness on it because

we we all should be sensitive to the needs around

us and ways we can minister care um is incredibly

important Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So you

mentioned sort of approaching staff members.

So I'll just say like some of the different ways

that this has sort of come to us so far is, you

know, through Sally is connected to a lot of

newcomers or to life group leaders and that sort

of thing. So, you know, if folks are in a life

group, they can go to their life group leader.

And if you are a life group leader, you can go

to Sally and she'll help sort of figure that

out or through Natalie or Rob or even through

myself sometimes, right? Like, so if you're looking

for a person, if you're looking for a name, maybe

start there. Absolutely. Yeah. Good. Well, thank

you so much, folks. I think this has been a really

helpful conversation to sort of put this out

there, to let people know this is what's happening

in our church. But also then a hopeful conversation

to think about all of the ways that as a church

family, we have been able to serve and love people

well. Yeah. So thank you for this conversation

and thank you for the work that you folks have

put into this. Pleasure. Thanks, Kelly. Delighted.

And thank you for tuning into this week's episode

of Trinity Talks. If you are part of the Trinity

family, yeah, I pray that you would consider

what are some ways that you can support other

people. Or if you are in need of support, please

reach out. We would love to be in touch with

you. And if you are outside of the Trinity family,

you can still find ways to help. And I pray that

God leads you in that as well, in whatever neighborhood

you find yourself in. And we'll see you again

next week.