WHERE FIVE BUCKS BUYS SOME WARMTH

You can’t buy much for five bucks these days unless you’re homeless and you need a place to warm up in Alberta’s frigid winter.

Five Bucks of Warmth

Gateway Family Church and the Leduc HUB are partnering together to provide an over night warming shelter for Leduc’s homeless. Men and women are afforded a hot shower, food, and a safe, warm place to sleep. Overnight shelter is free. The five bucks comes in when the over-nighters leave the next day. Each one receives a $5 gift card to a fast food restaurant. There they can get a hot meal and thirty minutes of warmth.

The other name for that gift card is HOPE. When you have no shelter, the confidence of having a place to warm up, even for just thirty minutes, helps get you through Alberta’s -25C days.

Love in Action

In the midst of a pandemic, Gateway Family Church had a vision and the nerve to take a risk and open up an essential services centre. Volunteers worked through the winter months and renovated a downtown facility from the floor up to the second story. New walls, flooring, paint, lighting, and furniture. On February 21st the doors opened to offer a wide variety of community services.

The HUB’s goal is giving a helping hand to all that are in urgent need. They offer an overnight warming shelter, food, showers, and a harm reduction program. Operation Night Angel, short term motel space for women fleeing domestic abuse.  Coats and winter wear for low income families, homeless-care-kits, blankets, new toiletries and underwear/socks, meal cards, and bus tickets.

In addition, Gateway offers a youth drop-in centre, parenting and marriage courses, healing rooms, and other community support programs.

Good News

The Mayor of Leduc, Bob Young, sees the GO Centre as good news for the community. Services are able to be administered by volunteers in a compassionate way and with significant cost savings for taxpayers. It’s just one way that churches can make a difference in their community.

With so much frustration and uncertainty around restrictions, and the pandemic, it’s inspiring to see how five bucks and a lot of love can go a long way.

Please leave a good word for Pastor Landen Dorsch and his team at Gateway at the bottom of this post. And why not share this good news on your social media platforms.

Hope grows here.  You’ll find stories that inspire, build faith, and offer lasting purpose.

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