Church Warms Olympic Crowds at 29th Ave Skytrain Station

 

Caption:  Chantal Amundson of Cedar Grove Church, serving up warmth to the Olympic crowds.

February 25th, 2010

SURREY, Canada – If you have been to the 29th Ave Skytrain station in the Renfrew Heights neighborhood of Vancouver during these winter Olympics, you’ve probably chatted with Chantal Amundson.  Or been handed a cup of hot chocolate by Jason Strain.  Or been given a warm smile by one of the 400 or so other volunteers from Cedar Grove Church in Surrey.  Throughout the 17 days of the Olympic games – all day, every day, and every evening, even in the rain and snow – people from “The Grove” are at the station to warm up the experience of Olympic-goers and local travelers alike.   They are volunteering, along with people from hundreds of other churches and Christian organizations, under the umbrella of the “More Than Gold” Christian faith network.

Jennifer Coombes is a “coffee perker,” helping brew up some of the 1000 or so cups of coffee that the church volunteers hand outeach day of the games at 29th Ave station.  Why does she, and the 400 others from Cedar Grove church, invest so many hours in serving Olympic guests?  "To simply love on people, hear them, respond to a need that they have, is to be the hands and feet of Christ,” Coombes explains. “It is a blessing and an honor that we cannot receive until we actually do it." 

Besides coffee perkers and people greeters, the church has volunteers who plan the schedules, transport the drinks, clean up the garbage, hand out maps, give directions, and train volunteers.  It’s a huge undertaking for the church, but one they seem to perform with joy.

Jason Strain walks around the Skytrain station with a 38-pound insulated backpack filled with hot coffee on his back.  As he dispenses hot drinks from a tube coming out of the backpack, he listens to people’s stories and offers encouragement.  For example, Strain relates, "I got talking with a gentleman who told me he'd recently lost his father, and his mother a few years earlier.  He told me that he's lonely and that he would really like to start going to church in order to feel like he has a family.  I prayed with him and also gave him my card."

For more information, please contact Rachael at info@morethangold.ca 

More NEWS RELEASES

Working Group