- Jason Byers and a young Honduran friend named Rafael. Photo by Jason Byers
“We are a small group, but we’re not afraid to dream big,” a leader at Celebration! Church Ottawa (C!C) said recently, reflecting on plans for the rest of 2013 and beyond.
The start-up church, whose original group consisted almost entirely of students, has made a big splash in the Old Ottawa East neighbourhood as well as in other parts of the city as it has grown.
A core value of C!C is to “meaningfully connect with both campus and community.”
These efforts include: the C!Station children’s booth at the Main Farmers’ Market; help with local happenings such as the Main Event and neighbourhood BBQs; an Easter lily sale; kids’ activities in Brantwood park during the summer; and the 10:30 a.m. weekly worship gathering at Saint Paul University.
Other local initiatives are being planned.
One area of involvement that is blossoming is anything but local. C!C has begun exploring a partnership with the Tolupan, a small group of people in the mountains of Honduras.
Jason and a Tolupan leader named Alvuro and a friend named Joey. Photo by Jason Byers
Working together with locals and other invested organizations, C!C hopes to bring food, education, better health care, and better farming practices to the very poor, isolated, and often maligned group.
“The reality seems to be that no one is looking to help these people,” said pastor Jason Byers, who spent a week with the Tolupan in February. “In many ways, they are either forgotten or ignored. So we want to do what we can to increase their quality of life in a way that honours their native culture.
“This involves a lot of listening and, in time, helping,” Byers added. “The help would take many forms: food, supplies, tips on coffee production, dental services, English lessons, and more. We are also open with them about the role that Christianity plays in our quality of life on earth and in our hope of life after death. Many people are curious about the Christian worldview, and so we are sensitive to communicating this truth, so important to us, in a way that could enable an indigenous church. The bottom line is that we are trying to help meet legitimate needs without creating a sense of dependency.”
Byers said it was natural for a small church from Canada to go to great lengths to help a community so far away.
“It really stems from who we are at our core,” Byers said. “Being loved by God and having a love for Jesus motivates us to serve other people. The Bible points to that having an expression locally as well as abroad. When we came across the Tolupan of Honduras, they sort of captured our hearts . . . much like the neighbourhood around our church has.”
Byers suggested the effort could even come back to help his church with its local projects.
“Who knows?” he said. “We have a big dream of one day having our own coffee shop that serves as a kind of home base for our ministries. Maybe we will serve Tolupan coffee.”
