Mission
We Serve OthersReaching Locally
Over many decades, our church has supported a host of outreach initiatives in the local community, the North Shore, and the Lower Mainland. And it has responded with love and compassion, adapting to changing patterns, demographics, needs and priorities in the community that it serves. Our current outreach initiatives include providing space for Youth and Support Group programs, and collaborative ventures with organizations such as Meals-on-Wheels and Sharing Abundance.
We look forward to serving and continuing God’s work into the change and promise of the future!
Scouts Canada
We have a special relationship with the 18th Seymour Scouting group, a parent-run program sponsored by NLUC, which has provided physical space and spiritual support for the past 50 years. 18th Seymour traditionally meets twice weekly in the church, providing programs for children through young adults (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers, and Rovers).
Girl Guides of Canada
Volunteer-supported programs for girls from ages 5 to 17, meeting weekly in the church.
It is our privilege to offer our loving support to the following community groups:
Compassionate Friends
Parents from all cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds, tragically united by their loss of children, meet once a month in our lounge to offer mutual support and care.
Step Groups
People struggling with substance and behavioural addictions meet weekly to work through recovery programs and offer one another support.
In collaboration with Sharing Abundance, North Lonsdale United holds a sit down community dinner every second Tuesday of the month from September through June. These dinners are a time of good food and fellowship for everyone in the surrounding community. Dinner is beautifully prepared by the Sharing Abundance team led by Bette Geddes, and NLUC provides the venue and a team of volunteers to handle set-up, serving and clean-up. Dinners are served between 5:30 and 6:45 and can be ordered in advance by calling the church office before noon on Monday each week for dinner the following night. A few extra dinners are prepared but we would hate to disappoint anyone by running out of food! On the other Tuesday evenings, a take out cold meal that you can heat up at home may be picked up at the church between 3 - 5 pm.
To order in advance, call 604 985 4911, leave your name and phone number and order vegetarian if desired. Dinners are provided for a minimum donation of $5, or participants can request an exemption card if they are unable to pay. Our hope is that those who can afford more will help to subsidize those who are less fortunate. If you would like to assist with this program as a volunteer once or twice a month, please leave your name with the church office. Come and stay awhile and enjoy being part of this community!
Harvest Project is a faith-based, grassroots charity that serves people who find themselves on the margins on the North Shore. Founded in 1993, the organization reaches out to people challenged by family break-down, illness, job loss, and the threat of homelessness and poverty. Harvest Project offers coaching + counsel, the North Shore Rent Bank, grocery + clothing support, and the Clothes for Change thrift shop. With its commitment to “extend a hand up, not a hand out”, HP recognizes the needs of the whole person and sees the unique value of each individual and family served.
Hundreds in the community receive life-changing help each month, as staff, volunteers, and resources are brought together to work with clients from across North and West Vancouver. Clients set goals and receive vital supports such as groceries/grocery gift-cards and clothing, and may benefit from interest-free Rent Bank loans that enable them to secure or sustain rental housing and utilities. HP also provides vouchers for specialized counselling and offers coaching for finding jobs. It looks to residents, businesses, churches, and community groups for resources to sustain its mission of helping to save lives - in our community, close to home.
Harvest Project impacts the community by restoring individuals and families to healthier lives – so the whole North Shore becomes a more inclusive place to live. From time to time, Harvest Project looks for volunteers – check their website for opportunities to help.
Meals on Wheels is a program that delivers prepared meals to individuals at home who are unable to purchase or prepare their own food and are often elderly and housebound. The program was started in England during the second war, and, over the years has spread into a worldwide outreach. North Shore Meals on Wheels receives funding from a variety of sources in the community, and is part of a network of services that works to ensure clients can maintain their independence and remain in their homes.
North Lonsdale United Church has had an association with North Shore Meals on Wheels since 1969. Together with St. David’s United Church in West Vancouver, we coordinate the packaging and distribution of meals on the North Shore. Our involvement includes providing kitchen and storage space, as well as volunteers who join volunteers from the larger community, working together to distribute meals three days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Meals are prepared and delivered in bulk by a local caterer, packaged by a kitchen crew, and delivered to clients by volunteer drivers. Volunteers from North Lonsdale assist in the kitchen on Mondays and Wednesdays. This valuable service “to the community by the community” involves many hundreds of volunteer hours each year, and truly makes a difference in people’s lives. In addition to helping maintain nutritional health, it is an important means, via the drivers, of keeping people connected with their community and triggering other community supports when issues are identified.
Increasing demand for this service requires the increased support of caring volunteers to serve in the kitchen packaging food, and as drivers to deliver food and interact with clients. If you can spare time once a week on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday between 11.15am and 1.00pm we would love to hear from you.
If you would like to benefit from this program by receiving regular nutritional meals, please contact Meals on Wheels during office hours, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, at 604-922-3414.
Serving Globally
As participants in Christ’s mission, we strive to partner alongside others across the world in support of organizations that help empower and sustain. We have most recently supported Embrace Rwanda, an organization that was founded by one of our members!
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” - Acts 1:8
Embrace Rwanda provides a remarkable example of how developing relationships, establishing partnerships and building on the strengths and resilience of a very vulnerable population has created an environment for healing and growth. Evaluations the organization has completed of the Healthy Mums Program, for example, show a significant difference in health outcomes.
Embrace Rwanda embodies mutual respect and understanding. The Rwandan journey out of the darkness of genocide cannot be ignored. As one Embrace Rwanda participant noted, “You have brought out our sorrows. It is very important.” The project’s Rwandan partners and participants are determined to move forward with hope, in the spirit of reconciliation. This creates sustainability and self-sufficiency, the two primary goals of local Rwandans.
Through the power of many partnerships, in Canada, UK, USA and a 15-year relationship with NLUC, Embrace Rwanda is working and growing, creating a bridge between poverty and hope for a healthy future.
