Friday, December 3, 2010

Trip to Montreal Seafarer Centre

The end of a busy couple of weeks for our youth ministry happened this past Sunday afternoon.  Several from our group travelled to Montreal, Quebec to the Seafarer Centre to deliver parcels prepared for the Seafarers who pass through  the Montreal port.    

Each year our church, and many other CRC's prepare parcels for seafarers who will be at sea over Christmas.  For the past several years I have been taking whomever wished to go from our youth group to Montreal to see the centre.  






The group seen here packed up 82 boxes prepared by our church, and also took 10 from another church, and several boxes packed separate from these by yet another church.  



After the picture was taken we formed a long line and loaded up one of our vans.  


It took a bit of time to get those 82 + parcels into the vans. 



Hey, a father / daughter moment.  



David was in charge of packing.  



Once in the vans David was charged with programming the GPS.  Even though I've been to the Seafarer centre several times, I always get lost.  :  (  
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My van load enjoyed the ride, as you can see from Fontana and William.  


Normally we'd be listening to music from my son's iPod, but this trip proved different.  Apparently Chris did something wrong as he synced his iPod and he had NO songs to share with us.  Enter Jacob and his oldies songs.  I REALLY enjoyed the trip listening to Queen, Boston, and other groups from MY past.  Oh you should have heard the outcry from the rest of the group.......Gotta love it!!!!  : )  



So, you know how I have bugged Fontana in the past about her LACK of picture taking ability.  Well MOVE OVER Fontana.  Chris B has taken your place.  I think I deleted over 50 strange and weird pictures from that boy.   This is one of the few good ones........ 




Hmmmm, not sure what Chris is up to.  Maybe he just ate somethings sour.....






Hey, that's my van.  Oh yeah, Chad was driving it.  








Hmmmm, there's that name again.  DAVID.  I've seen it THREE times now.....




It took us 2.5 hours to get there, after a stop at Tim's.  I even remembered how to get there this time. No getting lost.  It was now time to unload all the gifts.  




Hey, there's Chris B lifting all those gifts.  Strongman.....   : ) 




Megan had lots of fun loading us up with numerous gifts.  






A nice picture in the Chapel of the Centre.  I hope it brings some comfort to those seafarers while out at sea.  






Each year we take some new people to the seafarer centre, so we all gather in the chapel for a short time of explanation of what goes on there.  






Michelle, the CRC Chaplain, always takes some time to explain what she does, and what the centre is there for.  




This hangs on the wall at the centre.  




After our education time, we wait to see if any seafarers will come to the centre so we can meet some and interact with them.  It doesn't always happen, but it has.  Here is Jeannine waiting, and eating her dinner as well.  




Chad and Janine and Ethan also taking some time to eat dinner.  






Hey, Jeannine must have felt a bit lonely and moved on over to eat with others.  






While we wait, there are plenty of games to play to keep everyone busy.  Air hockey....








Pin ball, which actually costs 25 cents to play.  




Ping Pong.....which I beat my son in BTW.  




Looks like Megan and Fontana had too much time on their hands.  




There was the billiards table, but no one seemed to want to use the pool cues. 




Ethan came last year, and remembered the games.  He was so excited to be able to come again.  He loved playing with his dad.  






Fontana and Megan gave the group some back ground music on the Piano.  




Fun games by the group helped pass the time too.  




Chris and Chad challenged each other to foosball.  




Strange, just strange.....................






Ethan learned a new game.  Ping Pong.  He wasn't happy when we had to leave.  






Michelle and her husband spend lots of time in this ministry and the work they do is wonderful to hear about each year.  To bad we didn't get the chance to meet any seafarers this time, but our kids once again have a memory placed within them of a place that does God's work for people who are lonely and often times marginalized.  Worth the drive any day of the week in my books.  





We drove home and stopped at Tim's once again.  If you look at Jeannine's eyes, you'd think she'd had enough of the group or something......  : )  

I spent the drive home listening to music and talking with my youth group.  It was a long day, but a good one.  Thanks for coming with once again and seeing how we can bless others that we don't even know.  May the parcels given out this Christmas bless many seafarers as they are out at sea.