Phil Callaway


Funny, entertaining, thought provoking, honest, relevant, challenging,.....oh and did we mention Very Funny?These are just a few of the words to describe humourist Phil Callaway's "performance" at the Upper Room Mission's 2008 Fundraising Event held on Thursday October 9th. Those in attendance were held captive by his humorous real life stories, and challenged to examine what our responsibility is to those in need around us.Thank-you Phil for the deep lessons you deposited into us through the use of humor and for your openness and transparency. Thank you Mark Wensley for the beautiful music. Those of you who attended the sold out event, we thank-you for your support and the encouragement each of you are to the Mission.
We appreciate you more than may know!

What It's All About


Received a nice email today:

we would like to thank to thank the upper room mission for the help and support that you gave us in our time of need. Youll be happy to know that Ian is six weeks from reciving his buisness administration deploma, and i am a very happy, proud mother and plan to attend collage in march of next year. Here are some pictures of our family, we hope you enjoy them. we will keep in touch. thanks again.

Love Ian Casey Vanessa and Rex
T*Y*C

Thank You Global Ed and Home Depot!

Some overdue thanks are owed to the Global Ed Class for coming in and serving an excellent lunch of spaghetti, salad, garlic toast and fruit salad. Not a person (me included) went away with a very full and satisfied stomach!

Also, a huge thank you to Howard and staff at Home Depot for our excellent new shelving unit - it's brightened the kitchen up tremendously - thank you!!!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Rick and Ellen, married last Friday afternoon in Polsen Park, by our very own Mission Chaplain Dave Bootsma!

By all accounts, it was a beautiful ceremony and we pray an even more beautiful union for the both of you in the years to come!

You're Invited!

In Memoriam

I can't put into the words, the loss and sadness we all feel at the passing of our volunteer and friend, Bert Dueck. I can't describe him or pay homage to him more beautifully, nor eloquently than his family did at his memorial this past Sunday. In short, we miss you Bert, we love you Berta and we cherish the time we were able to spend together... your quiet, gentle, warm and kind spirit we will dearly missed here at the Mission.

We look forward to seeing you again in Eternity. Farewell dear brother.

Guests Cleaning

So recently we decided to do something a bit radical, shake things up a bit...

We decided to end our contract with our professional cleaners and give our guests the opportunity to handle the cleaning duties.

Yes, cost cutting was a factor, but in the larger sense we hoped it would give some of our people the initiative to take more ownership of the Mission.

Plus, for those on disabilities, they had the opportunity to make an extra $100 for volunteering.

A win win as far as we could see it, and thus far -I'm happy to report -it is going great!

Come 4:30pm, the clean team springs to action – tables and chairs are stacked and put away, floor swept and mopped, bathrooms sanitized, garbage thrown out. It’s encouraging to see how it’s giving some of our guests a real satisfaction to be a part of it all and some are even moving on to find employment elsewhere! Seems simple enough huh? Give people a chance and they can surprise you.

Prayer Request

One of our guy's who is behind bars has been calling us quite regularly this week. I'm happy to report that he's encouraged to turn his life around, he spoke of trying to read his Bible every night and getting a job/place to live when he gets out. Please keep him in your prayers, he is someone who has so much potential to do amazing things in his life!