Get Ready. Get Set. Go.

By Linda Reed

What a summer! Heavy Rain, Soaring Heat, Hours of Olympics, and . . . a changed Heart.

My heart was deeply moved through visiting a large house for incoming refugees, Adam House, in Toronto. How can it be people arrive at Pearson with nowhere to go? Housing and work are now real crises.

My heart is moved knowing the world’s unreached people groups are more greatly represented in Toronto than in any other major world city!¹

So, as we put our toes on the starting line for another ESL year, we face great challenges. Remember: “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” (I Thes 5:18). So,

“Get Ready.” Take a few moments to get on your knees, offering yourself to God for “Wherever, Whenever, Whatever” He has for this year. Get ready and update a website or put up flyers. Gather a team. Set the table. Greet your guests. “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, to spread out to the right and to the left…” (Isa 54:1). Get Ready for heaven where “a great multitude from every nation and all tribes and people gather before the Lamb and cry out together, Salvation to our God and to the Lamb.” (Rev 7:9)

“Get Set.” As we go about the tasks of selecting curriculum (see SOCEM website), setting up teams or lesson plans, remember to “Set your minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth…there is no distinction between Greek, Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ who is all in all.” (Col 3:1, 11).

“Go.” Putting our feet in those starting blocks, like Olympians: “Go into all the world and make disciples.” (Matt 28:19-20). Remember that Canadian relay team 4×100 gold medal run – it took a team and the handoffs made the difference. None of us can meet these immense needs alone. Pass the torch as you “go.”

So whether it is serving tea to a stranger, taking in the homeless, or caring for practical needs by teaching English, may God bless you richly as you run your race this year! I hope the next time we see one another we will say,

What a year! God changed hearts!

---

1. Joshua Project, Unreached People group data cited in “Open Toronto Initiative brochure,” ABWE Canada, 2024. ↩︎