“We know people are hurting and we know that we can be God’s love and light in a dark place.”

Janet Mabie
Special to Spur Ottawa

For the second year in a row, churches came up with creative ways to participate in The Big Give. The event, which started in Ottawa but spread across the country, rallies churches for one day of giving and kindness in their community. With all the events happening on the same day, it sends a message of love from God’s people to cities across Canada. Despite COVID restrictions, approximately 50 churches participated this year, including 29 from the Ottawa area.

“Since we were [still] not permitted to gather in large groups, churches found other ways to give,” says Kathy Blakely, organizer and co-founder of The Big Give.

For Jeffrey Choi, youth pastor at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, The Big Give created an opportunity to talk to his teens about serving others. After teaching through a Bible study series called “Gifted to Serve”, Choi encouraged the teens to glorify God by serving others with the gifts God has blessed them with.

“Serving isn’t just a kind act to help others or to make society a better place to live. We serve because it is what Jesus came to do,” Choi states.

Unfortunatly, with the COVID restrictions, the youth could not gather in person to serve the community. So, Choi encouraged them to participate by donating non-perishable food and praying for those who would receive the food.

“Our motto for The Big Give this year has been to, ‘Pray Big. Dream Big. Give Big.’” Photo Courtesy of The Big Give.

Blakely says the biggest challenge this year was that some churches are really hurting.

“They would love to put on a Big Give event but because their doors have been locked for so long, the financial and human resources are just not there.”

Yet, many churches still found ways to participate. They collected non-perishable food donations for local food banks and distributed personal care packages to men’s and women’s shelters. Others assembled cleaning kits for clients of a local community house, gave out gift cards to first responders, and a group of children even gave hand-made artwork to long-term care residents.

There were “ice-cream giveaways, plant giveaways, and one church gave away 200 picnics in a box,” Blakely adds.

“Our motto for The Big Give this year has been to, ‘Pray Big. Dream Big. Give Big,’” explains Blakely. “We are not blinded by what is going on, but we choose to spend our time and energy on where we can help. We know people are hurting and we know that we can be God’s love and light in a dark place.”

“There were ice-cream giveaways, plant giveaways, and one church gave away 200 picnics in a box.” Photo courtesy of The Big Give.

And God’s love really came through. St. Mary’s Parish, in Fisher Heights, is another example of a church that built on an innovative approach they used last year. When COVID hit and they could no longer hold The Big Give at the church, Andre Pion and his Big Give team decided to hold a “Little Give”. They organized bike-themed giveaways and offered repairs in Pion’s home driveway. Word spread and they soon had bikes donated by friends and other parishes.

Pion says they were surprised by the turnout this year, which kept “four guys busy for four hours”. They also distributed a number of donated bikes.

“I spent April and May tuning up the donated bikes in my garage,” Pion adds. “I now have neighbourhood teens who help out and are being trained in bike repair. We have been able to give away 36 bikes, some of them even before the Big Give date.”

Plans for The Big Give 2022 are already being discussed and prayed for. With restrictions starting to roll back, the leadership team plans to start recruiting for next year’s event this fall so thousands of churches across Canada can participate.

“We believe the pandemic has helped each of us realize how good we have it here in Canada. It also shed light on the less fortunate,” says Blakely. “We believe The Big Give’s greatest moments of love and service are ahead of us.”