“I always feel like it’s Christmas when you guys come around,” says Nellie as we give her hot soup, a sandwich, a drink, and some warm clothes. “I can’t thank you enough. Your kindness always lifts my spirits so much.”
The closer we get to Christmas, it’s those who make their home on the streets who feel most acutely the longer nights and the colder weather.
I want to take a moment to thank you for the varied and beautiful ways in which you have joined with us to bring warmth, nourishment, encouragement, and love to our friends on Pandora Avenue. Whether through your prayers, dedicated volunteering, or donations, you help fan the flame of love in a place that desperately needs it.
Mantles of God’s love… One example of the outpouring of that love is a group of knitters at Christ Church Cathedral. They have blessed us with beautiful prayer shawls, hand-made with love, to give out to people on Pandora.
“Dear Beloved Child of God,” start the written blessings attached to each shawl. As I hand out the shawls, I ask if I can read to each recipient one of the messages the knitters included with the shawls.
Almost everyone agrees and eagerly soaks up the words:
“May this prayer shawl, made for you with love,
be a mantle and sign of God’s healing presence.
May it warm you when you are weary.
May it surround you with ease in your suffering.
May it encircle you with caring when you are in pain.
May it comfort you when you feel alone.
May it remind you of God’s abiding love.”
To all of you we send a Christmas wish inspired by the love of Jesus and borrowed from the women who pour out his love on the people of Pandora through their prayer shawl ministry:
This Christmas may you be cradled in God’s hope, enfolded in God’s peace, and wrapped in the gracious love of Christ.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
With love from Lisa & Friends
Reminder: If you are participating in our Christmas sock drive, please deliver your filled socks for us to give out on Pandora to Church of our Lord, 626 Blanshard, Victoria, BC by 2pm Monday, December 8th, 2025. (The church office is open for drop-offs on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays between 10am and 2pm, or between 10am and 1pm on Fridays. Feel free to contact me, Lisa.Warden@thresholdministries.ca, to arrange an alternative drop-off time.)
You can also support us by buying your groceries at Fairway using a Fairway Community Shopping Card linked to Street Hope Victoria. Contact Lisa if you would like a card.