December Prayer Letter! Merry Christmas everyone!

Hello Everyone! This is my December update letter!!  I send out a letter out, every four months along with some other YFC stuff to everyone who signs up to receive it! I decided for now that because there are alot of you who follow this blog but aren't yet signed up for this letter that I will post it here! 


For those of you who have already signed up, a letter is in the mail so quit reading so you don't spoil it! :D (You know who you are...)

Also if you would like to sign up to receive my YFC letters please email me your name, address including postal code, phone number and email to

ryan.russell@yfccanada.org 

thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays everyone!

“I am going to ask you a hard question, what is it that you want?”

Photo by Lianne Gildemeister

I want to tell you about a man I met who was a very interesting answer to prayer and also the one who asked me this question. Flashback a year and a half or so…

I was on my way to the streetlight trailer from the train station. I walked to where streetlight parks… nothing, it wasn’t there. I looked at my watch and it read 6:45pm. Great I was early; there was still 15 mins before the night officially started. Normally when this happens I might go to McDonalds but for what ever reason I was lead to go over to a spot beside of the train tracks. When I got there I had gotten the feeling of this place being dark, a hopeless place where people went to drugs and to get drunk. There was also physical evidence of this as well on the ground. Empty and new fresh water containers empty bear cans, as well as mouth pieces for smoking crack. I was immediately heartbroken. I just started to pray, I don’t remember what exactly I said but it was something like this “God please restore this place, God please let you glory and spirit fall on this place, God I want you to let those who come here to “escape” know that they are worth it, worth something, that you love them, that you have so much more; a plan for them, I want you to chase after everyone who comes here God, and Jesus I want your love to somehow to be reviled here, God let me see something beautiful here…Jesus please… I must have been praying for that spot there for 15mins because the StreetLight trailer suddenly appeared. Amen! Then I went on my way to streetlight.

I was just reminded to this prayer the other night while I was talking to Thomas. Thomas is an older Homeless man (though very intelligent) I met a month or so ago while I was at Streetlight. I brought him some warm food to eat one night and shared a meal with him at his “home” beside the train tracks, and In return he decided to share his story with me. I watched him tell me his story with tears pouring down his face. It was a beautiful tale of God’s love and redemption in his life, how he sees him self as lucky because Jesus took him out of the lost and found, and claimed him You know that prayer I made a year or so previous, God made it very obvious to me that this man in a very crazy way was an answer to that prayer. I was even in the same location! Our God is Awesome!

Now if it is a slower night or we have an abundance of staff at Streetlight I walk over to see Thomas. As I got to know him a bit I learned that he actually sleeps beside the train tracks; his cart chained to the fence with a sign strapped to the front that reads “Jesus is Lord” I want to briefly mention this because, I would love if you would keep him in your prayer as the winter nights become much, much colder. One of the many thought provoking questions he asks me is “what is it that you want?” For me this is a very wild question, what can this man even give me? He knows very well what its like to have absolutely nothing just to come “home” again. Is he going to give me three wishes for my kindness? Ha-ha I am ridiculous sometimes. I was about to answer when he said “it isn’t a prerequisite you answer.” This brings us to what I wanted to talk about, the question`` what is it that you want? ``

The more I thought about this question the more I started to think the question he was asking in disguise was “what is your dream” this is a very interesting question for a homeless man to ask. I have been thinking about this a lot recently. And lately now while I am at StreetLight I try and ask this question to the youth that are there.

I realize now just how important it is to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream then I feel you have nothing to strive for, nothing to look forward to, you have a sense of purposelessness, a lack of motivation, and many other things. I think that this can play a part of why there are youth that come to streetlight, that think that where they are in life is as far as they can ever get; that they will always be homeless. It breaks my heart when I here a youth say that they don’t have a dream or they say something like ``I like where I am in life smoking drugs and drinking is just fine for me! `` I want to grab a hold and shake them and say God has a plan for you! Other youth when I ask that question they reply sometime simple things like “I want to stop doing drugs, I want to get my child back, I want to be a chef” sometimes sad, and sometimes beautiful. But I am so glad that they have a dream, because I know what is like to go though life without a dream. Before God became real to me before he showed me my heart for the homeless now my dream is: I want, there to be no more homeless teens/ adults in Calgary! Crazy, big impossible right? As I think about these things, I think God just smiles. Maybe there will never be an end to homelessness, but we can be there for those who are feeling lonely, feeling unloved, and having no one. Being abused the list goes on…That’s what we are called to right?

I thank for reading my letter and allowing me to share some of my stories, as well as what I have been learning for the past couple of months! Thank you so, so much to everyone who has decided to partner with me and sent support my way, whether in prayer and or financially it means so much to me! But there is still a need, I am roughly 1500.00 dollars short of what I need monthly,  If God is challenging you to partner with me please go to the Canadahelps website: CLICK HERE!  and of you need help with how to do it once you have reached the site CLICK HERE. Also check the side of this blog for other ways you can support me!


Thank you!

I want to wish you and your family an amazing Christmas season, I hope that this new year is one that fills you life with Love, your heart with Hope and our world with peace and joy! Thank you so much and God bless you!!!

Love in Christ
Ryan Russell-Timbrell