Tyndale Chapel Podcast

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Kaisha, I love you so much. What do you say after that kind of introduction, right? It's one of those. I'm honoured and proud to be here with all of you.

I'm excited to talk a little bit about what we've been doing with my team, also as family, and even within the community. I've had the privilege of going out in the grassroot community and seeing actual needs. And not just seeing, or hearing, but really being involved with the community, and working with such great partners like the Toronto carnival, BCCC, which is the black community consultive network committee, who also is a division of Toronto Police, 31 division, which I'm also proud to be a member of as well. It's exciting to know that we don't just talk, it's an actionable cause.

So when we go out into the community, we see these kids that have not played golf, or doesn't even know what a golf club is, or have not even had skates, or even food, believe it or not, even regular greens. And the ones that you know, your parents used to say that you had to eat your vegetables, and you're like, No, I don't want that. These kids have never had the opportunity of learning how to grow, and how to make food themselves. So, I'm excited because we get to teach these kids, of our communities, all the life skills, and help them advance in society right now. What saddens me, truthfully, is that there's so much systematic racism, and so much where people assume that it's okay, because they should know that. No, they don't know that because they were not taught that, or they were unable to be taught that because mom is working seven jobs to feed their child, and they're not there to help them,. Or they're at school, and they may be a little bit excited, if you will. And I know some of you guys who probably have taught or been with kids, you have those students that are too excited, that they are labeled one way, and they think they've been pushed aside and they think that they're bad. So what we do is to go out to that child and show them that love of God, that powerful love of God and saying to that child, guess what I'm going to show you, I'm going to help you, I'm going to teach you to grow even stronger, and let them know what their self worth is. And when you see that smile, that child saying, Oh, me, you chose me to learn more. You, you chose me. But I was just told five minutes ago that I'm stupid, or dumb, or I'm not going to amount to anything. And in you say to that child, it's like, "No guess what you're going to do, you're going to be probably one of the best golfers there is or you're going to be that shaft that you see on TV that you don't think is going to be you. Or you're going to be that President or Premier, or counsellor or whatever". And when you go out into the community, and you engage with them, and you engage with the parents, because sometimes the parents don't even think that they're capable of doing anything else, because they're like, why, I have no money or I don't have time. You have time.

Just think about looking at one another. If you look at your person beside you, and you just smile at them, how does that make you feel? How does that resonate? They just look at you and you get that smile. And you're like, I'm acknowledged, I'm appreciated. See, I saw that. I love that. And that's what we need to do in the community. Now when we go out, and I have to represent the community, a lot of times, I unfortunately get that look of "Are you supposed to be here?" And I laugh and I'm like, Yeah, actually I am. Thank you very much. But you don't look like me. You can't be in this. And I've actually been told that, I'll tell you a little quick story. I was working at a company, really big company. And I went as a trainer to be, because that was my thing. I wanted to be a trainer and teach people how to learn curriculum and start new programs. And I did the interview, I did the presentation. And believe it or not, it was one of the best. I was told it was actually one of the best. But because I didn't look the part, I didn't get the job. And that devastated me. Because what was I supposed to look like? What was I supposed to represent? Who am I? So for years I've had, and I'm gonna be transparent with you. I had a bit of rejection in a lot of roles that I thought that I was capable of doing, because my mom was always that person like "No, no, you could do all things through Christ that strengthens you." And I tried. Rejection, rejection. And then when the Lord touched me, he says, he said to me, "Do you not know who you are? I made you. I know every strand of hair on your head. So you're gonna go out, you're gonna do the same thing and you're gonna encourage your community, my community, my people, and doesn't matter who They are, we're going to make sure that you go out there and you're going to encourage strengthen, educate, lift them up, bring them to where they need. And I'm so grateful for that. And we continuously do that.

We have numerous projects with them, within the community. York, I'm going to I'm going to name them out, York, Durham, Peel, gosh, naming everywhere, I even have an Atlanta, which I'm supposed to be going away, sorry, kids, mummy is going away for that weekend, that I have to do some training programs there. And we're going to be helping not only youth, but kids and parents to learn ways of bettering themselves, learning how to know their rights, understanding how they're going to be able to educate themselves, where they can move to the next level.

We are doing projects with Toronto carnival, I'm sure some of you guys are aware of who that is, every year it's the same thing. We're doing workshops of understanding engineering of the costumes, believe it or not, and understanding how much time and effort it takes to use math, when you're creating these type of costumes. We also have a project with Ontario Science Center, where it comes to STEM program. And these kids are going to be learning about, that you could be that scientist, you could be that next programmer, that you didn't know that you could be, and I'm excited and proud to showcase a lot of their their talents, that they may not have had the opportunity to do. I'm trying to think of other things that we could say we have to, I have to give God so much glory, because he's opened doors that I never thought that I would be able to go in, because what I was always told as a kid, that you weren't good, you weren't smart, you weren't pretty enough, you weren't capable. And He's opened doors where, guess what, I am smart, I am pretty enough. And I am capable. And I have met individuals, where they felt the same way and didn't realize that they could do more. And every time I'm out in the community, I have the opportunity of talking about God, and how awesome He is. And saying, "You know, what, do you know that you were chosen? By him? Do you know that your skill set is going to move more mountains than you could possibly imagine?" And I'm really proud and grateful for that. And that's pretty much what I have to say for today. So I thank you for this opportunity. If there's any questions. I'm not sure if we could take some if we have that moment. If anyone has questions about what else I do within the community of Toronto and Durham, I'm more than happy to ask. Alright. Any questions?

Yes, please.

Great question. So we do have after school programs, we do have weekend programs. It depends on the parents in the community. So in some communities, it is a little bit tougher, in the sense of crime. So we tried to make it in the day. So we'll do like engineering programs on Saturday mornings from like a nine to a three. So we implement that so that their safety on there's some programs like cooking that we could do a little bit in the evening. So we'll set that up for them as well. Yeah, absolutely.