Cambridge, Ontario - a Unique City in Ontario, Canada

As a workshop presenter and speaker, I often get invitations to speak outside of my home town of Toronto.

Downtown, Cambridge, Ontario

Therefore we have many opportunities to travel and visit other towns and cities in Ontario.


A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to speak in Cambridge, and we visited some of  the beautiful shops and places  in that city.

Cambridge is a city made up of the former city of Galt,  the towns of Preston, Hespeler.and the hamlet of Blair in the 1970's.

We visited Galt, the biggest portion of Cambridge.

Galt Farmers' Market Building

Interested in organic and wholesome food, we visited the Cambridge Farmers Market.

The Cambridge Farmers' Market has a pretty old history ( in Canadian term) and dates back to 1830.

It is located right across from the Galt City Hall building, a beautiful building constructed in 1857.

It is a classical structure in general, with Italian Tuscany influence.

 Galt was named after a famous Scottish novelist, John Galt and it is a very pretty town with many well kept old stone buildings

After visiting the Farmers' Market, we took a stroll in the downtown area. We were delighted to come across an old  beautiful stone archway.

Following the stone pathway, we were led into a spectacular
garden with some breathtaking architecture!

The stone amphitheater in the Mill Race Park

With the Grand River, part of the Canadian Heritage Water System,as the backdrop, there appeared in front of our eyes, a stone amphitheater where concerts and performances are often held during the summer.

Visitors relaxing by the Grand River, Cambridge, Ontario

It is also a very popular location for wedding pictures. People can book the place for wedding picture purpose.

















The Grand River was nominated as the Canadian Heritage River in recognition of its importance. 

Lots of people were enjoying the sunny afternoon, strolling, sitting and relaxing by the river while children feeding ducks swimming by them.

Grand River, Cambridge, Ontario

There are good number of tables for visitors to the park to rest and enjoy their picnic lunches.

Concession Booth in the Mill Race Park

The concession both was open and served some  different fast food!

Delicious poutine with pulled pork topping

 In addition to the regular hamburgers and hot dogs, hot pulled pork sandwiches and pulled pork poutine were also served.

It was nice to have a hot pulled pork sandwich for a change!

 Normally, we eat healthy food and try to avoid french fries and all that. But the pulled pork poutine was just too good to pass over.

Eating area in the Mill Race Park

So we indulged ourselves and ordered both the sandwich and poutine for lunch.

We were not disappointed at all!











After our rest and a bite to eat. we continued our tour of the old city of Galt, Cambridge.

We have never seen so many beautiful stone houses, buildings and structures elsewhere in Ontario and Canada during our travels.

Stone structures and buildings are everywhere!

Trinity Anglican Church, Galt, Cambridge, Ontario

 The old city of Galt is very unique!

 We drove across one of the bridges and visited the Trinity Anglican Church in Galt.















 The church buildings and grounds reminded us of an old English village.

It was a really nice visit to the city of Cambridge!

A beautiful and unique city, Cambridge is only an hour's drive from Toronto. It was a really nice visit!


R.T.
Cambridge, Ontario

Alpha Course - A New Way of Attracting People to Church

Today is Thursday. My husband and I are feeling a little lost . Where should we go and what should we do now that we have the entire day free?  For the past three months, we were involved in a church program called the Alpha Course.

We were both volunteers and last Thursday was an exciting day for many of us! It was the last day of the Alpha Course and there was a special ceremony planned for all the participants.

It is a well known fact that there are fewer and fewer people attending church services on Sundays with many of which experiencing declining attendances for years. It appears that the wealthier a nation is, the fewer of its citizens seem to care for the church.

Guests  were warmly received by our receptionists.

Trying to reach out to their communities and drawing people back to God, many churches start different initiatives, outreach and community social programs.

The Alpha Course was one such program started in London, England in 1976.








It has evolved from a course for new Christians to a world wide ministry focusing on people from outside the church.

Our church, the Toronto Christian Community Church,  offered the Alpha Course about six or seven years ago but with not-so-satisfactory result.

Participants of the Alpha Course enjoying coffee & fellowship in our church gym

But in 2014,  the church relaunched the programed and this time with  renewed determination, courage and perseverance from the leaders involved, the results were much more positive.

Rev. Joseph W. was in charge of the Alpha Course

The Alpha Course is a ten week course.
Each session of the course consists of a dinner, talk, coffee, and a small group meeting.

For the past ten weeks, Rev. Joseph W. led the weekly meeting assisted by a team of pastors, deacons and volunteers from the church.

Pastor Jonathan at one of the meetings

Many people are reluctant to go to church when they don't know anyone there while others may find traditional services a little intimidating.

Greeting new friends at the meeting

On the contrary, the atmosphere of the Alpha course is non threatening, inviting and friendly.

Meeting people in a non threatening environment

The Alpha Course encourages participants to make friends, to have fellowship with others and makes the experience fun for all.







There were between twenty five to forty people from outside the church taking part in the weekly meetings of the spring session of the Alpha Course.

Meeting people in small groups

Most of our guests were invited by people from our church.

Volunteers serving Alpha participants week after week

We had almost as many volunteers working to serve our guests each week.

Washing dishes

Running a 10 week program takes a lot of hard work by a team of dedicated volunteers who committed themselves week after week doing all sorts of planning, organizing as well as chores in the kitchen.

It was the epitome and  demonstration of collaboration and team work! Praise God!

Cooking Team volunteers preparing meals for the participants

While my husband  volunteered on the Set Up Team, I, along with another dozen people were on the Cooking Team preparing food for the ten weeks.

Joseph showed us how to weigh serving portions

Joseph, a professional chef, led the team and served up weekly delicious French cuisine to all participants and volunteers, anywhere between sixty to a hundred people.

It was a joy for me to be working with Joseph on the Cooking Team for the past many weeks!

Dedicated volunteers serving joyfully & faithfully each week

All team members have a passion to serve God!

We worked really well together to get the job done.

We all had loads of fun too!

Volunteers work well together

Dishing out the food to customers

Joseph set a high standard for us: from cutting, dicing, cooking,and to the way we plated the food and serving the meal to our guests.

We served delicious meal each week to the Alpha participants

We all learned a lot about cooking and many other things from him!














The food we served was delicious and of five star restaurant quality!

The tables were beautifully and lovingly laid out for our guests

The Set Up Team set the table nicely with tablecloths while the participants were having their meeting.

The three course meal was ready and served precisely at 11:45a.m each week

Working with military precision both in timing and food quantity, Joseph directed the Cooking Team in the kitchen to prepare and serve a three course meal to all Alpha Course participants every week.

Alpha Course participants and their group leader breaking bread together

We served food to our guests at exactly the time when the meeting was over.

Alpha Course participants enjoying conversation with new friends during meal

It was a real satisfying feeling when we saw how much the course participants enjoying the food we prepared and making new friends at the dining table!

 The church reaching out to new people through the Alpha Course

Most important of all, we were reaching out to non Christians and leading them to Christ!










May God bless and continue to use the Alpha Course to bring people to the gospel!

R.T.
Markham, Ontario

Exlporing Sculptures in Creemore and Visiting a Local Christmas Tree Farm

Entrance to the Creemore Horticultural Garden, Creemore, Ontario

Being a city dweller, I  always find it a treat for us to be in rural towns and enjoy the open space and fresh air.


While in Creemore, Ontario,
( population about 1300 )  we visited the Horticulture Garden in the down town area, about a stone throw away from the world's smallest jail.

The Creemore Children's Dress-Up Dance - Creemore Horticultural Garden

Harmony - Creemore Horticultural  Garden, Creemore

Since I have a real interest in gardening and sculptures, I really enjoyed looking at all the different hardy plants in the garden and admired the efforts residents have put into beautifying this public space for all to enjoy .

Sculpture in front of the Creemore Public Library

I was really surprised to find a few creative and touching sculptures in such a small town.

I like all the sculptures we saw in Creemore.  As an educator, I love the one in front of the Crermore Public
Library - a girl on rolling skates carrying her book to the public library.

What a fun message it sends to the kids! Come on, kids, the library is a fun place to be and you can get there anyway you want!    I loved it!

Pizza Perfect Restaurant, Creemore, Ontario

Part of the fun and joy of travelling is meeting the people from the local community.

This time we met Henry, the owner of Pizza Perfect in downtown Creemore. Henry, an immigrant from Sweden in the 60's, was a welcoming friendly host.

Delicious homemade pizza at a local restaurant.

 We enjoyed our pizza lunch and had a friendly chat with Henry while learning a bit of the local history and stories.

 By the way, customers would get 1/2 price for their second pizza order at the diner.We did as we ordered two pizzas for our lunch.

The pizzas were yummmy! One of the most delicious pizzzas we had ever tasted!


After lunch we visited my friend's tree farm in Creemore.

Our friend's Christmas tree farm in Creemore

It is a hundred acre farm with Christmas trees growing on the land. We had the opportunity visiting the farm and taking a look at the property and the surrounding area.


It takes about 7- 10 years to harvest the Christmas trees.
These trees are about three years old now.

I am not a farmer and know nothing about farming.

However, I learned that on this Christmas tree farm, all the seedlings were planted at the same time receiving the same kind of attention ( or non attention once they are planted and started growing on their own.) during the course of their growing period.

Yet some were thriving while some were stunned in their growth.

Palm trees in my friend's backyard, Nevada, USA

I remembered a few years back, I visited a friend in Nevada, USA. The same thing happened to the palm trees in her backyard.

She planted and cared for  a number of young palm trees in exactly the same way.  Some grew really well while some other did not grow well at all. The difference in the growth was quite significant!

The biggest palm tree was almost 3 times bigger than the others though planted at the same time as the rest.
( See picture on right.)

A healthy 3 year Christmas tree takes on the shape already

We often talk of equity and fairness in school and in our society. But is there always fairness in nature?

The trees reminded me again about our children and young people. Though we think we treat them the same with love and kindness, some will thrive and do well on their own while some may not turn out the way we expect them to be.

We went hiking in a trail nearby the Christmas tree farm

 As parents and teachers, we need to understand that as long as we have tried our best to love and nurture them, the rest is in God’s hand!

R.T.
Creemore, Ontario