Salt Cellar Artspresents Looking for Kindness Amidst Anxiety, a one man show by Old Reverend Randell (aka Randell Neudorf) in the storytelling tradition of the Vinyl Cafe withStuart McLean.
Throughout the evening Old Reverend Randell will share about his mental health journey through songs, stories, and lots of cartoon drawings taken straight out of his art journal. The aesthetic of the show is quirky and nostalgic with the use of vintage guitars, a telephone mic, and even an old school overhead projector.
I hope you had some meaningful times of rest and reflection over the Christmas Holidays. I had a couple weeks off. It was very nice and delightfully uneventful.
The new year is going to be very busy for me but in a good way. If you live near Hamilton I have a show I would like to invite you to.
One Man Show Returns to Hamilton:
It was a little over a year ago that I debuted my Looking for Kindness Amidst Anxiety show at the 541 Eatery & Exchange in Hamilton. I’m very excited to let you know that this unique show is coming back to Hamilton on Friday, January 30th. It is being hosted by Salt Cellar Arts, a ministry of Eucharist Church.
You can find out all the details on the Eventbrite Page. Please consider passing this on to anyone you think might enjoy an evening of kind stories, songs and drawings. If you would like to see the show or bring a friend, there are some Early Bird Tickets on sale right now for only $10 each!
Pray for my health. There are so many different bugs going around.
Pray that God would gather the right group of people to come hear my story.
As I have been planning this show with Salt Cellar Arts, we decided to encourage families to attend with discounted tickets for teens & kids. Pray that this would really be a meaningful intergenerational experience for people.
Pray that I would reflect the Creator well with my creativity.
Sowing Seeds of Kindness:
During Advent I had the opportunity to show my Kindness Cartoons at a couple Christmas Markets. Afterwards I ran into a mom whose daughter had bought one of my pieces. The mom told me I had made a big impression on her daughter and thanked me for spending so much time with her. It was just another reminder that being part of these arts spaces is an important part of my ministry. Thank you for empowering me to be in these less traditional ministry spaces.
Just recently I was at a party and was asked the dreaded question, “What do you do for a living?” After I gave a pretty vague answer about working for a prayer ministry, they started asking lots of follow up questions about the specific things I am a part of each month. When I got to the part about listening prayer, this stranger got really pulled in. I shouldn’t be surprised, listening prayer is contagious. It is pretty amazing to find out that the God of the Universe loves to communicate with us!
I’m coordinating two leadership teams at GOHOP, and both are all about the weird & wonderful world of listening prayer.
Prayer for Pastors & Leaders meets on Friday mornings. Each week we pray with a different person working for a church or ministry. We start with some silence and a time of listening prayer. We ask the Lord to bring to mind a word of encouragement – prayers, scriptures, feelings, thoughts, or images. These promptings are then shared in an open posture of humility. We leave it to the person being prayed for to discern if the words resonate as something from God. Week after week I see God using this time to really encourage leaders who are continually giving of themselves to others (but often not having the same done for them). Most years I have to do a lot of outreach to fill our weekly schedule. This year we have had so many people reaching out to be prayed for that we are often booking about 2 months ahead. God is really up to something.
Barnabas Listening Prayer is a monthly learning lab that helps people grow in the practice of listening prayer. Often people think that you need to have a special gift to “hear” God, but we have found that listening is more of a muscle that needs to be exercised. There are tips & tricks that help stretch our own unique ability to listen in prayer. Just last week we had 3 new people attend and it was very encouraging.
HOW YOU CAN PRAY:
Please pray for both teams as we have had a number of new additions to their leadership. It is exciting to see these new people jump right in with great ideas and energy. Pray that we would continue to gel as a team.
Prayer for Pastors and Leaders has been running for almost 25 years now (It is GOHOP’s oldest prayer ministry). I am looking to add an additional 1 or 2 people to this team. Pray that we would find the right volunteers who are passionate about supporting leaders.
Pray for Pastors & Leaders in your community. Our ministers, boards, executive directors and charity workers are doing really hard and important work.
Fundraising Is Hard but Partnership is Sweet!
The GOHOP staff team has been going through a YWAM podcast about personal fundraising called “The Sweet Life of Missionary Partnership.” The tag line they say over and over again is “Fundraising in hard… but partnership is sweet!!!” I’m only a couple episodes in but this language has been really encouraging. I thank God for you as a partner in this ministry. Thank you for partnering with your donations. Thank you for partnering with your kind messages. Most of all, thank you for partnering with your prayers!
If you would like to find out more about starting a Monthly Giving Plan you can do that HERE (even better, let’s meet for coffee).I’m a big believer in being upfront about money, so if you would like to see my budget and fundraising goals it is all posted HERE.
Lastly, thank you to the person who made the anonymous donation in December. It was a very nice surprise. I don’t know who you are, but I have a sneaky suspicion that you are someone who is part of this partnership team.
I snuck into ministry through the back door. My university degree is in Visual Arts, so I definitely didn’t have a conventional career path that led me to working for the Greater Ontario House Of Prayer (GOHOP). I try to live holistically, viewing my life as a Punk Monk, Musician, and Artist, as one job.
This year I’m part of a couple Christmas Markets in Hamilton that are raising funds for very good causes. The first one is this weekend!
Eucharist Church Christmas Market: Raising Funds for Sponsored Refugee Family. 130 Victoria St. N. Sat Nov 29th (11am-4pm) Sun Nov 30th (Noon-3pm)
541 Holiday Market: (buy your tickets here) A fundraiser for 541 Eatery & Exchange. 286 Sanford Ave N. (At the WestingHouse HQ near 541) Sat Dec 13th (11am-5pm)
Meeting Place Update:
Through a partnership between GOHOP and The Meeting Place (my church), I have been doing weekly times of prayer and outreach at 541 Eatery & Exchange for over a year now. Many of the people that I connect with from the church and the eatery are very transient. Sometimes people just disappear for long periods of time due to high levels of homelessness, poverty, addiction and mental health struggles. That is why it is so important to be consistent. Church is always on Sunday at 4pm. I’m always available for prayer or a conversation on Thursday mornings around the big table at 541. This week that consistency paid off. We had multiple people drop by to reconnect. Some had been away for months, others years, but they all knew where to find community.
My prayer & outreach hours at 541 are funded through a grant from Mennonite Church Easter Canada. We have applied for this funding to be renewed in 2026. Please pray that this funding request would be approved.
Pray for people to access housing and medical care. Thankfully one of our regulars will be moving into a very good apartment in December, but there are so many others that need housing. There are also so many addiction and medical issues that people are dealing with. Just last Sunday, we had to call an ambulance for a man who was lying on the floor during our service. He didn’t have the energy to get up but thankfully he agreed to go to the hospital. That same night we were supporting a man who was also in obvious distress from a fentanyl addiction but he wouldn’t agree to go to the hospital.
The Meeting Place (and 541) don’t exist without a healthy mix of people being involved. Pray that more stable folks would join the church, people with the time and energy to help. Yes there are hard things about being a church that makes room for people on the margins but there are also real blessings in this kind of church. It feels like the type of church Jesus would hang out at.
Thank You for Sending Me!
I recently was listening to a podcast about ministry fundraising that emphasised that it is our supporters who are the ones that are sending us. This made me think of you. If you are reading this, you are a part of “Team Punk Monk,” You are the community that is sending me out into the world to do ministry. Thank you for sending me! Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for empowering me to:
lead weekly prayer workshops
connect with people on the margins
host drop in prayer room hours
develop prayer resources
support pastors & leaders
use my creative gifts
If you would like to make a year end gift to support my work with GOHOP you can do that here:
Randell Neudorf 