Hey Team Punk Monk,

It has been almost 3 months since my last update, so I thought I would give you some photo highlights with some short stories (one one longer one) about what I’ve been up to in my ministry with GOHOP.

Sold Out Show!

I had the privilege of performing my Looking for Kindness Amidst Anxiety show to a sold out room at Eucharist Church in January. Nina, the pastor of Eucharist really wanted this to be an intergenerational event. I’m happy to say that a number of people brought their kids (something we were praying for at GOHOP). I met one little guy who was very excited to show me that he bought my book. His mom shared that a number of people in their home deal with anxiety so my story really resonated with them.

Ash Wednesday Funeral Songs:

Every year on Ash Wednesday I host a very strange open mic called Funeral Songs. There is a real mix of people who attend. It is pretty evenly split between church people, people who have left the church, and folks with no Christian connection. There was one lady who came up to me at the end and said “That was way less churchy then I thought it would be, and I mean that as a compliment!” Turns out she is Muslim, and was having a rough day and just stopped in for some company and the pizza we were sharing. There aren’t a lot of places where you get this mix of people being open and honest with each other. I’m so thankful that God continues to place me in these in between spaces.

The Beauty of Being Part of a Team!

As I was getting ready for this year’s TrueCity Conference and Prayer Room (TrueCity is a network of Hamilton Churches) I was also preparing for a very hard task. I had been asked by a single mom to do the funeral for her 13 year old son who passed away from a very aggressive form of Juvenile Huntington’s Disease. The boy was a classmate of my youngest, so of course I said yes but I didn’t feel equipped to pull together a funeral for someone so young. I quickly messaged all the pastors from the TrueCity network for advice. Within hours, 4 people offered some amazing help. Dena (an Anglican priest) dropped off some books of prayers for me. She even took the time to bookmark all the pages she thought would be helpful. Nina (a Baptist pastor) emailed me a funeral resource her church uses that had specific prayers for child funerals.This resource also had important advice on how to speak to the other kids in the room. Dave (on staff with TrueCity) let me know that Michael (a Christian Reformed Pastor) was actually telling a story at the upcoming conference about a hard funeral he did for a teen. Michael phoned me and really helped me to internalize what I needed to do to be a good support for the grieving mom and school community. 

The teamwork kept going. During the conference, I had so many GOHOP friends and TrueCity pastors come up to me, give me a big hug and tell me they were praying for me. The conference ended with everyone lining up for communion. I was at the front of the line, and after I took communion, I decided to leave early so I could keep preparing for the funeral that was the very next day. As I was walking down the aisle, I had so many pastors and prayer friends quietly pat me on the back, knowing why I was leaving early. I could literally feel that they had my back. 

The Funeral took place during the first shift I was booked as a host for the prayer room. Ian (the Director of GOHOP) said he would take care of finding people to cover me. Again, I experienced the beauty of being part of a team.

I won’t go into all the details of the funeral, but I decided that I really wanted to focus on prayer & stories. It wasn’t a church funeral, so I wanted to give everyone (especially the kids) a way into the prayers. At the beginning of the service I name dropped that I’m a Mennonite Pastor and that prayer is something that is important to me, but that we often make it too complicated.

I invited everyone to hold their hands open with their palms face up. I said that they could do this as a way of being open to a prayer I might be saying, or a story that someone shares. It is sort of a “Yes Please,” or an “Amen!” I then had everyone turn their palms face down. I invited people to do this whenever they heard something that felt too heavy or too hard to hold. They could imagine that heavy thing falling to the ground or being dropped into the hands of their neighbour, parents, or even the hands of God. The beauty of this prayer practice is that you then reset your hands to be open again for the next thing. Each time I was praying, I would model this posture from the front with my hands, and I could see others around the room doing the same. 

Afterwards a few parents told me that they didn’t know what to expect but that the service was exactly what their family needed. I also had two different people come up to me and say that their dad or grandfather had been a mennonite pastor. Both individuals said they were no longer practicing but that they liked being reminded of the pastor in their family. Seemed like God was up to something.

50th Birthday!

I turned 50 years old on Sunday. I was celebrated by friends & family, and had a very good birthday weekend. That being said, 50 is a strange number. It seems like a time where it is important to do some self reflection. I booked some spiritual direction appointments to talk through some of these things. If you are looking for a spiritual director, there are some great ones connected to GOHOP. Many of them will meet over Zoom, so you don’t need to be in the Hamilton area to use this service. You can find out more here: gohop.ca/spiritual-direction

541 Art Show:

The 541 Eatery & Exchange currently has my Kindness Cartoons hanging on the walls. The show runs to about the end of May. I do prayer and outreach in the cafe on Thursdays, and I’m hoping that some good conversations are sparked by my art being up in the room. 

if you would like to check out the show, 541 is open Tue-Sat from 8am until 2pm.  

Fundraising Update:

I’m happy to report that Mennonite Church Eastern Canada has renewed the 541 prayer & outreach funding for another year. This allows me to continue to be at the cafe on Thursday mornings! 

The GOHOP staff team is continuing to lean into our fundraising training with the Sweet Life of Missionary Partnership Podcast. As we use and implement what we are learning, we are also looking ahead to how we could onboard and empower future staff members as well. 

Thank you so much for being part of this partnership team, and empowering me to do this ministry work. There are 3 ways you can sign up for a monthly giving plan or make a donation: 

1.
Donate Online with CanadaHelps:
canadahelps.org/en/dn/53164

2.
Donate by E-transfer:
Send your e-transfer to donate@gohop.ca
You must write “Donation for Randell Neudorf” in the message section.  Please also include your mailing address to get a tax receipt next year.

3.
Donate by Cheque:
randellneudorf.com/gohop/donate

Prayer Requests:

The picture above is from one of the TrueCity Prayer Stations I created this year. People were invited to trace their hand and a wooden cross as they reflected on Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:24, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” 

As the hands and crosses overlapped and filled up the small canvas, people were reminded that Jesus had help carrying his own cross, in the form of Simon (Mark 15:12). 

Praying for each other is one of the ways we help each other carry our crosses.

Here are some ways you can be praying for me:

• Pray for my health. I have been sick or injured a number of times already this year. This is one of the things that has helped me to really focus on the importance of ministering as a team. Pray that I would be able to build up more collaboration and teamwork in the work that I do. 
• We would like to expand the staff team at GOHOP. Pray that the right people would be called into this ministry. 
• Pray for my family. We are thankful that Susan got an extension on her current library position doing kids programming (she is always applying for permanent positions to do the same thing long term. My daughter Zoe is getting married to Luis in less than a month (I’m officiating the wedding). Ethan is working hard at building his business, Buddy Boy Dog Training (he also does dog walking and pet sitting). Troy will be starting highschool in the fall (most of his friends will be going to a different school, so pray that he meets some nice kids). 
• Pray for the Mom who is grieving the loss of her son. Pray that she would be open to meeting with friends and neighbours who are trying to be supportive. 
• I’m leading some prayer and art workshops in May and June. Pray that I have a clear idea of what God would like me to share. 
• GOHOP’s annual Prayer Truck is happening a month earlier this year in June. This is a street level prayer room behind an at-risk youth centre in downtown Hamilton. Pray that we would have a strong volunteer team and that we would do a good job of connecting to youth and other people passing by on the street.
• Pray for my fundraising activities. Pray that I would be consistent with my time. Pray that I would have opportunities to meet with people about becoming monthly donors. 

How could I be praying for you? This partnership team goes both ways!

Thanks for taking the time to get all the way to the bottom of my newsletter! 

Grace & Peace,

Randell (Randy) Neudorf