Father Rodger

Rodger Hunter (right) with former resident Owen Malone, 2007.

I received some terrible news by e-mail this past Wednesday. The founder of the Boarding Homes Ministry, Reverend Rodger Hunter, passed away suddenly. He had been diagnosed with cancer late last year. But he said they had caught it early. With surgery and treatment he was optimistic he would be back on his feet in no time.

I first met Rodger in or around the year 2000. He had come to speak at our church about his ministry. Ours was just one of many that he visited in order to drum up interest of volunteer groups. After his sermon four of us - Richard, Debbie, Armin and I decided to form a team.

We were assigned a home, Carter Manor, at 103 Tyndall Avenue in the Dufferin and King area. The building was home to around three dozen residents (at the time) all with varying degrees of mental disabilities. We were to go in and interact with the residents, just talk with them and see how they were doing. Some didn't have many friends or family.

I don't know if any of us knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into. But Rodger guided us through the first number of visits before letting us go on our own.

At first we were going every Sunday afternoon after church. That got to be a bit much so we switched to Sunday afternoons and, the following week, Monday evenings. By this time I believe we were down to only two of us visiting, Richard and myself. Eventually we gave up Monday evenings, just going every other Sunday afternoon.

Over the years volunteers came and left. Peter and Karen Tjon came for awhile. So did Steve Chong and later Mary Ko Bong. Mary was an elderly lady. She actually passed away at the ripe old age of 92. The circumstances were a bit tragic. Peter and Karen left our church for another. Steve and Richard got busy with married life. After awhile it was just me. That's when Rodger came back into the fold to join me.

Most of the time it was just us two. Later on he would get seminary students. It was sort of like a hands on ministry experience for them. They would join us for part of their school year. Our first student was Jamie. Then it might have been Kate, followed by Abbey, Emily and, most recently, Cathy (whose final visit was supposed to be two Sundays ago). I'm not sure if I missed anyone or not. For one or two years the school didn't send us any students for some reason. So that program started quite a long time ago.

Fast forward to last November (2017). The boarding homes volunteers received this e-mail:

Boarding Homes Teams
Via EMAIL

November 22, 2016

To all Boarding Homes volunteers,

Thank you for all your faithful service and fellowship you have with your homes. Your smile, kind words, and laughter will bring smiles to many residents this coming holiday season. For many of our friends in the homes, this may be the only gift they receive. Thank you.

Rodger and I write to you to share some sad news. Rev. Rodger Hunter has been diagnosed with Stage 2 lymphoma. The lump is in his chest, and as the cancer has been caught very early, we are confident that Rodger will make a full recovery. He will undergo surgery at some point in early December and then will work with his doctors to determine the best treatment for him going forward.

We covet your prayers for Rodger and know that he is in God’s loving hands.

Rodger will be taking some time off to concentrate on his health, starting early December, and as such will not be making regular visits to homes. We know that many of the teams are self-sufficient and can and will continue to visit your homes regularly. For the two homes that Rodger currently visits either by himself or with one team member, we are looking for volunteers to help ensure our ministry continues in these places. The visits occur on Wednesdays at 1 pm and Fridays at noon, every other week. If you can add a visit to your schedule, please let Rodger or I know.

While Rodger is away, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. As a Board, we will answer questions we can and help address issues.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. We will update you regularly on Rodger’s health, as news becomes available.

In Christ,

Rodger's last visit to Carter Manor was at Christmastime. We held our annual Christmas dinner where he bought Swiss Chalet dinners for all the residents. We had three special dinners a year - one at Easter, one at Thanksgiving (which also coincided with the the anniversary of our first visit), and one at Christmastime. In later years we also held an annual end of summer barbecue hosted by his friend, Maureen.

I traded a few e-mails with Rodger while he was away. In one he mentioned his surgery would be on January 14th. In a following one it seems like they changed the date to Friday, January 13th, followed by six weeks of "letting things heal back up."

On Saturday, February 18th he wrote:

Friends in Christ,

I trust things are well with you.

Just an update.  I begin six weeks of radiation therapy on the 27th.  I may be able to return to work on a limited basis during this treatment but I’ll just have to see where my energy level is.

I have appreciated the prayerful support from the boarding home communities.
  
Grace abound, Rodger

Then, last week, on Wednesday, April 5th we received the devastating news.

Dear Boarding Homes teams,

It is with great sadness and shock that I share the news that Rodger has lost his battle with cancer and passed away earlier this week.  In his and my last correspondence just last week, he was as upbeat as only he can be and we were discussing the dates for the annual meeting.

I'm attaching the note from Rev. Will Ingram and will share details of any funeral arrangements as they come available.

Please remember his daughter in your prayers.

Please share this news with your fellow team members as I feel I may not have captured everyone's emails here.

In Christ,
Kim Oliver

... with this attachment:

Dear friends:

It is with profound sadness that we share the news that the Rev. Rodger Hunter passed away yesterday morning at Sunnybrook Hospital. Rodger had been suffering with cancer for the past few months, but his death comes as a shock to all of us.

Rodger was a dedicated and committed servant of Jesus Christ and performed an amazing ministry with some of Toronto’s most marginalized people. For many years he was the Chaplain of Boarding Homes Ministry and conducted his ministry with tremendous compassion and prophetic vision.

Arrangements will be shared when they are available.

We know that this news will come as a surprise and shock to many of the members of our community. In your prayers today please give thanks for Rodger’s example, his witness and his life; and keep his daughter Christie and the many people whose lives he touched in your thoughts and prayers.
We live in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.

In Christ,

Will Ingram

The news is hard to fathom - Disbelief, utter sadness and shock. So many emotions. 17 years, then gone in an instant. A gaping hole.

His compassion and devotion to the neglected was deep. He affected positive change to countless disaffected spirits. Those people, and many more, will miss him greatly. I will be one among them.

Cathy has graciously agreed to join me this Sunday to visit Carter Manor (even though the previous visit was supposed to be her last). I posted a message about Rodger's passing on Facebook, so word got out to the home. I'm not sure what we're going to do. Hopefully we'll be able to console one another and, perhaps, send prayers his way. I feel sort of lost.

Another Season Comes to an End

We just finished our latest season of Friday Night Hockey. We started mid-October last year and played for half a year - 25 weeks.

Things didn't start off very smoothly. We ran into goalie trouble right out of the gate having to rent twice in the first few weeks. And, one of those times, the rental goalie didn't even show up. We didn't hear from him or the company, Goalies Unlimited, either. Not good.

Shortly after came news that one of our regular goalies, Godfrey, was having knee problems. He would be unable to continue playing. We encountered a problem like that a couple of years earlier when another goalie, Dave, backed out as our season started also because of knee problems. Thankfully, this time, Godfrey's nephew (and Peter's son), Harrison, was able to fill in.

Age is catching up to our group. Another member, Jim, signed up and paid, but was unable to make it to any of the games. Originally he was hoping to join us around Christmastime. But December turned into January, turned into February, turned into March. Thankfully I was able to collect enough money from weekly subs to be able to refund him what he paid.

Other than that, things went pretty smoothly. We picked teams and played a number of Best-of-5 series. That gave most people a bit more motivation to go out and skate harder.

The rink attendant was new this year. We got the ice a little earlier than our 10:30 start time most weeks. But we would always be kicked off at the stroke of midnight and not a second later. Highly unusual to say the least.

On our last day we continued a tradition we started last year. Before the game most of us met for dinner at the nearby Congee Queen. It gave us some time to talk and bond a little more than when you're just sitting on the bench between shifts or changing in the dressing room.

Until next season!

Board Games After Dinner

After we ate dinner Gabe, Doris and I went over to Justin's place to play board games. Doris has quite a few which is great.

Not wanting to put a lot of brain power to use after eating, we asked Doris if she had any relatively simple ones. The first game she brought out was Deep Sea Adventure.

The concept is pretty simple. Each person is a diver aboard a submarine. The object of the game is to dive beneath the sub and pick up treasure. The trick is to do it and return before all the air in the submarine runs out. If that happens any treasure you may have picked up is dropped and you return empty-handed.

The submarine holds 25-units of air. For each piece of treasure a player picks up (on his way down or up) one unit of air is used before his turn. If four people have one piece of treasure each, four units of air are used up before a player's turn.

You roll a pair of dice (numbered 1 to 3 instead of the traditional 1 to 6) to determine how many spaces below the submarine you travel to pick up treasure. The further you go away from the sub the more valuable the treasure. Though, the further you go down, the further you have to go to return.

Anyway, that's the basic concept. Go down; pick up treasure; make sure you return before the air runs out. If you survive, you get to keep whatever you pick up. After three rounds each person's total is tallied and the person with the most points wins.

We played three games. I won three games. Justin was sad.

The next game Doris brought out was Sheep & Thief. It's a little more complicated than Deep Sea Adventure, but still fairly easy to get the hang of. It's made for 2-4 people with the optimal number of players being four.

Each player is given a 4x4 game board and dealt cards that you have to place on the board. Some cards are for buildings roads and rivers. Others give you sheep, sheep dogs, safe houses or thieves or any combination of them. The object of the game is to get the most points by the end of the game.

You get points by building roads from your starting point at the top-left corner of the game board to towns at any of the other corners. There are 5-points awarded for building a road straight across to the top-right corner or one down to the bottom-left corner. If you manage to build a longer road to the bottom-right corner that's worth 10-points.

Points are also awarded if you manage to connect river cards together - 2-points for each card connected to another. There are also cards with sheep on them - anywhere from one to three. If you play them you get sheep. If you manage to keep your sheep until the end of the game you get 1-point for each.

That's where the thief and sheep dog cards come in. There is a thief symbol on the board. If you play a thief card you can move that thief symbol around to any card that has sheep on them. If the sheep aren't on a card with a safe house on it, the thief can take them for his own.

If you play the sheep dog card it allows you to move all the sheep on one of your cards to another card (hopefully to a safe house card). That's how you try to protect your herd.

The game starts with each player being dealt five cards. He picks one and passes four to the player on his left. From the four cards he receives from the player on his right, he picks one and passes three to his left and so on. This goes until he receives the last card discarded from the player on his right, then play begins.

The first player plays a card on his board and they go around until each players has played four cards. Then they deal out four more cards from the deck and the process starts again. Each player will pick one card. But instead of passing four discarded cards to the left, this time he passes them to the right and so on.

When that's done they continue laying their cards down once again. After four more have been played they deal out four more cards and the passing starts to the left once again.

This is the last round. The last four cards will be played for a total of 13 on everyone's board (3 rounds x 4 cards, plus the starting card on the top-left corner).

After the cards are played, players tally up their scores (which is usually between 20-30 points). The person with the highest total wins.

I won the first game. And then the second. Justin was even more sad.

Both games were decent. I liked Sheep & Thief a bit more. It's a little more involved than Deep Sea Adventure. One problem I had with that game is that you run out of air way too quickly (especially with four players). I think they should have at least 40-50 units of air then. Most of the time there was only enough air to go down and pick up one or two pieces of treasure at most.

Dinner at Ten-Ichi Sushi

My friends and I went to Ten-Ichi Sushi in Scarborough for dinner on Saturday. It's an all-you-can-eat restaurant, which many of you know, is my favourite. Though, at $28.95 a pop, this place was a little more pricey that I was hoping for.

Our original plan was to meet there at 6:00 p.m. I had a few errands to run beforehand and arrived ten minutes early. No one else was there, so I got a table for four. It was only after I sat down that I noticed the text that Gabe sent - Doris was running late and the new meet up time was 6:30.

He had actually sent a WhatsApp message earlier, but I don't have data. So, if I'm out, I have to be contacted on my cell. He didn't remember that until too late. I ordered some tea, nigiri and maki rolls and snacked by myself while I waited.

Justin arrived next. He was actually early too. But he had grabbed a coffee and cookie next door at the Timmies and waited there. If I had only known.

Gabe showed up next. By himself. Originally he was going to come with Doris, but decided he couldn't keep us waiting by ourselves for too long. We ordered a few more items and then she showed up.

I have to admit they have an extensive selection of items at Ten-Ichi. There are things such as the quick-seared sushi items that I won't get at the restaurants I go to. The photos in the menu are a bit deceptive as well. They look really amazing. What you actually get when the food comes to your table isn't so much. It doesn't affect the taste of course but, hey, presentation does count for something.

Still, the top tier items (at Ten-Ichi and at other sushi restaurants) is the sashimi. That's what you pay the most for. So, really, I'm not sure a few more special maki rolls or dessert items are worth the extra bucks.

Gone with the Wind

Map of Trafalgar Road and Church Street in Oakville.

My Week-1 delivery route took me through Mississauga to Oakville today. Compared to my Week-2 route, it's much shorter. That one takes me into Burlington, Hamilton and Ancaster. A longer day to be sure.

I started my day as usual, arriving at work shortly after 10:00. It was nice out. At almost 14C the temperature was usually warm for the beginning of March. It was windy though. Quite windy.

Being the lighter week, I wasn't so rushed. I had one extra delivery in Brampton at Dr. Tejpal's office. I go there once every four weeks instead of two. After him it's Mavis Bristol Dental.

By late afternoon I was finishing up in Oakville. Having completed a sizeable delivery at Big Hit Kickboxing I made my way to Dr. Kaloti's. Their office is a repurposed house on the northeast corner of Trafalgar Road and Church Street.

After dropping off the towels I went back to my vehicle which I parked in the driveway beside the house. Sitting on the pavement by the driver's side door I noticed an envelope. It was addressed to 128 Trafalgar Road.

I knew we were on Trafalgar Road, but I didn't know exactly where 128 was. I decided I'd go back into the office to see if the receptionist knew. While walking back I saw the building across the street had a sign indicating 126 Trafalgar Road. Another nearby sign read 132.

The receptionist didn't seem to know where 128 was. She said she'd take the letter and toss it back into the mailbox. So I left it with her and walked back out. That's when I noticed another sign on the building across the street that read 128 - Institute for Hormonal Health. That was it. I went back in and grabbed the letter and told the receptionist it belonged to the building across the street.

While waiting for the light to change so I could cross the street I noticed a lady with a lot of mail go into 128. When the light changed I walked over and went in and told her I found the letter across the street. She thanked me for returning it and I left.

As I was waiting to cross the street I noticed another letter on the street. I ran over to pick it up and saw another one... and another one. These ones were scattered on the road and sidewalk at the intersection of Church and Trafalgar. I gathered them up and ran back to the office and gave them to the lady.

After all that excitement I went back to my van and started towards my final destination. I barely got out onto Church Street when I noticed another envelope on the road. I put my hazards on and stopped and hopped out and scooped it up. Of course it was addressed to 128 Trafalgar.

Not far from that one was another. I think it was on the road. I ran and grabbed it. Then on the walk back to the van I saw another one on the sidewalk. I believe this one was number seven.

I hopped back into my van and drove around the block back towards 128. On the way back up Trafalgar I saw another envelope on the sidewalk. I stopped my van again and put the hazards on and ran across the street. An elderly lady was approaching the letter. She got there just before me and bent over and picked it up.

Before she turned it over to look at it I said something like, "It's addressed to 128 Trafalgar Road". She turned it over to see it was. I told her a lot of their mail was scattered around the area and I was picking it up and bringing it back to them, so she gave it to me and continued on.

I saw one more letter on the sidewalk and grabbed it and drove a few metres back across Church Street and parked with my hazards and went back in the office. Again.

That was it... nine pieces of mail scattered all around the neighbourhood. The wind did quite a job. Letters were all over the place. There were all sorts. Some were bills, the others I don't quite remember. A few of them had tire tracks across them from being run over by cars. Hopefully I found most of them, but who knows.

Hey, Look! 191!

Photo composite. Ray's first shot was fuzzy, so I added the second one to show the score.

Yes, we went bowling again. A group of us from CPC go once a month to Kennedy Bowl to partake in some fun and friendly competition. They have a Sunday special which used to be $2.00 a game. But they switched it recently to $25 per hour for two lanes.

If we speed bowl we can bring it in under $2.00 a game. Though, quite often, the lanes act up (balls not being returned) and we have to wait for the guys who work there to fix them. Then it ends up being a bit more.

I came by an hour late after visiting the boarding home. The guys were just finishing up their first game. I was the eighth guy to join. They slotted me in after Ed in group 1.

My first game was decent. I bowled a 143 which is on or around my average. I managed to eke out a win over Ray who came in with a 139. He got a spare on his second last ball. But, on his last ball, disappointingly hit only one pin.

I made it closer than it should have been. On my second last frame I could have put it out of reach if I hit my last pin for a spare. But I managed to spare my last frame and hit enough pins on my final ball to pull ahead of him in the end.

My second game was much better overall. It started strong with a strike and a spare. But then I hit a long lull with three open frames. The ending was quite good though. My last five frames were strike, strike, strike, spare, followed by two strikes and a 7 in the tenth for 191. 200 is within reach!

Double D's Pizza

On Saturday we went to Double D's Pizza on Gerrard Street for dinner. It was partially just to grab a bite, as well as to celebrate Justin's birthday. I believe he had read about it on BlogTO or something like that and wanted to give it a try.

Gabe, along with Justin and Doris, came by my place around 6:30 to pick me up. We took the side streets down to Leslieville and parked at Gerrard Square and walked over.

The restaurant is pretty small. They have two bar stools by the west window followed by 3-tables for four along the west wall, plus a table for three or four at the back of the east side and around 10 stools along the bar for a total of under 30 seats. Needless to say, on a weekend evening the wait to be seated was about 3/4 of an hour.

On top of that, the Chicago-style, deep dish pizzas (at over 1" deep) they made were expected to take 40-minutes from the time you ordered to when you were served. So, upon our arrival, we had to decide if we wanted to wait nearly an hour an a half before we started eating. We waited.

They have three types of pizzas to choose from - Chicago Classic - pepperoni, Italian sausage; Jalapeño Blue - blue cheese, Italian sausage, bacon; Farmers Market - roasted red peppers, mushrooms, red onion, spinach. Or you can build your own from a list of these toppings - extra cheese, italian sausage, pepperoni, bacon, jalapeños, red peppers, mushrooms, red onions, spinach, black olives, anchovies, pineapple, fresh basil.

There are four sizes you can choose from - personal, small, medium and large. A medium would suffice for two people. If you were really hungry a couple of big guys could possibly split a large. We picked two mediums - one Chicago Classic at $29 and a Farmers Market for $24. Paired with a pint of beer the pizzas were both delicious. The staff were nice enough to even offer us four glasses of Jameson Irish Whiskey on the house. How thoughtful.

I'd go back again for sure. Maybe earlier so the wait wouldn't be so long. Or, perhaps, on a less busy day. I'd discourage going in groups larger than four unless you don't mind being split up (or waiting a really long time).