Local AOTS Project In The Spotlight

George St. United Church, Peterborough, Chemong Village , AOTS Community Homes Inc.

Chemong Village is located at1025 Chemong road. It is a beautiful housing project of 60 units arranged in a community-like setting. The project was begun in the late 1980s by the AOTS men's club who responded to the need for affordable housing in Peterborough. They worked tirelessly to raise the resources required to secure the site and build homes that would house families in need of safe secure affordable housing.


The History of the Project:
It all started on a cold blustery night in February 1989. George St. AOTS Men's Club gathered in the basement of their church to hear the story of how some churches had responded to community need by sponsoring rental housing projects. Projects that allowed residents to pay rents that were related to their income. Though a spark was kindled, it required persistence to follow the continuing flame in the burning bush in order to translate this vision into real homes for families and individuals in Peterborough.

Though everyone knew there was a need for affordable housing, Governments who controlled and granted the allocation of subsidies, wanted sponsoring groups to show a specific need for their project. Information from local planning and social service agencies was gathered to get specific names of people who were actually in need. The club set up a booth in a local mall on successive Saturdays. Shoppers were asked to complete an " Expression of interest" form if they needed affordable housing. Over 200 did! If evangelism is carrying the good news to the market place, members of George St. Men's Club discovered contemporary evangelism.

Positive that their work would lead to a housing allocation from the Provincial Government, the club incorporated AOTS Community Homes, a non-profit housing corporation. They hired a development consultant to pursue their dream. Applications in 1989, 1990, and 1991 failed. Undeterred, they kept improving their application. A number of local agencies, such as the John Howard Society and the youth related organizations, were brought on board when it was discovered that many youth, alienated from their families, might benefit from secure housing which would assist them in getting on with their lives. A percentage of the proposed units were allocated to these youth with support services coming from the co-operating agencies.

The application for a housing project was successful in 1992. Even better, the City of Peterborough had a piece of surplus land that it was willing to sell for the project. Planning began, surveys and soil tests were completed. A zoning application was filed and a public meeting was called. Some opposition arose and the Peterborough City Council refused to re-zone the land. Despair! But, only for a day! Looking anew for a piece of land, the group linked up with a builder who was holding a prime piece of land for a condominium development. . Although deemed too expensive, tentative negotiations began. All the planning and design work and firm contracts had to be signed before year-end or the allocation would be lost. The Ministry Of Housing needed our final application before Christmas, because those who had to sign off on the project would be away between Christmas and New Years. Everything came together except that the project could not be built within the cost guidelines imposed by the Ministry Of Housing. Despite tough negotiations, agreement could not be reached with the builder. An at 8 P.M on December 23rd the project died. Perhaps the builder caught some of the meaning of Christmas. By December 28th he accepted our contract proposal and Ministry officials were brought back from holidays to sign off with their approval.

Construction began in the late spring of 1993. Three clusters of stacked townhouses were built to a total of twenty-eight, two, three and four bedroom units. Two units included designs to accommodate the physically disabled. A small three-story eleven unit apartment building with one bedroom units and a community center completed the project. Wonderfully located close to good shopping and other community amenities, the project has been praised for " curb appeal". The first residents moved in , in early 1994. The turmoil and exhilaration of construction soon gave way to the daily tasks of property management. The Board hired an experienced property manager to look after the day-to-day operations. An Operations Committee was struck to supervise. The Board majority is appointed by the George St. AOTS Men's Club, but has always strengthened itself with other representatives of the congregation. Financially, the project has always lived within approved budgets. Physically, the project maintains its look of newness and residents are proud to live there. Socially, thirty-nine families and individuals have affordable housing. Nobody, unless they have been there themselves, fully understands that affordable housing assists in family stability, better diets and a more hopeful future. Not all the youth are able to meet the challenge of independent living, nor are the social agencies that promised to support them. Shrinking social service dollars have forced most social agencies to curtail their outreach programs. Evictions have taken place due to unit damage and non-payment of rent. There is a great satisfaction in the one's who have settled in stable family arrangements and others who have gone on to post secondary education. If real evangelism is the proclamation of good news, Chemong Village, as the George Street AOTS Men's Club housing project is called, continues to burn brightly in the middle of Peterborough.

Now 15 years later the project fills an ever growing need for affordable housing and the commitment of George Street continues. Programs for the Chemong Village Community are supported by AOTS and the wider congregation with activities for children's and community events.

Founding Directors
Harold G. Hubbell - President
William Gilbert - Vice President
Doris Neufeld - Secretary
Carolyn Porteous - Treasurer
Robert Bark
Richard Batten
Art Harding
Douglas Johnson
Rev. Donald Nicholson
John Pearson
Jack Sackvillle

The Observer on Tape - Talking Magazine Project

This is a highly work/time intensive volunteer project operated by Eastminster United Church of Belleville Ontario and their AOTS Men’s Club and Sanctioned by The National AOTS.

How Does It work?
Each month an advance copy of THE OBSERVER is received and read onto three ninety minute audio cassette tapes. Pictures associated with the Articles are described to help bring the articles to life. A high speed copier is then used to produce the required number of tapes to be sent out to our subscribers.

The tapes are packed in a special mailing pouch that are then sent to subscribers across Canada postage free courtesy of Canada Post. This special arrangement is extended only to visually impaired persons, thus we cannot honour requests for these tapes for non visually impaired persons.

After listening to the tapes, the subscriber reverses the mailing label on the pouch, and returns the tapes in the pouch, postage free, for reuse. The subsequent Observer tapes are only sent to those that have returned the previous tapes.

There are no subscription costs for this service. We have been fortunate to have been able to cover our operating costs from generous donations received from some of our appreciative listeners. Charitable receipts are issued to individual donors.

History of the Project:
The Observer on Tape Project was started by the Disabled Committee in Winnipeg in 1983. In early 1985, when the chairperson of the group moved from the area, they were no longer able to carry on with the project. At this time, the National AOTS was challenged to take over the project. Jack Arthur, Central Vice-President of the National AOTS, presented the challenge to Queen St. United Church AOTS, Kingston, Ontario, whose president Armando Del Gobbo was himself blind.

In July of 1985, Queen St. AOTS took over the project, and has carried it from 45 subscribers for their first issue (July 1985) to nearly 400 in 1994. Early in 1997 the Queen St. Club regretfully found that they were unable to continue with this project. Subsequently responsibility for this project was assumed by Eastminster United Church AOTS, Belleville, Ontario. To-day the Men’s Club ably assisted by other members of the congregation are pleased to make the Observer on Tape available to the visually impaired.

User Equipment:
Tape playing equipment is available without charge, from the C.N.I.B., to any visually impaired person who is registered with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Inexpensive cassette tape playing equipment is also available from Department, Electronic, and Radio Stores.

Appreciation:
The National AOTS Office is grateful and proud of the Queen St. AOTS Club, and Church for their devotion to this Project from 1985 to early 1997.

We also appreciate that the Eastminster AOTS Club has responded to the challenge, and are devoting their time and energy in this fine example of living “AS ONE THAT SERVES”

To support with a donation, to subscribe, or for further information, contact:
Eastminster United Church AOTS Men’s Club, 432 Bridge Street East, Belleville, ON K8N 1R1

The Observer on Tape Project involves transcribing the United Church Observer on audio cassette tapes and circulating them free of charge, to visually impaired persons

The Future of the Observer on Tape Project:
As cassette players are wearing out and becoming harder to replace it is time to start thinking about other possible solutions to offer this great service. I am presently researching the possibility of also offering the Observer on Tape in other formats like CDs, sound audio players and MP3 download.

Right now we can convert the cassette tapes into MP3 files and burn them onto CDs but as we get more and more orders it will be important to invest in a CD duplicator. These duplicators can be found for under a $1,000 and will help us to quickly produce the one or two CDs per subscriber.

Having this in a digital format gives us more possibilities of serving a larger community. I would like to take the digital data and produce an online podcast version for the United Church Observer that could be downloaded off of the website. This service could be offered free to the Observer subscribers. Non- subscribers may be charged a minimal fee in order to create a larger reader base. I am sure there are lots of people that are stuck in a car for hours a day wishing that they could finish reading an article in the Observer and be able to play it on their car stereo, iPod or MP3 player.

If anyone has any, comments suggestions or direction on a project of this type could you please comment or email me directly mark@aots.ca.

Thank you again to Eastminster United Church in Belleville Ontario for all that they do to serve.

If you would like some more information on the project please contact:
John Babiak, President of Eastminster AOTS Men's Club in Belleville

Who and What are the AOTS?

I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about this wonderful organization. The men of the United Church AOTS (As One That Serves) Men’s Clubs have been a big part in the Men’s Ministry in the Church and have been a little too modest to wave their flags so-to-speak.

Here are some of the frequently asked questions that have been asked over the years.

What is AOTS?

AOTS is a men’s service club that is affiliated with the United Church of Canada, but is open to all men on a broad ecumenical basis. AOTS aims to promote fellowship, deepen the spiritual life of men, and develop an effective program of Christian service. In fact, AOTS stands for “As One That Serves”, which is taken from the statement by Christ: “I am among you as One that serves.” (Luke 22.27).

Although the goals of AOTS are taken seriously, club members enjoy the camaraderie of sharing, supporting, searching, studying, and serving together. AOTS fosters a good time for a good cause, mixing the social with the spiritual, as men of the church.

Where Did AOTS Begin?
AOTS was born in Vancouver in 1923. The first official club was formed that year by Dr Herbert Riggs, a physician at Kerrisdale Methodist (now Ryerson United Church). The concept spread quickly to other churches and communities on the West Coast, then steadily across the country. By the mid-fifties, there were close to 10,000 members in Canada and Bermuda. For more information of the history of the AOTS movement, contact the National Office.

Where is AOTS Today?

In the early years of its existence, AOTS, although recognized and encouraged by the church, was an independent organization. Currently, the National Association of AOTS Men’s Clubs is officially integrated into the structures of the United Church of Canada. There are over 60 active clubs meeting and serving in communities across the country from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland and there are even more individual members as well.

What Do AOTS Clubs Do?

The format and style of an AOTS club varies with the size, location, and make up of the community and the home church. Each is geared to the interests, needs and concerns of its members. A typical club meets monthly for dinner or breakfast—this might include an interesting program or speaker, devotionals, and a discussion of on-going service projects. The club is likely to be involved with several community outreach and church-related programs. Some examples:

1. Visiting shut-ins
2. Supporting the local food bank or transitional housing organization.
3. Providing leadership for youth activities in the church.
4. Helping with the upkeep of local camps and sponsoring underprivileged campers.

While they may serve an obvious practical purpose, AOTS projects promote fellowship and this “hands-on” approach inspires laymen to become more involved in the church.

Is there anyone out there involved in Men's Ministry that has some examples of projects that they are working on?

Temptation and the Christian Man

As Christian men, how can we live our faith without compromise in a world full of temptations? Can we maintain ethical standards in business and personal integrity in our social lives, when external pressures and internal forces are constantly enticing us away from the Christian life?

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

As Christian men, we think that it should be easy to follow the words of Jesus and have absolutely no problems with temptation. We should be able to function effectively in the world without compromising our faith.

Temptation is all around us and whether we realize it or not we are making those decisions every single day.

The Bottom-Line

Companies striving to succeed in this modern world and strong competition have led to some of the most questionable acts of ethics. It is important for the companies as well as the individuals to stand back and look at the impact of their decision and decide whether it is right or wrong.

Too many people hide behind the bottom-line, doing what is in the best interest for their shareholder or the customer and not using ethics to guide their decisions.

Today more than ever we must strive to do what is right rather than doing what is easiest. The word is getting too small and there is a growing transparency so that no one will be able to hide behind unethical decisions. Many companies have been paying big bucks to reinvent or fix a tarnished image that they have created by these sorts of practices.

Power of the Media

Every day we are inundated by Hollywood beauty and needing to have the newest toys because they make us feel l younger and more popular.

Are we as Christian men going to follow what we are told is right by the media or take the high road and make our own decisions about how the world should be?

When we look at women are we going to judge them based off of what we see in the magazines and on television or are we going to see them as our sisters, daughters and friends. I see my 4 year old daughter playing with boys from daycare as if there are absolutely no differences in the sexes. There seems to be some sort of purity in that childhood innocence that we need to get back. How and when did that change?

Sinning with thought or action is never supposed to be acceptable. God expects us to do the right thing even though we are constantly told by today’s culture sinning is okay.


Giving in to temptation?

There are many examples in the Bible were women are temptations; maybe this has been something that men have been dealing with for a very long time.

The most famous example, of course, was Eve, when she was lured by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit and then tempted Adam (Genesis 3:6). Samson was lured by the deceiving Delilah (Judges 16) and, of course, King David was tempted by Bathsheba. (2 Samuel)

Money was also a frequent temptation in the Bible. Men like Achan in Joshua 7:21, and Judas took money for what they knew was wrong. They both were punished for their sins.

It is good to know and also inspiring that there are several examples of Biblical characters who responded correctly to temptation in the Bible. Abraham refused to accept a reward for service to King Of Sodom after a battle in Genesis 14:22-24. The prophet Elisha refused payment when he performed a miraculous healing in 2 Kings 5:16. Peter also refused a bribe in Acts 8:20: "Peter answered: 'May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!'"

The Right Thing to Do

When I was a young boy I use to ask myself the question, “what would my Mom say if she knew?” or if it was close to Christmas, “what would Santa say?” When we get older we sometimes need that little “check” to give us the time to be objective rather than acting without thinking or simply following the masses.

The truth is we are all tempted by many things, every day and we have to be strong, take the time to ask ourselves one question: Is it the right thing to do and will these actions hurt anyone?

Is there anyone out there that has fought against temptation and won? I would love to hear your stories or comments.

President’s Report - December, 2009

Providing Abundance... ...what kind of fairness?

The Toronto Conference’s Fall Rally, Providing Abundance ... what kind of fairness?, proved to be quite a surprising event for me.

A day before the event, our keynote speaker, Armine Yalnizyan phoned me to let me know that she had been unable to shake a week-long flu and was probably not going to make it. Clearly, as we talked, it became clear that it was best for her to not even try to make it. So she stayed at home and I got to work sifting through much of the material she sent me that were part of her presentation.

It was a long but enjoyable evening reading through material of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Ultimately, I was able to pull together some slides and make a presentation on her behalf.

Armine’s focus is on inequality. She acknowledges that poverty levels have gone done in Canada recently while the gap between rich and poor has increased dramatically. The popularly accepted definition of poverty in Canada is Statistics Canada’s low income cut-off; and this is in spite of Statistics Canada’s objections that there is no internationally recognized measure of poverty.

There are fewer people below that low income cut-off; however, the dispersion of income levels continues to grow. And this she asserts is a more effective measure - inequality.

Her work and of the CCPA is about demonstrating how this dispersion is a much better measure of poverty or economic dislocation than the low income cut-off.

Briefly, the wider the gap, the more dramatic this inequality, the less able the institutions of society are to function for the population. This is because those institutions are forced to deal with a population with growing divergent and competing economic interests. As economic power resides in fewer and fewer hands, institutions respond to where that power is more and more. This is true of both the public and private sector. We see this in the public sector as schools in affluent neighbourhoods flourish due to investment and fundraising efforts by parents where schools in less affluent neighbourhoods go without.

In the private sector a market economy is driven by the laws of consumption and scarcity. We are encouraged to consume. Those who do not have the wherewithal to consume become forgotten members of society. There is less and less institutional focus on their needs because their purchasing power is limited. On the contrary, institutions of society now become armed against providing any assistance to growing numbers of people who are being left out of the economic process. Communities become gated. Economies grow around the concept of ensuring that those who have keep what they have and acquire, with the rest of the population receiving the economic reverberations from this group.

This is a simply explained by looking at the effect on the housing market when economic power is concentred in fewer and fewer hands. Those who have much exert an impact on society by virtue of their ability to outmuscle others economically. They are able, and do pay any price for a home they want. Their enhanced ability to compete for housing drives prices up generally. Every single strata of society below them must respond to the tightening of this market; with those at the bottom economic levels facing the hardest economic impact and damage.

The CCPA does interesting work in looking at relationships over time.

The levels of CEO income to the average income has increased manifold over the past few years. Between 1998 and 2007 the annual income of CEOs went from $3.5 million to $10.4 million. The average wage earner went from $33,000 to $40,000.

A big difference, yes. But how big is big?

Plato told Aristotle that no man should make more than five times what another man makes. J.P. Morgan said twenty times and he was a robber baron. What do we have in the here and now?

Well in that same ten year period the ratio actually increased from and 104 times the average wage earner to 259 times.

All that provided a focus for some excellent audience participation. One discussion focus involved having small groups consider the question.

Which group would you prefer to be in?

Making $100,000 a year while 90% of the people make less than you or $110,000 while 90% make more than you?

This was an exercise in understanding how inequality and not low income levels drives people’s perception and experience of poverty. To be sure most people pick the $100,000 figure.

But all that came after a terrific morning program put on by Beach United Youth, the soulliving group. They put together a Jeopardy quiz for the 80 participants for the one day program. The focus of their program was consistent with our theme as best defined by the scriptural text from 2 Corinthians: 8-15, “The person who had much did not have too much, and the person who had little did not have too little.”

And all this was followed by the have and have not lunch I described in last month’s report. Sharing ensued.

We close the day with a wonderful Jazz Vespers service with the xCentric Jazz band.

Jim McKibbin , National AOTS President

How Do You Measure Success?

There is an attitude out there that Christian Men don’t have what it takes to succeed in the workplace. They don’t have that killer instinct that puts them above the rest of the workforce.

I am here to tell you that this attitude is unfounded and there are success stories all around you.

I am a firm believer that success is not just measured by your career but by a balance between work, family and spiritual growth. This does not mean that you have to sacrifice a great career. This is far to the contrary. The enrichment that one receives from a happy family life and a constant growth in spiritually will help propel your career forward with all of the gust of a great wind moving you forward.

I have had the good pleasure of knowing two very successful people. Don Williams and Craig Watson, of the Stirling Ontario area, whom I believe had that drive for success but would also always take the time to help others before thinking of themselves. I have had the pleasure to see them on a family level as well as witness them putting endless hours into spiritual growth and public service.

Don owned a gas station, then sold cars, became the owner of a dealership, and in the end ran a chain of hotels. He always had the time for the church, his family and his friends and was always grateful for his success.

Craig is the kind of guy that you would start talking to and he would show an incredible and authentic interest in what you were saying. He is a real people person and he was a success in business because of what he put into the people around him and the community. When people wanted a new car they would think of Craig right away because of the strong trust everyone had in him. No one would walk away from Craig without a smile on their face and a sense of satisfaction that they had someone looking out for them.

The truth is that there are a lot of Christian men that have reached this level of success. I think we just have to look around, get to know our neighbour, and see what it is that gives them that drive.

I am indeed a lucky man to have spent time with these two men. If I can grow to be half as successful as these men then I know that I will be truly accomplished.

Integrity and Authenticity

1 Chronicles 29:17 I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity ...

I thought that this was a fitting verse to start with. Many people can carry on a blog and say what comes to their mind, but not all of them can be secure that their words have passed through their hearts.

It is my hope that this blog will be an example of integrity and authenticity that will help bring you with similar interests together. I hope that we can renew and perfect the high purpose of brotherly fellowship and through this fellowship achieving greater service.

The men of the AOTS have been working hard for over 85 years, to serve the church and community and this will be one of the ways in which we can share some of our thoughts, projects and experience with our blogging.

I know that you will like them as much as I do and if you want to know a little more about who we are and what we do please feel free to check out our website or send us an email.

Welcome all to the AOTS (As One That Serves) new blog.