Toronto Baptist Intercultural Service (TBIS)

Equipping the Church for Cross-cultural Outreach

Building Trusting Relations

For more than a decade, the Toronto Baptist Intercultural Services (TBIS) has been helping congregations cross the cultural divides and meet the needs of newcomers to Canada.

Through these partnerships we have built relationships with immigrants and refugees raised in Islamic, Sikh, Hindu, Budhist and other faiths.

One of our major collaborative efforts is with Somalis living among other South Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants in the Dixon Road area of Toronto.

Jeff McCarrell coordinates volunteers from a dozen inter-denominational congregations who work one-on-one with families in their homes and in classrooms, teaching English, assisting with school work and vocational studies, and in job-search programs.

Healing Through the Power of Prayer

Prayer is a powerful weapon against the many ills we face in this world. And through the recently established Healing Room Ministry, TBIS is reaching out to the Muslim communities who also have a strong belief in the power of prayer. In fact, in the Quran, Jesus is most famous for being a healer.

Under the leadership of Joan Ward, Healing Rooms are being established in Garissa and Dixon Road in the setting of a 'walk-in clinic.' Will you help to build this ministry? Will you pray. If you are in the Toronto area, can you give one day or evening a week, or maybe once every two weeks? In these days when there is so much fear of Muslims, Jesus is calling us to respond with love and blessings for their total well-being. Needed are Spirit-filled people to lay hands on the sick, as well as other intercessors to cover behind the scenes. Ongoing equipping will be provided which can easily be transferred to other ministries in one's own local church.

Christian-Muslim Relations

TBIS also works in partnership with established refugee families to sponsor family members separated by war. Through this partnership, newcomer families are resettling quicker, making lasting friendships, and receiving a loving, respectful and tangible witness of God's care for each person.

These partnerships are a very hopeful example of constructive Christian-Muslim relations, which have taken time and patience on both sides to develop.

Trust and relationships have grown over the years, and hosts and immigrants together have experienced God's blessings.

An Intern's Life-Changing Experience

Recently, 20-year old Melissa excitedly boarded a plane for the first time on a journey that would be a life-changing experience. Melissa had been involved in the Somali Ministry in Toronto where she helped in the tutoring program. When she was presented with the opportunity to travel to Garissa, Kenya, as an intern with TBIS, she eagerly registered to go and set about raising just under $3,000, in three months. This was her chance to better understand the people and their culture in their homeland. Here is her story.

"t was my very first time flying and I had to do it alone. When I arrived in Nairobi, Ron (Ward) was there waiting for me. A sense of relief flowed through me. It was a face I recognized!"

A Totally Different World

"That night I got my first exposure to a totally different world. We spent that night in East Leigh and I remember wondering how I was ever going to survive the month. During my time in Kenya, I got to see many different parts of the country, from the refugee camps near Dadaab to the tourist-laden coast of Mombassa. Many days were spent-walking around Garissa, meeting with many different people. I stayed in a home with a Somali family where I was made to feel very welcome and part of the family. I spent some time visiting with their friends and family."

"I quickly learned some of the expectations of an unmarried woman in a Muslim area. It was a shock for me to come from a very different culture into one that I didn't understand. At times, I felt very frustrated with myself that I didn’t catch on to something quicker or learn the language more easily. It made me realize what it was like for a Somali refugee to leave home and family to come to Canada. Even now, since returning, I am still touched when I remember my trip to Kenya. I see, hear or read about Kenya, Somalis or any of the places I visited, and am deeply moved, almost to tears, by a love for them."

"One of the greatest things I learned while I was there is that we can all find similarities in our desire to be loved and to love others and God. No matter where I go or what I do with the rest of my life, my experience in Kenya will stay with me forever."

Did you know that there are about 60,000 Somalis living in the Dixon Road area of Toronto? The Somali ministry is a major program undertaken by the Toronto Baptist Inter-cultural Services, whose purpose is to proclaim the gospel throughout the world, in words and action. TBIS encourages and enables churches in Toronto to embrace people from other cultures and faiths who have immigrated to Canada, especially refugees.