Web Journal of the Ontario Christian Gleaners

Come celebrate what God has done!
Come see the facilities and learn what volunteers do. Home made soup and buns will be served for lunch.
There will be a silent auction to help raise funds.
Saturday Oct. 4th
10:00am to 2:00pm
Hope to see You there
For more information contact Shelley Stone at 519 624-8245 or Cindy Verbinnen at 905 659-7366.

Our facility can be located on a map here.

Just a quick update showing some of the final details that were recently taken care of at our facility. Below you can see the washroom hallway with the washrooms on the left and the coat closet on the right.

Below is a snapshot taken inside one of our bathrooms. We are quite happy with the professional work done here.

Other than all the equipment I mentioned in the previous blog entry, we received the components for our dehydrator awhile ago. We have since assembled the components with the expertise of a manufacturer and an engineer on our board. Together they have built a prototype drying room that is able to dehydrate vegetables. Although the efficiency is not quite up to speed yet we are hopeful for continued improvement as we experiment with more airflow in the drying room. The prototype drying room is shown below:

Although the dehydrator is not quite ready, our kitchen will be installed in the next week or two. We are also looking forward to the landscaping that will be done on the facility grounds in the next month or so.

Please keep praying that we can be operational this year. Primarily we are interested in having the dehydrator running efficiently.

Wow! It has been a long time since the Ontario Christian Gleaners blog has been updated! Fortunately there is a lot to be said since May 31st. The best way to give a quick update of a lot of progress is to do so with the aid of photos. Below you will find photos of some of the equipment that has been donated to us and some of the equipment that has been bought. Some equipment of note that is not pictured below is the dicing machine which we recently purchased and the dehumidifier that was donated to us and will likely be used for our cooler room. God also blessed us with many insulated steel panels that we will use with our final version of our dryer. Currently we are working on getting a prototype working efficiently (see next blog entry). So without further ado, here are the photos:

(Below) The used electric forklift (and charger) that we purchased with the funds specifically raised for that purpose by Calvin CRC in Dundas, Ontario. Thank you!

We were also donated a washing machine and a dryer. These will be used if volunteers staying nearby need to wash their clothes after a hard day's work.

Below is pictured a restaurant-grade faucet and sink that we have installed in the processing room. I believe that this was donated to us. It will most likely be used for cleaning trays.

We recently purchased some processing tables. They have drainage/waste holes for draining water and unwanted produce parts.

We currently have at least 8 racks with trays ready for use in our dryer. The racks were built by the company owned by our very own Vice-President Harry VanDyke. The trays are made of heat-resistant fibreglass (stainless steel is more expensive and aluminum has health risks).

The last photo shown is of a handy two-wheeled wheelbarrow that can be used for carting produce or waste. Very handy for the seniors and probably fun for the teenagers too! (I didn't just say that, did I?)

Today the hiring committee of the Ontario Christian Gleaners met at our facility to interview 3 applicants. It was a rewarding time as the committee members (2 from the board and 2 others) learned about the talents and passions of our applicants - who will remain anonymous. They, in turn, learned more about the Gleaners from us. We look forward to interviewing more applicants in the upcoming month as we gear for production in August/September of this year. Please pray that God gives us the wisdom to hire the person best suited to this ministry.

Since I last reported on the construction progress we have seen the tiling completed, which includes the front room, kitchen, and washrooms. Also, the painting of the walls is nearly completed, including the trim of the windows and the doors. The cladding of the walls in the processing room is very nearly completed as well. A recent change we made is to put in a large open closet for hanging coats and for a shelf of lockers to store valuables; this is located in the hallway leading from the front room to the washrooms. The toilets in the washrooms have also been installed recently.

Finally, our grateful thanks goes to the many people who have donated and who continue to donate or raise funds for us. In particular, we thank Knox Presbyterian Church in Cambridge for hosting a benefit concert last night with the R.J. Kruisselbrink Sisters - all proceeds will be going to the Ontario Christian Gleaners! Thank you also to the youth group of Zion United Reformed Church for their efforts as they raise support for us through their 24-hour famine this weekend.

In closing, a big thanks to the congregation of Calvin CRC for raising the funds required for us to buy nearly-new electric Toyota forklift - very similar to the one pictured to the left.

Yesterday we were excited to be able to hold our board meeting in the Ontario Christian Gleaners facility for the first time! Thank you to all our supporters for getting us to this point. Below are some photos from that meeting:

Above (left-to-right): Ross Drumond, John Wubs, John Verbinnen (president), Harry VanDyke (vice-president), Hobbe Smit, Gary Janssen (special guest, facing camera), Derick Vander Klippe (Secretary-Treasurer), and Hanan Saliba (administrator). Missing: Jerry Bulthuis, Peter Vander Klippe (special guest and photographer)

(above) View of the board meeting from the future kitchen area located in the front sitting area of the Gleaners facility.

For those interested in being an integral part of the Gleaners, please consider applying for our only paid position: Facility Manager. Our official job posting and an application form are both available on our site under "How to Help / Jobs" or you can click here.

We are happy to announce to you, with
much thanks and praise to our heavenly Father, that the fund-raising
dinner was a great success! We raised just over $50,000 , Praise the
Lord! Thank you for your abundant generosity and for being a vital
part of the Gleaners.

Please keep in your prayers, as John mentioned at
the dinner, the need for some retired people to join and serve on the
board and/or the various committees of the Gleaners.

Another event we would like to promote to you is
the event Knox Presbyterian Church in Cambridge is holding on Friday,
May 30th, 2008 at 7:30 pm. It is a concert with the R.J. Kruisselbrink
Sisters, with all the proceeds going to the Gleaners. For more info: http://www.knoxgalt.org/Concert.htm

We want to thank you again for your continued
support and most importantly we ask you to keep the Gleaners in your prayers.

Several people have asked about either the dinner location or the facility location. For their convenience, and for those who wanted to know but haven't asked, we have posted links below to our facility location and the dinner location. We look forward to seeing you at our open house event and/or our fund-raising dinner this upcoming Saturday, April 5th!

Our facility can be located on a map here.

A map of our dinner location can be found here as well as here.

As you may or may not know we are having a fund-raising dinner on Saturday, April 5th, 2008. You can still RSVP us if you are planning to come out. A free-willing offering will be taken near the end of the dinner. Click here to send us an e-mail if you plan to come or have questions.

Before the dinner event we are having an open house at our facility from 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM. Please feel free to drop by and have a look at the amount of progress we have made since our Fall open house event. For a location map please click here.

It has now been a few months since this article was published, at the end of January, but we thought it would be good to share it with you, our supporters. The article being referred is one that was written in the Cambridge Record.

The Cambridge Record article can be found here.

As with last year, the Ontario Christian Gleaners has booked a booth for MissionFest, which is this weekend: Thurs, March 6, 2008 through Sat, March 8, 2008. We look forward to meeting our supporters in person and answering their questions. Come out to visit us and enjoy MissionFest, which is open to the public at no cost (although free-will offerings are accepted). It is a great place to have your faith challenged and strengthened and for you to gain a global perspective on missions.

Just another quick note: the RSVP date was mistakedly set as March 22nd in the previous post so it has been changed to March 25, 2008. Also, note that while doors open at 6:00 PM for our event, the dinner itself starts at 6:30 PM. We look forward to seeing you come out!

Exciting news! Once again we will be having our annual dinner. This year we are having our dinner on Saturday, April 5, 2008. Please mark that date on your calendars and plan to attend! The RSVP date is March 25, 2008. We hope to hear from you before then; an easy way to contact us is to send us a quick e-mail: info@ontariogleaners.org.
The dinner will take place at Dundas Calvin Christian School with the doors opening at 6 PM and dinner starting at 6:30 PM.

Directions can be found by clicking on one of the following location links:
Dundas Calvin Christian School location map or use the Google Maps version.

More information to follow.

Last week Monday (December 7th) we had the privilege of being interviewed on TV. Both our president John Verbinnen and our fund-raising committee chairman John Wubs were interviewed on the TV show entitled "100 Huntley Street". We praise the LORD that we were given this opportunity and for the good responses it has generated!

If you want to view the show you can click here and click 'View' or 'Download' for Monday, December 7, 2007. Our interview is just past the midpoint of the show.

In further news: we had some small changes to our board and we need $235,000 before we can become operational. The LORD willing, we hope to be operational next year. For further details, please read our December newsletter here.

Last Saturday we had our first-ever Open House at the new Ontario Christian Gleaners facility. We were encouraged to see around 500 of you show up and spend some time conversing with us and each other. We trust that you have been encouraged as well, seeing all that the LORD has blessed us with and our hopes and plans for the future.

A special thank you goes out to those of you who donated items to our silent auction! Through your donated items we raised just under $13,000! Praise the LORD for the generosity of our supporters!

In case you didn't make it out to our Open House, we have posted some photos below:

(Above) Our facility the evening before the event: looks like good weather ahead!

(Above) Some of our visitors at our information table, manned by Fraser Valley Gleaners President Peter Funk (on the far right).

(Above: Left-to-Right) Hamilton MP David Sweet and our Fund-raising Committee Chairman John Wubs. The Honourable David Sweet donated a fleece and book to our auction.

(Above) One of our younger visitors enjoying a delicious croissant.

(Above) Plenty of conversation in our future processing area over free coffees.