The Way to Home

February 2024, the Act Five staff and board gathered in the prayer room hosted by the Greater Ontario House of Prayer (GOHOP) here in Hamilton. With GOHOP partners joining our circle, we moved through a time of prayer to grieve, pray and let go of Act Five’s home at 75 Blake St.

We had walked a road with the owner of this home – a man who purchased the home for Act Five’s use prior to its first program year in 2019 – but could not come to a reasonable agreement to be able to purchase the home. Between what an appraisal deemed as the value of the home and the asking price of the owner lay a $1 million difference. 

The lack of being able to purchase the home meant we could not viably renovate the space and could not afford to continue under our current rental agreement. It was clear that the decision was to actively pursue a new home for Act Five. Staff members continued to pray, wait and plead with God for a way to open at Blake St, but the work began to move on and move out.

Fast forward 9 months. December 2024. Act Five had completed a Strategic Planning process to organize the priorities for Act Five in the years ahead. This process made clear 3 themes for our organization and community:

Establish Home
Rooting Act Five in a sustainable home base unlocks all that Act Five might grow into in the years to come.

Open Doors
Prioritizing financial accessibility for all who desire to join Act Five and leading program that allows more people to be formed here.

Tell Our Story
Through communication and recruitment development, along with strong partnerships and new initiatives, we must tell our story widely and clearly.

It was clear that, for us to know which doors we were opening and what story we were to tell, our first priority – establishing home – was an immediate priority.

As executive director of Act Five, and as a foolishly hopeful person at times, I wrote to the owner one more time in December 2024. I articulated again our longings to remain at 75 Blake St and offered a price, only $50,000 more than we had offered back in January 2024. I pressed send and let go. This was it. A last shot. 

One Last Knock

I had pursued many other options in Hamilton at this point, each place landing as a clear no for various reasons. 75 Blake St was our home. Until the door was shut entirely, I could not imagine anything else. This email represented a final knock on the door.

A day later, the owner replied – “I want to work with you…” followed by an offer within reason of ours. Something had changed. The winds had turned.

One month later, on January 17, 2025, the owner signed an offer sheet to sell 75 Blake St to Act Five. We met in the middle of our previous offers, and he requested a quick process – we had only 2.5 months to secure necessary funding which was, to put it mildly, an optimistic goal.

Yet, we had prayed. A door had opened. So we stepped through.

By March 23, 2025, a week before our deadline, we crossed the funding minimum needed to secure the purchase of 75 Blake St – a huge day of celebration. Two months later, on May 30th, we closed on the property and took over ownership of the home that has already welcomed and been central in the shaping of over 135 young adults. 

Plans for the Future

We have only begun to know and love our neighbours and neighbourhood. Our gardens remain in their early years. Our kitchens and living spaces are not yet what we imagine they might be. The dreams of all those who now get to come through these doors, hear stories in this basement, sing and dance and share meals around these tables… these dreams are now allowed to grow to become something real.

“Act Five has established our home.”

As I write, plans are in place to begin renovations this summer – drainage improvements, electrical upgrades, new windows and bathrooms – and those plans ramp up in 2027. God’s grace through the generosity of many has been humbling to witness these past months and we are hopeful that this might continue. There remains another $1.3 million to raise for us to complete our plans to renovate and pay back short-term loans that helped us get where we are today.

For now though, this is a good story. If you agree, will you share it with others? Invite your community into the story of what God is doing here and join with us as we hope toward what God might do here in the years to come. (Consider requesting copies of our Spring 2025 issue of “Life on the Porch” to get onto more coffee tables!)

Act Five is committed to stewarding this home at 75 Blake St. We are committed to being a faithful presence in the Blakely neighbourhood and city of Hamilton; in this place, we look forward to welcoming more students, residents, staff, community members and guests that they might be welcomed, shaped and inspired.

Thank you for being on this road with us.

Sincerely,

Jon Berends, Executive Director

If you are interested in learning more about Act Five’s ongoing Capital Project: “Establishing Home”, visit www.actfive.ca/EstablishingHome. We would love for you to be part of the story in the year ahead.

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The Story

I’m standing around the kitchen island with a fellow Act Five resident on a Wednesday evening. We are debriefing the dinner we just shared at Micah House. Micah House is a home in our neighbourhood that houses refugee claimants until they find permanent housing, and assists them in navigating the sea of initial paperwork that’s required upon their arrival in Canada. We at Act Five decided about a year ago that we’d commit to bringing dinner to their home every other Wednesday evening – and eat with them. 

Now imagine it: 10-20 people squished in a small dining room, and up to four languages being spoken around the table. Food is shared, and laughter rings out as people try to tell stories and get to know one another. It can be easy to take for granted simple life necessities like communication, that is until you have to figure out how to communicate without your default tool – English! (I remember one day I was at a table where English, Spanish, Arabic, and Sign Language were all being used!) It can be an uncomfortable place; it can even cause anxiety and feelings of embarrassment or exposure. However, none of that is a bad thing – I’d argue it’s a very good thing. 

On this particular evening it was just myself and one resident who went. The Christmas holidays made it so most students and residents were away with their families. And, there was only one family at Micah House for dinner that night – so it was a much smaller group than usual. As we headed out the door with a steaming hot dinner packed up, I tossed some Uno cards in the bag. I had interacted with this family multiple times over the past month, and the two teenage boys clearly had lots of energy and nowhere to put it. I wondered if a simple card game would bring a few minutes of fun for them (and us) that evening. 

We arrived and sat around the table together, sometimes stumbling through conversation, other times hitting a groove and laughing together. I’ve learned that it’s all part of the process – being uncomfortable, hoping and praying for a creative spark in conversation, and finding comfort together. And the cycle continues all throughout the meal. It’s a process that, as you show up each week, you get used to. 

After the meal, we cleared the table and brought out the cards. The boys have decent English, so we explained the game pretty quickly and jumped right in. For the next half hour, we bonded over our shared trait – competition. I know it’s just Uno, but there were some sneaky plays happening!

When we got back to Blake Street later, the two of us talked about the evening standing around the kitchen island. While it was only an hour, we ebbed through moments of ease and moments of dis-ease. It was uncomfortable at times! We talked about how it’s easier to live in comfort, and we tend to seek it without conscious thought. That night, we were reminded that ease starts to come more easily through shared moments together. The whole room felt it strongly during that game of Uno.

Comfortable with being Uncomfortable

At Act Five, we want to practice being comfortable with being uncomfortable (within reason, obviously). In the practice of discomfort, we become less afraid. We start to realize that there’s beauty to be found in and on the other side of it.

This rhythm, dinner at Micah House, is one of my favourite rhythms at Act Five. We commit to showing up in places that aren’t naturally easy. We sit around a table when English isn’t the dominant language. It is hard, but the more we show up, the more it feels okay – it becomes life-giving, even.

To put it in perspective, too, we show up for about two hours each month. Those we meet at Micah House live this kind of discomfort each and every day as they adjust to living in a new place with different expectations and cultural realities. It seems like the least we can do is to enter into the couple hours of brain gymnastics required to broaden our compassion. 

Shared Hospitality

Hospitality is a value we hold in Act Five. But it’s not just an act we do. Hospitality is a heart posture – it’s a giving and receiving of one another. It’s easier to be kind and offer welcome to people we know, but practicing true hospitality to a stranger takes intentionality and is very necessary to our own transformation as those who are learning to follow Jesus. We bring a meal to Micah House, sure, but there’s a mutual hospitality that’s required. As they host us and we engage together, we feel uncomfortable and exposed. In this, we learn to let our egos go and receive their hospitality towards us – for we are strangers to them, too. 

One of my highlights of 2023 was when one of the families staying at Micah House made a whole Mexican dinner for us and brought it to our house to share in the backyard. They did this out of their own generosity and heart’s desire to give to us – and Act Five is no small group of people! We gladly received their gift. It was a moment when I realized we, the folks at Act Five, and Micah House are neighbours. And to be a neighbour in the truest sense means shared hospitality, and pushing through the uncomfortable moments to find comfort together.

To learn more about our friends at Micah House, visit https://www.micahhouse.ca/.

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